We could be in for a right royal day

May 29 2009 by James Armstrong

ENTRIES for our feature race of the year at Newcastle Racecourse closed on Tuesday with an interesting array of horses that could possibly line up for this year’s £180,000, two-mile, John Smith’s Northumberland Plate Heritage Handicap.

In my 10 years of clerking here, I have never seen a runner represent the Queen at Gosforth Park but Free Agent, trained by Richard Hannon, is a surprise entry that will get folk excited about a potential Royal visit.

The horse has, however, got entries in the King Edward VII at ‘Royal Ascot’ which may be the preferred option, given it’s a course Her Majesty owns and attends. The horse also has an entry in the Irish Derby a day later at the Curragh, which demonstrates the regard with which the royal-bred horse is held. You never know, we may yet have to roll out the red carpet as well as the usual barrels of the sponsor’s best.

Arc Bleu, who won the race last year for handicap king Tony Martin, may well make the journey back over from Ireland to have another go at landing this valuable ‘Heritage Handicap’.

Halla San, who was a head back in second, will also hopefully make the line-up for Richard Fahey. Michael Bell has also entered Highland Legacy, who went off as 4/1 favourite in 2008 but disappointed when finishing last of the field.

The first six horses in the totesport.com Chester Cup also have entries and I am sure the winner, Daraahem, trained by Barry Hills, would be a likely horse to be at the head of the betting market.

Tickets for John Smith’s Northumberland Plate three-day meeting, from June 25-27, are selling well with Premier enclosure nearly 90% sold and with advances for Ladies Day, July 25, could be a sell-out very shortly. The advice for both meetings is to buy tickets as soon as possible.

JAMES Armstrong is clerk of the course at Gosforth Park.