It’s a big weekend for all-weather racing with the Group 3 Unibet September Stakes taking place at Kempton on Saturday September 4 and a Martin Kemp concert afterwards. This is run over a mile and a half and contested by horses aged three year and over. The winner will receive £45,368, is scheduled to start at 2.35pm with the going standard to slow.
Last year this race was won by the now retired Enable, a second success after also winning in 2018. Enable won by seven lengths and went off the 1/14 favourite. The odds and competitiveness of the 2021 race will be better, let’s take a look at the top contenders. BBC
John Gosden trained Enable and has won this race for the past three years. He also won with Royal Line in 2019 but doesn’t have a runner this year. The current favourite at 13/8 is Hukum, trained in Ireland by Owen Burrows. This contender has won six races since 2019 and three this year.
Wins have come at Goodwood, York and the most recent a Group 3 win at Newbury on August 14. That was the second Group 3 win of the year, the other being in a Listed race. Hukum has won over longer distances but this trip won’t be a problem. Nor are there any worries over racing on this surface, having won on this course a couple of years ago.
Out to beat the favourite will be Passion and Glory. Trained by Saeed bin Suroor, this five-year-old is bidding for a four-timer. Saeed bin Suroor has won this race four times but not since 2014.
Passion and Glory has had wins in Class 2 and 3 this season, one of those being on the all-weather at Lingfield. Then this runner was moved up to Group 3 and won at Goodwood over this distance. That was on good to soft ground, so no worries over getting the distance at Kempton. You can get odds of 5/2 on a win this weekend, reported bytebell.com.
William Haggas is chasing a first winner of this race and fields Hamish. The five-year-old has won three races, two of them coming at York in 2019 over two furlongs further than this race. Hamish has had only one race since October 2019 and that was at Ascot in June of last year. On that occasion, Hamish was fourth at Royal Ascot in the Group 2 Hardwicke Stakes. 442 days later he’ll be at Kempton for this race. A win would be a great achievement after such a lay off.
Another to consider is the Andrew Balding trained Fox Tai who was sixth behind Enable last year. 12 races have been run by this five-year-old since a win was recorded. Of seven runs this year, only twice has Fox Tai finished outside the first three home. The most recent run was a third in a Listed race at Windsor on August 28.
Prior to that, Fox Tai was in the Goodwood race won by Passion and Glory. Fox Tai was two necks behind the winner and may well have won if having more room earlier in the race. At 12/1 this runner the view of UK horse racing analysts is this runner is an excellent each-way bet with some of the latest horse racing offers.
