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Raceday LIVE – Cast No Shadow

Newcastle, Fri 31 Jan 2025 14:28

Related horse(s):

Cast No Shadow
Cast No Shadow is aiming to win his third race for the Coral Racing Club in this afternoon's Class 5 Handicap over five furlongs (14:28) at Newcastle.

Read our Raceday LIVE Preview below and join us ahead of the race for all the build-up and live updates from the track with the team and Cast No Shadow's lucky owners for the day across our social channels on X (@coral) and Instagram (@coralofficial).

Raceday LIVE Preview

Cast No Shadow heads back to Newcastle to tackle their five furlong trip for the eighth time in his career this afternoon, as he goes in search of his third win at the track. He obviously knows the straight five furlong trip at Gosforth Park at this point, and Hugo Palmer believes this track will continue to bring the best out of him. 

His two wins at the track have come off of handicap marks of 73 and 74, in contests of the same standard as today's, and he heads to Newcastle today with his lowest career mark of 71, so he could find himself back in the winners enclosure again, providing he can re-find the form that carried him to his previous successes last year.

 
Cast No Shadow leads the way on the gallops at Manor House

He found a spark last time out, and ran his best race since his June victory here, when finishing third under a smart ride from Jack Mitchell. He broke well and took up the running of the race, and for a while he looked like he might make all to win, however he began to struggle with the eventual front two when entering the final furlong and was beaten by two and a half lengths in the end. He did however finish over two lengths clear of the fourth place horse, coming home by himself in very neat fashion.

Hugo Palmer also decided to switch up Cast No Shadow's headgear for the first time since he donned the cheekpieces back on his seventh run, by putting him in a visor to see if it would liven him up. Obviously the change worked and it gave our gelding a boost, and with that in mind, Hugo Palmer has decided to opt for another new piece of headgear today and Cast No Shadow will be wearing blinkers for the first time to see if that can continue his improvement.

Raceday message from Hugo Palmer

"Cast No Shadow seems in good form at home and I am pleased with him ahead of the race tomorrow. Having changed his headgear last time, it brought about some improvement and hopefully by mixing it up again, there will be some more improvement.

Fingers crossed he can run another good race on a track that we know he likes."


Trainer and Jockey Statistics

Hugo Palmer has been unsurprisingly quiet in recent weeks, as the turf flat season is still some distance away. What he has sent out has been good recently however, with three winners from eleven runners in the last fortnight. Hugo enjoys Newcastle as a course, and has sent 274 runners there in his career, with 48 coming back victorious and of those, one winner from seven has come this season.   

Cieren Fallon takes the reins on Cast No Shadow this afternoon, the first time that the former two time Champion Apprentice Jockey has ridden for the Coral Racing Club. He's had five winners from 39 rides so far this year, with one of those coming from his only ride at Chelmsford last night.  

Cast No Shadow's Owners for the Day

As winners of the Owner for the Day competition, 10 lucky Coral Racing Club members have been given the chance to enjoy an exclusive owners experience for Cast No Shadow's run at Newcastle this evening.

Each winner, along with a guest of their choosing, will receive free entry to Newcastle Racecourse, including exclusive access to Owners & Trainers areas. They'll have the opportunity to meet Cast No Shadow and the Hugo Palmer team, plus get to head into the parade ring before the race begins to be amongst all the other owners, trainers and jockeys. And last but by no means least, each winner will get to take home an equal 10% split of any prize money won by Cast No Shadow.

Prize Money

Today's Class 5 contest is worth £7,100 in total, with the winner set to scoop £3,716 for their lucky owners.

2nd: £1,743 | 3rd: £871 | 4th: £435 | 5th: £217

Chris Dixon, Racing TV Analyst, previews today's Newcastle contest and rates Cast No Shadow's chances in the race

Consistency hasn’t been a strong point so far for Cast No Shadow but his return to form when third at this track last time adds weight to the theory that he’s at his best when able to dominate in a small field. A nine-strong line up here therefore looks suitable enough, even though it’s not quite so light on numbers as the six-runner heat he was third in last time. The downside is the presence of another regular front runner in the shape of Strong Johnson who is unlikely to allow Cieren Fallon and Cast No Shadow an easy time. It could be that the application of blinkers for the first time (replacing the visors that he wore last time) means he’s not as reliant on having his own way and given his good record at the track there are definitely reasons to be hopeful he can run well.

Buzz Box will be suited by a decent pace and was better than able to show when having a luckless run through last time, prior to which he’d been second to the well-handicapped Mondammej. Buzz Box is fairly closely matched with Strong Johnson on those bits of form but I think he should have his measure and he looks the horse to beat. Ramon Di Loria is back down to a good mark (2lbs below his last win) and should be better for his recent reappearance run when it appeared he was a bit to fresh early before the lack of a run took its toll. He looks a contender along with Our Absent Friends who has spent much of the winter in a slightly higher grade and wasn’t beaten far last time.

     14:28 NEWCASTLE – LATEST ODDS     

We hope you enjoyed reading today's Raceday LIVE Preview. Don't forget to tune in just before 14:28 to watch Cast No Shadow's next run for the club live on the Coral Sports app.
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