Season seven of the All-Weather Championships starts at Newcastle on Tuesday, October 22, when the highlight is the £22,500 Ladbrokes Home Of The Odds Boost Conditions Stakes (3.45pm) for two-year-olds.
The six-furlong contest is the first of 24 Fast-Track Qualifiers during the championships, with the winner guaranteed a free start in the £150,000 Ladbrokes Three-Year-Old All-Weather Championship at Lingfield Park on £1-million All-Weather Championships Finals Day, Good Friday, April 10, 2020.
Listed class performer Desert Safari (Mark Johnston/Joe Fanning) bids to maintain his unbeaten record on the All-Weather. The Slade Power colt justified favouritism on his first two starts, including a four and a half-length success in a novice race at Kempton Park on September 25, before finishing third on his turf debut in the Listed Redcar Two-Year-Old Trophy on October 5. All three of his starts have been over six furlongs.
Hamish Macbeth (Hugo Palmer/Ben Curtis) makes his All-Weather debut after a fast-finishing third in a lucrative sales race at the Curragh, Ireland, on September 15. The progressive colt had won his two previous starts in good style at Newmarket and Salisbury.
Trainer Richard Hannon and jockey Sean Levey, fresh from G1 success on Champions Day with All-Weather graduate King Of Change, team up with Temple Of Heaven. A dual winner earlier in the campaign, headed by a valuable conditions race success at Newbury in May, Temple Of Heaven has not raced since finishing 13th when joint-favourite for the Listed Windsor Castle Stakes at Royal Ascot.
Karl Burke landed the first running of this race in 2017 with Beatbox Rhythm. The North Yorkshire handler is represented by dual scorer Macho Time (Clifford Lee), who did not match the form of his first two wins when eighth in a seven-furlong nursery handicap at Newbury on September 20.
Completing the five runners is Aleneva (Richard Fahey/P J McDonald), the only filly in the field. Owned by John Dance, Aleneva defeated subsequent G1 runner-up Walk In Marrakesh on debut at Haydock Park in June and then returned from a break to finish ninth in the G3 Firth Of Clyde Stakes at Ayr on September 21.
Trainer Richard Fahey said today: "Aleneva needs to bounce back to the form she showed first time out at Haydock when she beat a nice horse.
"She had a little problem after Haydock and then her run last time in the Firth Of Clyde wasn't great.
"I would hope that she is up to this and we will find out more about her tomorrow."
A maximum field of 14 go to post in the £30,000 Betway Optional Claiming Handicap (3.10pm) over six furlongs. Equiano Springs (Tom Tate/Andrew Mullen) goes for a fifth course success at Newcastle on the back of a gutsy victory in a Newmarket handicap on September 21.
The seven-race programme starts at 2.00pm and ends at 5.20pm.
