How To Bet £20 ante-post on the Weatherbys Super Sprint

Six of the past ten renewals of the Weatherbys Super Sprint Stakes have been won by fillies and Maria Branwell has excellent prospects of improving that sequence at Newbury on Saturday.

The David O’Meara-trained filly stands out on form after finishing a staying-on third in the Queen Mary last month and is heavily favoured by the conditions of the £200,000 contest, with the weight that each runner carries largely determined by how much they changed hands for as yearlings.

As Maria Branwell was a relatively cheap buy at 22,000 euros, it means she will carry only 8st 11lb and receive weight from inferior rivals.

Maria Branwell is owned by The Bronte Collection and is named after the mother of British writers Emily, Anne and Charlotte Brontë. Appropriately, she made her debut in Yorkshire and made an instant impact in beating 14 rivals at Thirsk despite being green. Two Super Sprint winners in past decade have won at Thirsk beforehand.

She was strong at the finish that day and it was a similar story when she followed up with a neck defeat of Crispy Cat (pair clear) in the Listed National Stakes at Sandown 12 days later.

Maria Branwell lost her unbeaten record at Royal Ascot but her staying-on third to Dramatised represented another clear chunk of improvement. Meanwhile, Crispy Cat was an unlucky third in the Norfolk Stakes a couple of days later.

It looks as though Maria Branwell is going to be well served by an extra furlong or so in the second half of the summer but she’s clearly not short of speed and, in any case, she will have an extra 34 yards to hit top gear against inferior rivals. Every little helps!

Five winners since 2009 ran at Royal Ascot beforehand, with Tiggy Wiggy (2014) and Happy Romance (2020) running in the Queen Mary beforehand. Also, for what it counts, Maria Branwell’s sire, James Garfield, was 2/2 at Newbury, winning the Mill Reef Stakes and Greenham.

The general 7-2 on offer looks more than fair and I can see her going off much shorter on Saturday once more folk put all the parts of the jigsaw together. If she gets a middle to high draw, then so much the better.

I’m also going to have a small saver on another filly, Union Court, who failed to make an impact in the Windsor Castle last time after a slow start.

She had previously looked a sharp sort in winning at Leicester and Chepstow, beating Tagline (a fair yardstick who was fourth in the Duchess of Cambridge Stakes last week) on the first occasion. Like Maria Branwell, she has only 8st 6lb to shoulder.

Rogue Spirit, trained by Tom Clover, heads the ante-post betting with most firms and he commands respect, with his only defeat in three starts coming when splitting Chateau and The Ridler in the Two Year Old Trophy at Beverley. That form has worked out well, although he would be better off with Maria Branwell if this were a handicap.

Eddie’s Boy and Miami Girl are also prominent in the ante-post betting but clearly have something to find. For example, the latter, the shortest-priced of Richard Hannon’s contenders, finished behind Maria Branwell in the Queen Mary will be 6lb worse off.

Plenty will have a mountain to climb, but you’ve got to be in to win it and there is prize-money down to tenth place.

£18 win on Maria Branwell at a general 7-2

£2 win on Union Court at a general 14-1