By Mark Rowntree
The Sky Bet Sunday Series is back for a fifth year with Musselburgh staging the opening fixture on Sunday.
The ever-popular series has delivered more than £4m in additional prize money since its launch in 2021, with trainers, jockeys, and stable staff all seeking their share of the valuable bonuses on offer.
Johnston ready to “give it a good go”
From his Middleham-base, Charlie Johnston is one such trainer with a keen eye on the Sunday Series, explaining: “We’ve been big supporters of the Sky Bet Sunday Series since the beginning. We’re always beating the drum about prize money. Therefore, when a racecourse or a broader initiative offers increased prize money, we feel obliged to support them the best that we can.
“There’s no point moaning about low prize money, and then not having runners when it is good. The prize money for this series is comparatively very good for the grade and, as a result, we target these races strongly.
“We didn’t have as many Sunday Series winners as I’d have hoped for last year, given our number of runners, but we’ll be back giving it a good go.”
Next step for Marhaba Ghaiyyath
Johnston saddles three runners at Musselburgh on Sunday, the most notable being Marhaba Ghaiyyath in the Sky Bet Build A Bet Handicap (5.45pm).
The progressive three-year-old, a half-brother to five winners, including the 2020 Ebor winner Fujaira Prince, and the 2017 Stayers’ Hurdle hero Nichols Canyon, is already a healthy 2-3 in his short career to date.
Johnston said: “He probably should have won on debut, but was slowly away and a bit green, so he did well to get as close as he did. Since then, he has won a Lingfield maiden, and a Wolverhampton novice.
“The Lingfield win was the stronger piece of form, more informative to us. I don’t think we really learnt anything extra at Wolverhampton, but it was just good to get him back out and get another win on the board.
“Those novice races where you are sent off 1-7 are straightforward on paper but can often be far trickier in practice. Against weaker opposition, we felt that we needed to try and keep things simple, so Billy [Loughnane] was a bit aggressive on him, and he did seem a little idle in the closing stages, so the winning margin wasn’t as impressive as it looked like it might have been for most of the way around.
“On pedigree, as the year goes on, you’d think that he’d want a longer trip, at least ten furlongs, but the fact that he wasn’t quite as strong through the line as we might have expected at Wolverhampton, is why we have decided to come back by half a furlong at Musselburgh.
He added: “We’ll learn a lot more on Sunday, starting off from a mark of 84, I’d like to think that he’d be very competitive off that, but it is going to be a different type of test to those that he has encountered. We’re hopeful that he’ll be up to it.
“I’m confident that there shouldn’t be any issue switching to turf. The only slight concern being that I know Musselburgh has been watering quite a bit this week and, with some rain forecast on Sunday, I hope for their sake they haven’t overwatered and then the ground goes soft, because that shouldn’t happen at this time of the year.”
Trip experiment for Etretat
The Sky Bet Extra Places Handicap (5.15pm) is seen as “a bit of an experiment” for Etretat
“He’s having his first run over this trip after finishing off strongly from a poor position over a-mile-and-a-quarter at Lingfield,” Johnston said
“We felt that off the back of that run it was worth a try over 1m4f around a sharp track like Musselburgh. With such a good pot to go for, we just thought that if the trip does bring about any form of improvement, it’ll be a nice race to win.”
Johnston is also represented by Benacre in the Sky Bet Proud To Support ROR Handicap (6.15pm), the five-year-old seeking a return to form.
“There’s no getting away from it, he had a disappointing time last year, so I’d just like to see that old spark reignited. He’s a well-handicapped horse on his best form but he’s been dealt a bit of a hammer blow in terms of the draw. Stall 12 of 12 over 7f at Musselburgh makes things pretty tricky indeed.”
Sky Bet Sunday Series fixtures in 2025
May 18: Newmarket
June 1: Chelmsford City
June 15: Hamilton Park
August 10: Haydock Park
September 8: York