Nice draw gives Swiss Spirit plenty of Temple Stakes each-way appeal

Draw biases are fairly well known in horse racing, such as the benefits of a position near the inside rail at Chester, but the assistance of a low stall in the Temple Stakes since the race was moved from Sandown to Haydock may not be so celebrated.

However, in the five runnings of the Temple Stakes at Haydock, all of the winners have enjoyed a low draw between one and five, while four of the 10 placed horses in this period have also been positioned in this cluster.

This is bad news for many of the leading fancies, most notably 7/4 favourite Sole Power, who will break from almost widest of all of the 12 runners in stall 11.

However, it would be foolish to completely rule out the horse as he clearly loves the flatter nature of Haydock, winning the Temple Stakes in 2011 and then chasing home Bated Breath last year.

Kingsgate Native and Tangerine Trees, the pair to chase home Sole Power at Newmarket earlier this month, are others that have been drawn outside of the ideal area of the course.

Reckless Abandon has been given stall five and this bodes well for his chances at 3/1 as he puts his unbeaten record on the line for the first time in all-age company.

The obvious drawback to his chances is that no male three-year-old has even managed to place, let alone win, in the Temple Stakes in the last decade.

The two horses to focus on from the bottom five stalls are therefore Spirit Quartz and Swiss Spirit.

Spirit Quartz benefited from a similar starting position last year to take third and warrants each-way consideration at 9/1.

But preference is for Swiss Spirit at 7/1 on his second start since switching to the yard of John Gosden from David Elsworth.

He should come on leaps and bounds from the first of these in the Duke Of York last time and the drop back to 5f is expected to suit.

The heavy ground can also be blamed for his disappointing effort in a Group 1 at Longchamp prior to that and it seems fairer to judge him on his run when taking a Group 3 at Newbury last season.

In what looks a reasonably weak contest on the whole, it would be a surprise if Swiss Spirit was not in the first three at worst.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publication