NAP of the Day: Castle to stand strong at Windsor

Royal Ascot kicks off on Tuesday, but first there’s five meetings to enjoy across Britain and Ireland on Monday.

My NAP of the Day- a Simon & Ed Crisford-trained five-year-old gelding - comes in the £20k feature race on the card in the Berkshire.

Simon & Ed Crisford have already landed three winners at Windsor this season and have only had 13 runners so far. There’s a decent chance that the potentially unexposed DURHAM CASTLE can add to their tally and he’s expected to be bang in the mix here.

Clearly he isn’t the easiest to train as the five-year-old has only had seven starts in the last three seasons but his consistency can’t be questioned. With three victories to his name already, he looks more than capable of winning again before the handicapper has him.

He was beaten by five lengths in novice and maiden company on his first two starts but took a big step forward to get off the mark at Southwell in August 2024. The son of Havana Grey managed to win by just shy of two lengths and made the switch to handicaps after that.

Horse Racing Odds

An opening mark of 80 proved to be very generous on handicap debut at Goodwood and he went clear in good style to win by three lengths that day. We then didn’t see him for another 270 days and he quite understandably needed the run, eventually finishing seventh.

William Haggas’ Another Abbot looks like a serious challenger, after winning a competitive race at York last time out, although a 5lb higher mark means more will be required. Toolatetonegotiate also scored last time out and shouldn’t be dismissed either.

He got back on track with a smooth success when winning this race last year and he should be competitive off just a 3lb higher mark here. A total of four career handicap starts is very low for a five-year-old and there’s a real chance that he’s still well ahead of the handicapper.

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