Racing League: What we know at the halfway point

Three meetings down, three to go. Windsor hosts this evening’s action, before the teams head north to Southwell (8th Sept) and then further north for the finale at Newcastle (15th Sept).

It’s London & The South that top the table at the halfway stage on 428 points, with a big reason being their four winners on the opening night at Doncaster. They are the favourites to be the Racing League’s top team at 6/4.

Hot on their tails, and only a point behind, are Wales & The West (7/4 to be top team), with a fairly sizeable gap back to the chasing pack consisting of The East, Yorkshire, The North, Scotland and then Ireland propping up the standings.

Here are some things to consider at the midway point of the Racing League.

Betting On The Favourites

It proved a slow start for the market leaders in the opening two meetings at Doncaster and then on the all-weather at Lingfield, with favourites falling to enter the winners’ enclosure in any of the 14 races.

Things did improve at Newcastle last week, when favourite backers celebrated three victories – two of those going to the East.

Wales & The West will be hoping that this improvement continues at Windsor, as there is every chance their team will saddle a few favourites across the seven-race card.

At 17:00, it’s the William Hill Bet Boost Racing League Race 23 where they look to have their strongest chance of victory for team manager Jamie Osborne. They have the top two in the betting – Safari Dream and Lost Angel – both representing the region.

Given that Osborne is also able to call upon the maximum quota of two runners per race across the Windsor card, they may be the favourites to overhaul London & The South heading to Southwell next week.

Jockeys To Consider

However, Matt Chapman’s London & The South team are also at full strength. Their chances of a strong evening are boosted by the return of current Racing League top jockey Sean Levey.

Levey rode a treble at Doncaster in Week 1 and has currently collected 163 points from his 13 rides. He missed last week’s meeting at Newcastle, partly down to not wanting to exceed the quota of 20 rides per jockey throughout the Racing League.

He is the 11/4 favourite to be the Racing League top jockey and returns to the saddle with four rides at Windsor. The pick of them appears to be Pontefract winner Majestic in the 18:30.

If there is a jockey that has the ammunition to make giant strides up the jockey’s leaderboard then it’s Neil Callan.

He has only had two Racing League rides so far and is sat on 15 points overall. But with 25 points given to a winner and points available all the way down to 10th position, he could climb the table at Windsor.

Callan has been booked for all seven races, with Safari Dream (17:00), Dora Penny (17:30) and Snapcracklepop (18:00) all early contenders to start favourite. At 33/1 to be Racing League top jockey, he is not without a chance.

What About The Outsiders In The Team Event?

Much of the chat so far has been about London & The South and Wales & The West, but some of the other regions are not without a hope of bursting back into contention.

After all, all 13 runners for Wales & The West collected points at Newcastle to add another 158 points to the team total.

The East currently sit third on 332 points (96 off top spot) but are depleted with only 11 runners at Windsor. Team manager Rupert Bell was successful in the inaugural Racing League last year with Team talkSPORT and it is 5/1 that his side tastes victory again.

If he is to achieve this feat, much could hinge on the decision to hold back top jockey Kieran Shoemark (111 points) for the final event at Newcastle, given he has already used up 13 of his 20 allocated rides.

Rather than back The East overall for top team, Yorkshire could be the stronger option at 17/2.

Windsor represents the second event of four so far to be held at a southern racecourse, and it’s no coincidence that some regions have struggled for full representation.

Yorkshire have managed to pick up totals of 128 points at Doncaster, 54 points at Lingfield and 129 points at Newcastle.

So, with Southwell and a return to Newcastle to come in Week 5 and 6, expect them to arrive with stronger teams, which could be enough to see Leonna Mayor’s team mount a late challenge to top the standings.

Jokers Still In Play

A new update to the 2022 Racing League was the ability for team managers to play two jokers through the six meetings. These can only be used in races with at least 13 runners, with jokers awarding double points to both horses representing that team in a race.

To date, there has been no winning jokers played, with Wales & The West arguably performing best when using one of theirs in the first race at Doncaster in Week 1. Their two runners finished second and fourth.

Scotland and Ireland are yet to use either of their jokers, with all other regions playing one.