Weekend focus: spectre of City of York means it's worth looking at a few under the radar in Saturday's Hungerford

The 7f programme starts to ramp up at this time of year. Saturday's Hungerford Stakes (3.35) at Newbury is swiftly followed by the City of York seven days later before the Park Stakes on St Leger day next month provides another opportunity for specialists at the trip. 

Having two similar races so close together is problematic for ante-post betting. Nine of the 13 Hungerford entries are also in the City of York and that race is worth £283,000 to the winner. First place at Newbury will earn just shy of £71,000 so it is easy to imagine several high-profile names sitting out Saturday. 

The natural instinct is to focus on runners without the York entry. Three are outsiders with patchy recent form (Jumby, Orne and Popmaster) and the other is Poet Master.