Unsatisfactory race

Another group 1 wings its way to Ballydoyle, but again it was an unsatisfactory race.  I’ve watched the race a few times – it isn’t clear to me whether or not the AOB trained Tabor owned Frozen Fire would have won had the AOB trained Tabor owned Alessandro Volta not veered dramatically left when he did, taking out most of the …

Season starting in earnest

I’ve been busy this week working on something that I’ll publish some other time.  Kings Head was supposed to run on Friday but we pulled him out after the overnight rain.  Lord Snooty ran in the US last night coming third. My first four bets of the week, all at decent prices, all came second – I got a little back …

Incredible scenes

I can’t remember a more enthralling day’s sport than yesterday’s fare.  In the afternoon I watched the key bits of Ivanovic/Dechy, including a point where at match point down Ivanovic slams a forehand into the top of the net and it hovers and drops over just on the right side for her.  You couldn’t write the script – she wins 10-8 …

Ascot part 2

I went to Ascot on Thursday, feeling a bit sheepish – parts of my blog had been written up in the Racing Post, and it had also been written up on an Australian news site. Skid was running in the first race – I was hopeful of a decent run but he could never go the pace and trailed in tenth …

Fourfourtwo

On the Swindon front:  I was extremely pleased to see Town sign the sponsorship deal with Fourfourtwo the other week. The first I heard of this was through a friend of mine at Haymarket – Fourfourtwo were looking for a shirt deal and they had Swindon on the shortlist.  They had a series of meetings with Nick Watkins and team, and …

Update

Having rung around this morning I’m not recommending Scrapper Smith now.  I think he’ll run well enough, but Pete likes his a lot, and I very much doubt we’re the better horse at the moment. South Central is supposed to be something pretty special against Skid.  I prefer Kensington Oval to Dr Faustus in the 4:55. I see my blog …

Skid and Scrapper

Having watched the first day on the telly I decided to get out of the house and go down to Ascot today.  I got into my posh gear and headed down fairly late – I missed the first race but I had a decent bet on the winner before I left.  I had Aqlaam down as one to follow throughout …

Bullydoyle

A good day’s racing today, but one that has left me more concerned than ever before about the state of the game at the top level.  It seems to be standard these days for Ballydoyle to have multiple entries in every group one to be run in the UK, and this is a situation that needs to be monitored carefully. …

Tariq or not Tariq

… that is the question, and in my opinion the answer is a big yes.  Tariq runs in the Queen Anne, and gets the nap vote for the first day.  He’s in great form and he won at this meeting last year.  He’s progressive, he’ll be happy on the ground and the stable may finally have hit true form.  The …

Risk strategy

It’s been a busy week and I’m glad it’s over.  It was my father-in-law’s funeral yesterday and we had all the guests back to the farm – it was a pleasant do in sad circumstances with a fair bit of work getting ready for it.  It was also Betfair’s strategy week and I attended as much of that as I …