Word on Winker

Just a quick note about Winker Watson’s run yesterday. Before the race it seemed that he had two questions to answer – 1) Had he trained on and 2) Would he stay a mile ? Thankfully the answer to the first one was positive though we got a clear no to the second. Ryan Moore said after the race that …

Postcard from abroad

A quick one from me from the hotel computer. It’s not easy checking out the racing from here as all betting related sites are blocked by the Italian regulator.  I can access the Racing Post site at least, where I can check out Bouguereau’s oppo. Only six runners but no easy task on.  Boug is extremely well, but he has …

Goodwood Glory ?

Bert€™s Bouguereau, in Tuesday€™s Betfair sponsored Gordon Stakes, and the Comic Strip Heroes€™ Winker Watson, in Wednesday€™s Sussex Stakes, are declared runners at Goodwood this week. They face just five and six rivals respectively and hopes are high for a bold show from both. I have a slight concern about the ground being too fast for Bouguereau if the current …

Lilac’s back

Lilac Moon runs in the 8:30 at Doncaster tonight. She is switching from polytrack to turf and also stepping up in trip, so we can’t be as confident as we were at Lingfield last time. However, if she does handle the change of surface and trip it will open up a lot more options for her in the future. Her …

No holiday for the horses

Bert is sunning himself in Sardinia for the next couple of weeks but he is likely to have several runners while away and he asked me to keep blog readers informed. First up is Pansy Potter who makes her debut in Windsor€™s 7:20 this evening and will be looking to provide The Comic Strip Heroes (Bert, Ed Wray and Ed€™s …

Storm ‘n Norman

I did one thing yesterday that was vaguely clever.  I thought Greg Norman was a touch long in the win market – a price of 27 for a guy in outright second felt big even accounting for age and tendency to bottle the big ones.  I had £3.5k on at 27 and 28 and put it back in at 24 …

Off on my hols

Up and down betting at the moment.  Good bets on Addikt and Whispering Angel came in but I took a heavy loss on Royal Destination last night.  I missed an opportunity when Papradon, who had nearly reeled in Lilac Moon last time, won the first at Newmarket at a big price.  It’s a nice boost for her form though. Just …

Celeb action

Winker finally returned to action, but it was a disappointment.  He was seventh out of 16 in the Prix Jean Prat – a strong race, not disgraced but frankly I was hoping for a lot better. There were excuses.  He lost a shoe coming out of the stalls – he subsequently lost 3 or 4 lengths going round the bend.  …

Strike two

An unbelievable day yesterday when Tom won the second 2yo group 2 with another incredibly cheap buy.  Firth of Fifth cost 5,000 Guineas – Classic Blade 19,000 Euros.  It is an incredible training feat, and great credit also to Richard Kingscote who rode so intelligently.  I didn’t go yesterday – it seemed like a good time to take a day …

Disappointment

A big day and I made arrangements to go to Newmarket – I decided to book a driver for the day.  I had a few errands to run in the morning and I headed off a bit late.  I slept most of the way there – when I have a driver I usually stay up late the night before knowing I’ll make …