It’s a great day’s racing today, with the afternoon highlight for me the Racing Post Trophy at Doncaster. This race has thrown up the Derby winner three times in recent years – in a hot contest I’ll go with City Leader of Brian’s, who is a half brother to a previous winner of this race and may be improving. In …
Winner is not my choice
Lilac Moon ran well enough in third last night. She handled the surface well and was running on again at the finish – she was drawn 13 of 13 which is a tough place to be at Wolver and she may just have needed it. In the Dewhurst today I can’t see past New Approach. He’ll handle the ground and …
The Moon is out
Lilac Moon runs for me in the 8:55 at Wolver tonight. We claimed her from a mile claimer at Carlisle and sent her to Nicky Vaughan – Mick liked the look of her profile beforehand and she won well enough. From breeding and running we think she should get a little further and she runs over 9 1/2 furlongs tonight. …
Nick Gifford stable visit
I visited Nick Gifford€™s yard in Findon on Wednesday morning to catch up with news of the four horses owned by the Core Strength syndicate of which Bert forms a third. The horses are all five year old geldings who were selected with a long term perspective and there has been little racecourse action from them as yet €“ Better …
Today’s fancies
Quite a few old favourites running today, and I’ll be having a few bets. I spent a fair bit of time with Pete C-H last week, and he runs Spirit of Sharjah in the first at Ascot. From what I’ve heard of the horse I give him a small edge over his principal opponent Captain Gerrard, another favourite of mine and a …
Eazy does it
Hoorah!! Another win for the heroes as Major Eazy triumphs at Salisbury in a pretty hot conditions race under a nice ride from Richard Hughes. He was returned at 12-1, but there was clearly a bit of money for him (ahem…). He’ll go into the sales at some point and this will have done him no harm at all – we’ll probably …
Ary goes for a big prize
The boss had a late one last night after the Betfair Pro-Am Golf Tournament so I’ll fill in for now. Bert has Prince Ary running at Market Rasen (3.45) today in a valuable handicap hurdle with £30,000+ to the winner. He was touched off by a short head on his only previous visit to the track in a similarly competitive …
Runners This Week
As noted by Bert below, I€™m going to be contributing to the blog from time to time to help keep things up to date and maybe prompt further thoughts and discussion. Comments are very welcome. Shepherds Warning runs in the 2.50 at Pontefract to-morrow €“ a Nursery Handicap for fillies run over a mile. She has been raised 17 pounds …
Betting update
I advised Angel Rock in the first last night – I’m hearing that he is a decent animal but will probably need the run, explaining the long price. Probably but not definitely – he could still be value for a place. I’m also hearing that there is considerable confidence behind Rochfort, and with Gosden’s 2yos going well this year he may …
Back at my desk
I lasted about two hours at the WSOPE. After a reasonably breezy start I limped along for a while before blowing my stack in two hands in the space of five minutes. We start with £20k of chips. I am down to £18k when I pick up 10-6 suited on the big blind – a raise of £300 is called …