Timeform rated Bouguereau‘s run 107 whereas the Racing Post went 105. Either way he rates good enough to have a go at the Italian Derby. They’ve moved the race forward this year (May 11) which is good for us, but they’ve dropped the distance from 2400 to 2200 metres which is not so good. Prize money is currently 1 million …
A tale of two seconds
I was a bit down yesterday thinking about the number of second places I have, so I checked out the stats. The stats are poor for horses running in my name – 3 wins, 7 seconds, 6 thirds from 39 runs. If I include all horses I have a piece of the figures are 22-30-14 – not great but not a disaster. …
Double Bubble
I thought the Craven yesterday was a proper horse race. Raven’s Pass and Twice Over slaughtered what looked to be a decent field in a very smart time – they could turn out to be two very good horses, and the 2,000 could be a real strong race this year. I backed one of Tom’s last night – Firth of …
Craven bet
I’m fairly busy at the moment with no time to go racing – I’ll go to Newbury on Friday where I’ll hopefully have two runners. The forecast for Friday at Newbury is heavy rain – not good news for Bouguereau although not a problem for Skid Solo. Today is the Swindon Town FC golf day and I’m playing in that …
Racing update…
Some snippets from my conversations this morning; In the Free handicap there is a lot of confidence behind Stimulation. No surprise perhaps as he is the favourite. Pete tells me that Skadrak will like this ground and trip. There are, however, very strong vibes for Virtual who I’m told was unlucky last season and has wintered very well. It may …
Craven Day 1
The Craven meeting starts today, and for me it’s the start of the flat season proper. I’ve had runners on this day a couple of times before and it’s a meeting I like – I was going to run Bouguereau in the Feilden today but we are preferring to go to Newbury on Friday. The main interest for me is Rayvin …
Winker pulls out
Pete called this morning with the news – they had gone out with Winker and he was moving ‘like an old man’, a bit hunched and sluggish. The vet had indicated that this was a minor problem, but it wasn’t going to stand up to training in the short term and Pete wanted to back off. No-one disagreed. We have …
Treat those two imposters
It was a big night last night, with Lord Snooty finally justifying our belief in him by winning his maiden in the US in smart style. I went to bed feeling exhilirated. My Blackberry rang early this morning, showing Pete’s name. Pete never rings early unless it is bad news – as I picked it up I was praying it would be about one …
Highs and Lows
It’s a big time of year as an owner, and there are highs and lows. Aintree was ultimately a real mix, and there was a lot of good and bad on Saturday. I didn’t go up as I was at AFC Wimbledon for a match that my wider family were sponsoring in memory of my great uncle, who owned the club in the 60’s …
The big day approaches
The big day approaches, and unusually for me I don’t have an ante-post position in the National. In my younger days I was crazily obsessive about the race – it got to the point where I was so tense beforehand that I could barely watch it. A couple of times I can remember watching the race on TV peering through the door …