After yesterday I’m really going to struggle to ignore Ryan Moore’s rides. I watched his face after a couple of his wins – he seems to show no trace of emotion and he reminds me a bit of Lester Piggott. It’s a fairly obvious comment but I think he’ll turn out to be pretty special. Captain Hurricane goes again today, and …
Jockey trouble
Following my good day yesterday I’ll be coming back for more today, and the race I like is the King George Stakes. I’ve been planning to back Wi Dud all day. Our lawyer at Betfair knows some of the owners (similar connections to Amadeus Wolf) – the horse is apparently very well and the conditions look ideal for him to …
A poor start to the week
A bad day yesterday – Major Eazy ran his worst race for a while and I lost a lot of money punting. To make matters worse I twice backed against horses of Pete’s and on both occasions Pete’s horse won. Major Eazy takes a decent break now, which I think is well overdue. I was at Goodwood yesterday, but I won’t …
Shawhill today
Shawhill goes up to York to run in a competitive little listed handicap. She’s the outsider of five, and I fancy her to go very well. There are a lot of imponderables here; She’s never raced on ground as soft as this … or over a distance as long as this Last time she won she was on a mark …
A strong debut from Effingham
A fantastic result at Sandown today with Effingham coming second in his maiden. I’m extremely positive, for a number of reasons; He clearly needed the run and will come on a lot for it He ran green, missing the break a little and he lost ground jumping the walkway Sandown maidens are generally pretty good (although I’m not so sure about …
Hurricane warning
One I forgot to mention – Captain Hurricane runs on Friday at Newmarket. He’s been pretty useless for a long time now, but I think that there’s a decent chance he’ll come right one day and when he does he’ll be a seriously well handicapped horse. He got to a point where he was so aggressive that no-one wanted to …
The adventures of Ary
After a lot of hype Ary finally came out on Saturday. It looked as if he was dead and buried, but in a dramatic finale he stormed back to beat Tom. Unfortunately King’s Quay came on the wide outside and beat them both – still an excellent second, and if the cards had fallen a little better for him he could …
Buying and selling
The July sale at Tattersalls has just come and gone, and also a big sale at Saint Cloud. We’ve been pretty busy, but the market still feels pretty toppy and the selling has gone better than the buying. Three of the string sold last week. Thunderbolt Jaxon made £6k, Master of the Race £11k and Conservation £16k. I’m pleasantly surprised …
If you can meet with triumph and disaster…
… and treat those two imposters just the same… I’m not sure I agree with Rudyard Kipling on that one – I definitely prefer triumph to disaster and I’ve seen a bit of both this week. Authorized‘s defeat last week was a blow – I was hoping he’d have an unbeaten 3yo year. I’m less comfortable with the tactics of …
Winker shows his class
I thought it was an absolutely stunning performance from Winker in the July Stakes – everything went wrong and we still won. I couldn’t have a higher opinion of the horse. We have believed for a while now that it would be an understatement to just call him a classy horse – his work at home suggests he is very special, …