The weather is currently scuppering my racing plans. We made the decision this morning not to supplement Winker at Deauville – the ground there is on the soft side and there is heavy rain forecast on Sunday. These forecasts are extremely unreliable and it’s perfectly possible that Sunday could turn out to be a glorious summer’s day, but he misses …
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 …
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 …
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 …
Cats and dogs
More hideous weather today – I’m told that we’re getting a month’s worth of rain today here in leafy Surrey. I can believe it – it’s cats and dogs out there. It wasn’t raining at Newmarket overnight and early morning, but the rain started an hour ago and it’s chucking it down now (11:40). Rain is also forecast at Chantilly …
The big day
I had an amazing day on Sunday when I went to the tennis. I’d managed to convince myself that Nadal was a sure fire winner and I had a big bet on him. As I sat down on Centre Court I was rather wishing I hadn’t had a bet at all, as it was such a big match and I didn’t want …