Tag Archives: yarmouth

Racing Talk

Tuesday’s Racing Talk

Leave a comment

DSC_0565-2

OFF to a flyer for the week. Simcock’s maidens delivered once again. I needed it after some pretty shocking days.

Mystic Dawn provided win number 10 of 33 runners in maidens for the Simcock yard this year – but even more impressive how he gets his juveniles ready: a 50% strike rate with 2 year olds first time out is nothing short of remarkable!

Controversial Racingpost Cover

It must be a real slow-burning morning if  the racing world’s discussing passionately today’s Racingpost front cover. It talks about some type of ‘celebrities’ and second tier football players being banned from racing after misbehaving at the Cheltenham Festival, which – if you might wonder – lies more than five month behind us!

I honestly haven’t heard of these guys before, though remember there were some ugly incidents at the Festival. It seems to spark some sort public debate, so it’s probably fair to be reported on.

Whether it has to grace the front cover of the “racing bible” is debatable, but then it could be argued the Racingpost didn’t exactly stood out for quality reading content in the last number of years anyway.

Can’t remember when I picked up a ‘Post the last time. It’s just not worth it. Very few interesting articles, mostly banal betting previews plus race cards. Where’s the value for money? I don’t see it.

Every half decent newspaper offers racecards and some articles on the sport on any given day. If I want to pick up a fine racing related publication then it has to be the Irish Field, which is a weekly paper, and provides plenty of compelling content.

Legislate the Stallion

The 2014 Durban July winner Legislate seems to settle in nicely in his new job. After four highly successful seasons on the race tracks of South Africa, here’s hoping his offspring can emulate his brilliant daddy once they hit the track.

He’s been one of those horses that found a place in my heart.Quick, flashy, good looking, lovely turn of foot, durable, tough, classy.

A 4 times winner in Grade 1 competition, who was able to stay the demanding July trip, but also was quick enough to be crowned champion miler.Just a pity we never saw him outside of South Africa, which was very much down to the harsh quarantine restrictions placed on the country.

———–

Tuesday Selections:

Only one for today. Wonderfully well bred Aflame was an excellent winner over course and distance the last time and looked to have plenty in hand, albeit she idled a bit once in front. A 5lb rise in the mark is unlikely to stop her.

4.30 Yarmouth: Aflame @ 6/4 Skybet

Betting Talk, United Kingdom

Wednesday’s Summer Racing

Leave a comment

DSC_1637

The summer is firmly on and this blog is dawdling along… time, where is the time? Today is a bit of time. My increasingly statics based approach to betting does slowly but steadily reap benefits. So I used the free minutes this morning to dig out some interesting horses for today’s racing.

But despite this being the time of the year for horses proving their worthiness on the holy green turf, the ‘charm’ of sand racing is never far away. Kempton offers some bread and butter material today. I like it.

I might update this post later on in the afternoon with one or more contenders… so keep coming back if interested….

7.10 Kempton: Curriculum @ 4/1 Ladbrokes

Very interesting contender for William Haggas who has a 42% strike rate this season in Kempton maiden races and a 70%+ place strike rate over the last five years here in this type of races – so one would assume Curriculum is reasonably fit going to post today.

The gelding showed promise in soft conditions at Doncaster last year and is open to a significant amount of improvement over this longer trip.

8.20 Yarmouth: Fleeting Dream @ 2/1 Ladbrokes

This rather well bred three year old filly of Dream Ahead should be very hard to beat on her handicap debut, dropping down to five furlongs which is very likely to suit down to the grounds.

Haggas seems to find always the right opportunities for this type of horse and while Fleeting Dream didn’t show much in three maiden races, she showed plenty of speed the last time in a hot race. Her opening mark of 56 could be lenient.

3.30 Bath: Forecaster 11/8 Betfred

This looks seemingly a wide open race but closer inspection shows this is an excellent opportunity for 3yo Forecaster. The slight step up in trip should bring out further improvement after two subsequent placed efforts this season. First time cheekpieces can be a big help too.

Michael Bell has a near 50% strike rate this year and consistently over time with his horses tried in this type of headgear. I suspect Forecaster will be able to find enough improvement to beat this very ordinary lot today.

4.00 Bath: Hope Is High @ 8/1 Coral

She improved dramatically from her maidens last month on her handicap debut at Yarmouth, though got a bit a rough ride. Once in the clear she ran on strongly to finish an unlikely looking runner-up. There is more to come and a 2lb hike in the mark isn’t enough to stop her to go close. I believe the slower ground will her here.

Jockey booking is interesting, as the Gordon/Berry combo has proved very successful this year, albeit the sample size is on the small side. Still, her 3lb allowance look significant given the 60% strike rate these two enjoy.