I have a daughter who has accompanied me on various jaunts to Haydock, Newmarket and Doncaster. She hasn't learned a huge amount lot about racing from these educational sojourns ...except that sometimes jockeys wink at her from the paddock ( pretty petite blondes tend to get this reaction), where there is racing there is champagne and seafood and "you need a horse with big feet when it's raining".
Yesterday morning she was at home while I was picking my Scoop6 selections. I only ever throw a few pounds at this- after all if Agnes Haddock can win it by picking Clouding Over because it was a cloudy day then....you know the rest! I gave up spending any length of time looking at the form of the Scoop 6 races a long time ago - they pick the races they do for a reason!
Having shortlisted 4-5 runners in a couple of races, I thought I may as well ask daughter to pick one since it has as much chance of winning as anything else.
This was the genuine & surprisingly effective selection process that ensued:
Race 1
"Don't like that name and don't like that name. Who's Mark Prescott and why's he a Sir?"
"He's a baronet"
"Baronet? Isn't that something to do with hair"
"No, that's barnet!"
"He's not been made a sir because he's a good hairdresser?"
"Nope - inherited title"
"Don't like the name of the horse anyway.....Mahmood Al Zarooni and Saeed Bin Suroor sound like the same person and Frankie's riding that one so that's the one I'd pick"
"Discourse then?"
"Discourse Datcourse - whichever course Frankie is riding"
Race 2
"Dont like that name, don't like that colour... where's that jockey from?"
"Christophe Patrice Lemaire?? Really?? You have to ask that?? He's from France!"
"Don't like France ....what's the in C in O'Donoghue?"
"Colm"
"You mean Colin?"
"Nope, it's Colm, an Irish name"
"Oh that one then - that's easy!"
"Why?"
"Because it's ridden by an Irish jockey and they're sneaky bastards who weigh less" (apologies to all Irish!)
"Parlour Games then"
Naturally they both won, naturally my four selections didn't. Guess who'd picking from the shortlist next Saturday?!
Is anyone really that interested in the Shergar Cup? It just doesn't attract the top horses or jockeys and isn't a betting proposition (not one favourite won yesterday). It came across the same way as a provincial am-dram production of Grease - all of the enthusiasm but lacking the resources.
Yesterday morning she was at home while I was picking my Scoop6 selections. I only ever throw a few pounds at this- after all if Agnes Haddock can win it by picking Clouding Over because it was a cloudy day then....you know the rest! I gave up spending any length of time looking at the form of the Scoop 6 races a long time ago - they pick the races they do for a reason!
Having shortlisted 4-5 runners in a couple of races, I thought I may as well ask daughter to pick one since it has as much chance of winning as anything else.
This was the genuine & surprisingly effective selection process that ensued:
Race 1
"Don't like that name and don't like that name. Who's Mark Prescott and why's he a Sir?"
"He's a baronet"
"Baronet? Isn't that something to do with hair"
"No, that's barnet!"
"He's not been made a sir because he's a good hairdresser?"
"Nope - inherited title"
"Don't like the name of the horse anyway.....Mahmood Al Zarooni and Saeed Bin Suroor sound like the same person and Frankie's riding that one so that's the one I'd pick"
"Discourse then?"
"Discourse Datcourse - whichever course Frankie is riding"
Race 2
"Dont like that name, don't like that colour... where's that jockey from?"
"Christophe Patrice Lemaire?? Really?? You have to ask that?? He's from France!"
"Don't like France ....what's the in C in O'Donoghue?"
"Colm"
"You mean Colin?"
"Nope, it's Colm, an Irish name"
"Oh that one then - that's easy!"
"Why?"
"Because it's ridden by an Irish jockey and they're sneaky bastards who weigh less" (apologies to all Irish!)
"Parlour Games then"
Naturally they both won, naturally my four selections didn't. Guess who'd picking from the shortlist next Saturday?!
Is anyone really that interested in the Shergar Cup? It just doesn't attract the top horses or jockeys and isn't a betting proposition (not one favourite won yesterday). It came across the same way as a provincial am-dram production of Grease - all of the enthusiasm but lacking the resources.
No comments:
Post a Comment