Wednesday’s Selections & Results – 31 August

It’s a good job that there were no jumps meetings in Britain yesterday as it was the funeral of Doreen (Angel of Lambourn) Rackham and there would have been no one to ride, tack, prep, drive the horses! 

The church was full with another 100 people outside.  I’m sure that as well as the training staff,  there are just as many mothers who have reason to be thankful to this woman who looked after their children once they realised they weren’t going to make it as a jockey, when homesickness took a hold, or if they were ill or injured.   I hope that there’s someone else in Lambourn now to bake the cakes and look after the lads and lasses – that would be a fitting tribute to her memory.

Gilmar Pereira is apparently a baseball player and/or a rodeo cowboy but the one we're interested in is a 25 year old Brazilian jockey claiming 3lb riding for William Haggas. (Ssshhh – he’s ridden heaps of winners in Brazil including a Group 1).    
He’s riding Tamara Bay (below) as he has in all three starts and apparently work rides all the difficult ones at home so he should know the best way to get this horses head in front.     

Today’s system selections are:

Bath

15:00   Rose Aurora (5.9) WD

Carlisle

17:35   Salik Tag (8.6) 2^nd

Kempton

17:50   Tamara Bay (7.4) UP

20:20   Shooting Line (5.5) UP

Salik Tag was soooo close to winning but had to settle for 2^nd.  Overall -3 loss making it the worst day for quite some while       
                                                

...and if you're worried about Kieren Fallon getting to Kempton from Folkstone don't be.  He will be flying from Folkstone to an airfield near Kempton then making the rest of the journey on the back of a motorbike (for the first time ever)!  

I promised that we would have a female champion jockey daily total and so we have (at the bottom with the men’s one) and also the only other funny racing commentary in the world worth watching:

It's a shame Arrrrrrr wasn't running in this as well

115              105            102

        Hayley Turner 56                                    Cathy Gannon  49                            Julie Burke  21

These numbers are NOT ages but winners this season so far!!