Monday’s Selections & Results – 22 August

Considering it was a Sunday, I did well on the domestic front and have learnt a lesson to boot - leave the French racing alone! (although I seem to do ok with Longchamp).

Neil Callan gave Jukebox Jury a superb ride yesterday to win the Kergorlay putting the rest of the field to sleep.  Dettori won on Dabirsim in the Prix Morny (I cannot believe I didn’t pick his ride after Saturday’s Frankie fest!).

It was sad news that Doreen Rackham passed away in the early hours of Sunday morning after a long illness.   There can’t possibly be much jumps action on the day of her funeral because the whole of Lambourn will be there to say goodbye.

There seems to be a spate of ‘poorly horse’ excuses for recent fav fails.  Laughing Lashes, Frederick Engels, Fame And Glory, Await The Dawn, Mannheim.  There is rumour of a virus at Ballydoyle......this would make sense of their poor recent run but then again so would the lack of a world class jockey riding any of their horses since Ryan Moore’s injury!  As for all these coughs, colds and viruses, I find it hard to believe that a top stable would send a horse to a high-profile race without scoping them (running blood tests) first.....maybe there’s no point until they invent a test for seconditis (ouch!)

Today’s system selections are:

Hamilton

17:05   I’m Super Too (4.7) 1^st

Kempton

15:45   Herminella (17) UP

16:45   Decana (7.4) UP

16:45   Tegan (3.95) 1^st

17:15   Golden Tempest (14) 1^st

An excellent Monday with profit of +17.65

16:45 Kempton?

Tuesday’s Selections, Review & Results (16 August)

I wasn’t expecting to find a lot when I looked at Tuesday’s racing and so I wasn't disappointed – the best race I can find is a class 4 at Kempton and that’s the last on the card!

Racing Post summed up Mondays racing in a few words:

 

And I expect they’ll have this same notice up tonight with Tuesday substituted however there’s only one more sleep until York so it’s all put-uppable with.   

Further to my musing yesterday, it looks as though Ballydoyle will be using purely their stable jockeys at York (Heffernan, O’Donoghue, baby O’Brien) - nothing at all wrong with that!  


Fallon is fav to be top jockey at York - he does have a good book of rides (Terry Norman tweeted that he hopes the ground doesn't dry out) but then again so do a few others.  Talking of Tweets, Phil Makin has said "iv ridden hoof it, he's a good horse , but this is an aeroplane!!"   He was talking about Bapak Chinta. 

There's a very entertaining interview with Hoof It's trainer Mick Easterby on the Guardian website here:  click me

Tuesday’s (surprisingly large number of) selections are:

Musselburgh

15:15     John Forbes (8.6) UP

15:45     Nicolas Dream (5.7) UP

16:15     Bolodenka (2.02) 1^st

Brighton

16:00     Konstantin (6.4) 1^st

16:30     Tagansky  (8.8) UP

17:30     Bataleur (5.1) 2^nd

Kempton

18:50     Pennfield Pirate (4.8) UP

19:50     Annes Rocket (5.3) 2nd

21:20     Mosaicist (4.5) UP


I could have done with either 1 more winner or a slightly higher price on one of the two that came in.  Loss of -0.58 today (but wins below!)

Brighton 15:30 10f, Class 5 0-70 3yo+

This is a fascinating race and I’ve come to my selection by process of elimination.

Rarely do you see such a frustrating horse as Professor John.  LTO, he was perfectly capable of winning but didn’t want to go past the leader – a stunt he’s pulled previously.  James Doyle seems to have had the best success at getting a tune out of him (his only ride resulted in a 2nd) and is in the plate again today so perhaps he has discovered the key!  He’s now back on his all-time low mark and is more than weighted to win this but whether he wants to in the question! 

Beaubrav is another who has ability but not on the green stuff it would seem.  Golden Waters doesn’t have the dream draw that she did last time she won over C&D and I think this might just be enough to deny her at top weight.  Green Wadi was well held by Highlife Dancer LTO and there’s no reason to think he won’t be again. 

Highlife Dancer has won back to back races already this season but is carrying a penalty this time and this looks too much.

Timocracy and Out Of The Storm are drawn next to each other and are likely to take each other on for the lead which may leave the race nicely set up for a closer and this could be Celestial Girl.  LTO she was denied a clear run and on her penultimate start, she pulled too hard to ever figure at the end.  I can’t see Chris Catlin letting her do this again so I think she has a good chance with the current stable form an added plus. 

My selection then is Celestial Girl but I’m prepared to give Professor John one last chance and place a small each way on him.

Celestial Girl (win) 5/1  1^st

Professor John (each-way) 9/1 2^nd