Old Money and Chickens - 04 May

Rousing Sermon's Chicken Impression

Frankie Dettori was a guest on Radio 2 with Chris Evans this morning and came across and a very witty and clever man..….and gave as good as he got but the best line came from Chris:  “My son Noah is only 3 and already taller than you are!”

I happened to mention to my daughter what a great weekend of racing we have in store “……….the 2000 Guineas, 1000 Guineas AND the Kentucky Derby!”  to which the reply was “old money as well as chickens! That’s exciting then!”  I guess not everyone is as excited about these events as I (we?) are then.  

It is for this reason that today’s blog is abbreviated, shortened and concise.  I have a day to myself so am away to study dirt and 3 year olds!

-1.13 today...

	Wolves	First Choice	E/W or RF Choice
1	15:10	Tooley Woods UP	First Bid (EW) 1st
2	17:10	Douze Points 2nd	MrChocolateDrop(EW)UP

2/     Douze Points wasn’t able to follow up his win lto and can see no improvement in his conditions today which is a little off-putting but he is still best of the line up for me.  Mr Chocolate Drop looks very good for a place or better and Bold Cross is another interesting runner to watch back from a long absence

	Bangor	First Choice	E/W or RF Choice
1	19:30	Amron Lad 1st
2	20:00	It’s Like That 2nd

	Dundalk	First Choice	E/W or RF Choice
1	21:05	Hootie (EW) UP

Flat Season Alert! - 24 March

The flat seasons kick off at the Curragh on Sunday and with the Lincoln Handicap at Doncaster on the 31 March, a week today but for today there is some class 1 racing at Newbury and a group race in the Winter Derby at Lingfield (currently leaning towards Junoob). I'll put up my selections throughout the course of the morning as I find them..........


NB:  Mark Johnston has a 42% strike rate in the past fortnight!

Just the two winners from six today and down -3.20

	Bangor	First Choice	E/W or Forecast Choice
1	14:15	War Party UP
2	14:50	Call Back 1st

	Lingfield	First Choice	E/W or RF Choice
1	14:25	Bannock 3rd

	Newbury	First Choice	E/W or Forecast Choice
1	15:10	Claret Cloak 1st

	Gowran Park	First Choice	E/W or Forecast Choice
1	15:35	Savello UP	Laganbank (EW) UP

Notes:

1/            Savello looks the best on paper and being an expensive purchase but the stable form is 0/18 which is enough have me looking for an each way saver in Laganbank!  

My nap for today is (yet another) McCain/Maguire combo running at Bangor in the 14:50, Call Back 1st   A little artistic license has been used in order that I could post a good video on here!

83                                81

Wednesday's Small Selections of Selections & Updates (profits) - 29 February

Well keeping it small worked for me yesterday!  Four selections produced two winners, a second and a zero and profit of +9.11 (152%).  

My nightly nap is Ring Bo Ree in the 14:00 at Southwell tomorrow.  Possibly not the best horse on paper in the four runner field  but he's a front runner with proven stamina for this distance which should make the difference at the the business end if the race turns into the match that would seem to be on the cards.  Milgen Bay has a doubt or two over the trip having never yet successfully seen it out. Another plus is the stable form -  Tom George is firing on all cylinders at the moment with 3 winners from 5 runners in the past week.   


Of course, I could have just given you an anagram clue for this:

"Robe Reign" or "Brine Ogre" but the best is "Beer Groin"  

Hmmm.....I read the two contenders races correctly but the owned, trained, ridden by a Cornwall horse That's The Deal ran a blinder to win the 14:00.  Nevertheless a good day to round off February with a +6.35 profit (70.55%)

	Southwell	First Choice	E/W or RF Choice
1	14:00	Ring Bo Ree 2nd

1/         Reasons (hopes and dreams!) above

	Bangor	First Choice	E/W or RF Choice
1	14:20	Definite Memories 1st
2	14:50	Storming Gale 1st
3	15:25	Big Easy 1st	Silver Gypsy (EW) UP (4th!)
4	16:25	Lord Crewe UP	Fentara (EW) 3rd

Notes:

1/           Native Beauty is the obvious danger but I’d be worried that this track doesn’t suit given his performance here LTO   

2/           Line drawn under his last run now that he’s back to a far more suitable distance and track

3/           Some familiar old names lining up here.  Big Easy hasn’t run on a sharp track so there’s no way of knowing (without seeing him!) if he’ll enjoy this course.  He’s only won in single figure fields before but on the plus side, he’s very lightly raced and Hobbs stable seem to have turned the corner after a long run without a winner so assuming he takes to the track, he should win.  I do rate Silver Gypsy as a contender now she’s back to a more suitable (longer) distance and grade.  She’s never been unplaced when teaming up with Jason Maguire and her form on sharp tracks reads 1-2-3-2 so an each way in order for me. 

It may seem a little like I'm on the Paddy Power payroll but they just happen to make the best ads to do with horseracing!  This sign went up for the 2010 - no planning permission and by the time the council were able to get an enforcement order through the Festival was over and it was superfluous anyway - nice work!  This was all relayed to me by our taxi driver Trevor so therefore it must be true :)

Monday 6 Days of Last Minute Panics Til Xmas Selections & Updates - 19 December

Another profitable day yesterday - the opener at Carlisle 
gave the blog selections a good start with King's Canyon winning at a very decent price.


Carlisle race course did so well to keep racing on yesterday - it helped that the weather turned a bit warmer but well done to them for running all their meetings in 2011 which was no mean feat when you think back to the snow and ice at the beginning of the year.


I hate it when a horse I'm on runs as badly as Royal Prospector did yesterday at Kempton.  I'm sure that something will be uncovered to explain this run as it was just too bad to believe.


Talking of Kempton, it's well worth watching out for any Pat Phelan horses (not just at Kempton) that are having an outing at the right trip having come down in the handicap but you need to get on early before the gamble does down!  If I spot any then I'll include them on my blog.


Now ...don't you think the tree on the right looks real???  

I'm hoping that Monday will keep up the momentum but it is a Monday after all so I'm under no illusions and it'll be small stakes for me.

	Bangor	First Choice	E/W or RF Choice
1	12:40	Canal Bank 2nd
2	13:40	Mighty Magnus UP
3	14:10	Rowan Tiger 1st	Doynasaur (EW) 3rd
4	14:40	Tisfreetdream (EW) UP
5	15:10	Ulis De Vassy 1st

	Plumpton	First Choice	E/W or RF Choice
1	12:30	Dark And Dangerous 1st
2	15:00	Ballyman (EW) UP
3	15:30	Snow Patrol (EW) 3rd

	Wolves	First Choice	E/W or RF Choice
1	14:50	Priors Gold UP	Herschel (EW) UP

Well I should have left the Wolves picks alone the total would be in profit (Monday at wolves - my only defence is that I only picked one race!!  As it is, -2.25 

Bangor 15:10

1st Ulis De Vassy

there was the original version with writhing girl but this Danny D remix is fat better to listen to!