Saturday's Selections & Updates (Profits) - 07 April

I cannot believe that Ferdy Murphy has not installed Lucy Alexander as stable jock! I know she has yet to ride out her claim and I suppose there is the possibility that she wants to keep her options open but she has been riding out ofher skin for him (and other trainers) and I have this sneaking suspicion that Ferdy might prefer a fella in the role, hence (equally proficient I hasten to add) James Reveley stepping into the job from outside.

Musselburgh 1mile races - 20 of the last 33 winners have come from a bottom draw 
(looks good for Switzerland in the 15:50 especially with Joe Fanning's  29% strike rate here in 3yo races!)

Ruby at Haydock for just one ride today?  Pasco in the 15:30 .....Hmmmm!

Nightly nap is a horse that I had made a note that it might prefer a left handed course because of it's tendency to jump markedly in that direction....then he promptly won at right handed Carlisle where he runs again tomorrow in the 14:15

Dartford Warbler

Carlisle 14:15

1st

A couple of winners, a couple of places and a profit of +3.31 and finally (well it seems an age!) a nap winner

	Carlisle	First Choice	E/W or Forecast Choice
1	14:15	Dartford Warbler 1st
2	14:50	Degas Art 1st

	Haydock	First Choice	E/W or RF Choice
1	15:30	Gansey (EW) 3rd

	Musselburgh	First Choice	E/W or Forecast Choice
1	15:50	Switzerland UP

	Kempton	First Choice	E/W or Forecast Choice
1	13:35	Marvelino (EW) 2nd
2	16:20	Mehdi UP
3	16:55	Galicean UP

If you're looking for help finding the winner of the Grand National next Saturday, you could do worse than getting help like this old dear (oh yeah?).  Paddy Power have done it again !

Don't forget to check out today's badASS racing picks at http://speedyequines.blogspot.co.uk/

Thursday - 22 March Selections & Updates

Amron Lad was the stand out of the meeting for me yesterday at Haydock - he travelled and jumped beautifully and looked to me every inch a future Cheltenham Festival winner. 
Disappointments abounded with Bold Sir Brian, Star In Flight and Good Order all out of the places.....there were a few selections that looked to have the race won after the final fence/hurdle only to be mugged.  Funny old track, Haydock! 

I must give special mention to the catering in the Horseshoe suite - their incredible "goats cheese and red pepper baguette" (Mmmmmm!)  which contained aubergine, courgette, a strip of yellow pepper, a strip of green pepper and a huge amount of invisible red pepper!  Perhaps it was an audacious bluff .....or maybe the red pepper was withdrawn before coming under starters orders.  

	Carlisle	First Choice	E/W or Forecast Choice
1	15:00	Wilde Pastures UP	Dartford Warbler (EW) 1st
2	15:30	Wood Yer UP
3	16:40	The Starboard Bow UP
4	17:10	Man Of Principles UP

Notes:

1/            Dartford Warbler should improve for the move to Sue Smiths but has a tendency to jump left.

	Chepstow	First Choice	E/W or RF Choice
1	15:45	Relax 2nd

	Fontwell	First Choice	E/W or RF Choice
1	16:30	Bon Spiel UP

	Kempton	First Choice	E/W or RF Choice
1	19:30	Shirataki UP
2	20:00	Pearl Frost UP

Very disappointing nap but at least Sue Smith has managed to teach Dartford Warbler how not to jump to the left!  A small loss of -0.41 today.

My nightly nap for tomorrow is running at Kempton in the 19:30:

Shirataki 
Kempton 19:30
UP (6th)
And if you think that picture looks scrummy then you can get the recipe here

 

Monday's Selections & Results - 20 February

The news that Richard Hills is to retire after Dubai World Cup night has sent the rumour mill into over drive with various names being put forward as his replacement as retained jockey for Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum.  Several bookies have suspended betting on this market with Silvestre de Sousa being the resounding favourite.  It would make sense as he has been riding brilliantly in Dubai this winter and is currently leading jockey at the Meydan Carnival...I would be tempted to hang fire though as I'm not so sure how easy it would be to extricate yourself from that position if Godolphin came a knocking but I've a feeling that a certain Monsieur Barzalona may be topping their wish list!.

Switcherooney, the Rooney's first racehorse now has it's own Twitter account @switcherooney is the name you'll find him under....I think this is incredible!  How on earth has a horse learned to type and use a computer?...........he's only 2 years old !

My 'lucky glasses' were not so clever at finding winners on Sunday with just the one amongst my selections (Cross The Flags). 


I shan't be blaming the going reports for Sundays dearth of winners though...this is a major bugbear of mine and I find that the RP website are the slowest/worst to update their going reports.  The Sporting Life are marginally better but for certain courses (Haydock being amongst them) it is nigh on impossible to find an accurate going description for unless you (1) are there (2) have the mobile number of someone who is there or (3) are blessed with a terrier like reporter who is posting live updates from the course and takes the time to ask the jockeys for their opinions.  
UPDATE:  RP currently giving Carlisle as soft but the jocks are all saying it's heavy
Well it certainly makes for more of a challenge when picking a winner!

At noon the going was good, a touch of rain saw this changed to good to soft then after the first race, officials decided to change this to soft (heavy in places).  After the final race 'it' was most definitely heavy...'it' being the bookies pockets.

A total whitewash of a day with some of the most frustrating results and even my nap only managed 3rd.  Just 4 favourites in 14 races won which about sums it up!  A typical Monday (will I ever learn?) and down -9.19

	Carlisle	First Choice	E/W or RF Choice
1	14:00	South Leinster UP (4th)	Tiger Maguire (EW) 3rd
2	14:30	Overyou UP (3rd)
3	15:05	High Ransom(EW)UP(4th)
4	16:10	Et Maintenant (nap) 3rd	Take Over Sivola (EW) UP
5	16:45	Diamond D’Amour UP

1/         Crowning Jewel is the fav but this course demands big stamina and I don’t see this in him (I could be wrong of course!) and so I’ve opted for the other extreme, South Leinster.  He should run a better race this time out with stronger handling but his tendency to fight for the bit may be a positive over this sharper trip and we could see him make all!  Tiger Maguire will appreciate this stiff course and with stable jockey namesake taking over the ride, he can get a place.

3/         This will be an interesting race (which equates to keeping most of my £££s in my pocket!).  I can find negatives for most of the runners here and will plump for High Ransom who showed some stamina promise in his penultimate outing. 7lb claimer up but he knows him well.

4/         I can see no reason that El Maintenant shouldn’t confirm his form over Playing The Field (he even has a 1lb pull in the weights) and sooner or later, Take Over Sivola will click on English soil like he did in France where he showed some good form.     

	Wolves	First Choice	E/W or RF Choice
1	16:25	Strong Vigilance  UP
2	17:00	Al Freej UP
3	18:00	July Days UP

My nightly nap is running in the 16:10 Carlisle ...and apparently the French version f this song came first so I can't make any cracks about being them pinching our tunes (we'll not mention Bizet, Delibes, Debussy....!)

Et Maintenant


Carlisle 16:10

                           

Sleeps To Go........