Thursday's Selections & Updates including Meydan - 16 February

Time spent just on selections today!!


Are Ya Right Chief was found to be "clinically abnormal" after his race.  I like this phrase very much and will use it where ever possible tomorrow (cat, children, myself etc).  


A pretty lousy day all things considered -18.80 but still leaving the blog picks in profit for the month by +27.58

	Clonmel	First Choice	E/W or RF Choice
1	14:05	Edeymi 1st
2	14:35	Bishopsfurze 1st
3	15:05	Back In Focus NR	Stephanie Kate (EW) 1st
4	15:40	Are Ya Right Chief UP
You may as well back all of Rubys four rides in a Lucky 15 or Yankee!
5	16:40	King Maker (EW) UP

1/            You’ll be looking at short short prices for these first two selections – multiple time!

2/            “ ditto “

3/            “ditto”but if BackIn Focus doesn’t cope with the track here then Stephanie Kate could take advantage

4/            “ditto”

5/            His last outing was the first for 14 months and he didn’t disgrace himself.  Can run into a place or better today.

	Leicester	First Choice	E/W or RF Choice
1	15:00	Galway Jack 2nd	Advertising Space (EW) UP
2	15:35	He’s Our Lad 3rd	Alpha Way (EW) UP
3	16:05	Drom (nap) 3rd

1/           Tom George has only had Advertising Space 3 weeks and he holds an entry to a class 4 chase so is obviously thought well of.  

	Meydan	First Choice	E/W or RF Choice
1	14:30	Man Of Action UP
2	15:05	Nationalism UP
3	15:45	Rerouted 3rd	Captain Obvious UP
4	16:20	Arriete Arrollador UP
5	16:55	Time Prisoner (EW)  UP
6	17:30	Quick Wit  UP	Al Shemali (EW)  3rd

Notes:

1/         Don’t believe any claims a low draw is an advantage over a mile on the tapeta track.  Not true!  Of 47 races, 16 (34.04%) winners came from the middle draw (20% stalls) and 21 (44.68%) came from a high draw (40% stalls). 

2/         9.5f on tapeta are all about the trainers record with 8 of the last 9 races being won by a runner trained by one of the three trainers in the race with the best strike rate here.  In this race they are Oertel, bin Suroor and al Zarooni.  There is no draw advantage of any consequence.

4/         Huge draw bias over 7f tapeta for low to mid stalls with only 27.03% (10 of 37) winning from high.  Prominent runners also have an advantage with hold up horses being disadvantaged.   

5/         Rio De La Plata and Master of Hounds both have an awful lot going for them but there are negatives there too …I’m going each way on Time Prisoner who is very well treated and has the credentials.

	Kempton	First Choice	E/W or RF Choice
1	17:45	Macy Anne UP
2	18:45	Time Square 3rd	Bilidn (EW) UP (4th)

Drom
Leicester 16:05 
3rd

It seems  that Wayne and Coleen Rooney have a name for their 2yo colt who is residing at Manor House with Tom Dascombe and hanging out with team  mate Michael Owens racehorses there.  It's been named Switcherooney (second choice name after Oceans Seven was found to be taken already!)

Thursday's Meydan Selections & Updates - 09 February

Well, I've dusted myself down after yesterdays big fail (I would call it 'debacle' but that isn't a word my kids would allowed me to use when there is a perfectly good word such as 'fail') and have got stuck in to the Meydan card where at least, we can be sure that racing will go ahead.....although there have been abandonments in the UAE because of sand storms before now!  I'll banish that thought and continue......

The first race tomorrow at Meydan is 11f on Tapeta.  Now up until a couple of weeks ago (06 Jan to be exact), this would bring me great joy because up to then only a Cumani or Bin Suroor trained runner had ever won over C&D.  Then bin Shafya had a  couple of winners ...then al Muhairi joined in so this makes a list of four trainers who have ever ever trained a winner at Meydan over 11f on tapeta.  Still, bin Suroor has by far the best success rate so his runners should be the first to look at and the last to discount - only trouble is, he has four in this first race tomorrow and you cannot rely on Frankie always choosing the right one- especially when the other three are ridden by Barzalona, Buick and De Sousa.  Just to add to the mix, Cumani sends Fiery Lad over and bin Shafya has Jamr running.


It's hard to know how well a horse will handle the Tapeta surface on his first run on it but previous Kempton form seems to transfer very well.  


There's some good quality racing at Meydan this week and an awful lot of blue silk about - even more than usual!


Here are my selections:

	Meydan	First Choice	E/W or RF Choice
1	15:05	Holberg UP
2	15:45	Kinglet 1st
3	16:20	Songcraft 1st
4	16:55	Bold Silvano UP	Derbaas (EW) UP (4th)
5	17:30	Prince Bishop  UP	Haatheq (EW) 2nd
6	18:05	Masteroftherolls 3rd	Club Oceanic (EW) UP

A couple of winners and a decent priced 2nd in Haatheq (Masteroftherolls could also have been backed at an each way price) made for a +2.63 profit

Today, my son is tootling off to London with college for a couple of day to see (amongst other things) Warhorse at the New London Theatre - I'll be interested to know how the stage show compares to the film.  I may of course never find out - have you ever tried to extract information from a teenage boy?  Nuff said.

February's First Friday Meydan Selections & Updates - 03 February

A handful of Dundalk selections added below with more to follow mid way through the evening.


If I were an England cricketer then I'd jack it in and head off to watch the racing at Meydan instead I think!


Meanwhile the cold snap has left this country's racing in disarray with little but the trusty old AW.......but if you think it's cold here then take a look at this vid of the snow racing in St. Moritz!  It's a promo film for Canon and is put together done so stylishly that you get a real feel for the power and the pure zero degreeness of it all. 


White Turf hits St Moritz this weekend with racing on Sunday 05 February.

Pah!  Down -7.13 today but on the plus side my (nightly) nap won !

	Dundalk	First Choice	E/W or RF Choice
1	17:50	Tsar Paul UP (4th)
2	18:20	Danick Of Time 1st
3	18:50	Kedlestone 1st
4	19:50	Naoise 1st

	Meydan	First Choice	E/W or RF Choice
1	11:00	Hujaylea UP	Dandy Boy (EW) UP
2	11:35	Ip Man UP	Bible Black (EW) UP
3	12:10	Gamilati 1st
4	12:45	Humidor  UP	Green Beret (EW) UP
5	13:25	Alo Pura 3rd
6	14:00	Averroes 2nd	Astral Thunder (EW)

1/             Zanzamar is  top of my list buthaving his first race since joint surgery. Looking for an alternative, I am torn between Hujaylea and Dandy Boy (of whom big things are expected)

2/             Ip Man must surely follow up from his earlier win here a fortnight ago but that was on tapeta and this is turf so I’m also going each way on Bible Black with a nice draw and Ryan Moore booked.

3/             Gamilati is my Meydan nap today and should love the step up to a mile.  Pimpernel will be the threat but may just need the race.

4/             Humidor should take this. I can see no obvious reason that Nocturnal Affair shouldn’t have won LTO and conditions are almost identical (he runs better fresh so the lack of recent race wasn’t an issue).  Green Beret is my each way pick – although Al Raihe stable has a enviable record here, they’re not yet churning out the winners in volume yet which should soon change.

5/             Captain Obvious has a worse draw than for his last C&D win LTO and if Buick can manage not to get stuck on the rail with Alo Pura (who is a course record holder) then he should get revenge today.  You usually would look for a horse that likes to race prominently here over the 6f distance on tapeta but I make an exception for Alo Pura as he has won with his hold up style over C&D in the past.

6/             Fox Hunt 1st would seem the obvious pick and is sure to be a short priced favourite but in the past he’s always needed a run after being off track so long so I am not entirely convinced (especially at the likely price!) He has changed stables which might make a difference but there’s still a big question mark in my mind.I found this the most difficult race to figure out but in the end opted for hold up merchant Averroes with proven stamina and Astral Thunder who may take advantage of being one of the  only two prominent racers (the other is Fox Hunt drawn the other side) and now Fallon has his mojo back with last week's win, could box clever.

Just a quick addendum for the record!  My top line picks (as in total scores based purely on compiled stats) for Meydan are:  

11:00 Zanzamar 12th

11:35 Bible Black 6th

12:10 Gamileti 1st

12:45 Humidor 12th

13:25 Captain Obvious 4th

14:00 Fox Hunt 1st

Nightly Nap is at a track that will definitely be going ahead, Dundalk !  This one runs in the 19:50 and since its the end of a tiring week, this isn't so much a clue as a bunch of lads telling you it's name (and no doubt squirming with embarrassment if they ever remember that they uploaded this video four years ago hehe)

19:50  Dundalk


Naoise 1st

12:10 Meydan