Monday's Easter Holiday Blog & Updates (Profits) - 09 April

No more chocolate or Fairyhouse selections for me today....neither agree with me it would appear (I'll make an exception for the Irish National today of course!)  It would seem from yesterday's results that the best way to find a winner at Fairyhouse is to ignore the form and just look for what is being backed in the morning!  

Nine meetings today and we'll all be like kids in a toy and sweet shop - not knowing which way to turn.  I shall be concentrating on Huntingdon primarily as my strike rate there is a tasty 40.51% - selections up in the morning.

Six of Monday's meetings are available to watch free on At The Races with three only on RUK.  I knew there was a reason I cancelled my £20 a month subscription some while back!  Sorry RUK, but that really is way too expensive.

I was working away earlier on a tissue when I typed "perv huddled" instead of "prev hurdled".....much to the amusement of my daughter.  So everyone, rule #1 for novice hurdles is now that the selection must have been perv huddled!

Mikael Barzalona  - yesterday Longchamp today............Yarmouth!

My nightly nap has appeared on this blog before...and came 2nd.  He's dropping a class today,  has had a short break and running back at a more suitable (galloping) track, Huntingdon where he has raced twice in the past resulting in a win and a second:

Cry of Freedom

Huntingdon 16:05
2nd

Not at all bad a day with profits of +4.34 (+48.22%)

	Chepstow	First Choice	E/W or Forecast Choice
1	14:15	Black Thunder 1st
2	16:00	Take Of Shoc’s 1st
3	16:35	Pantxoa UP

	Plumpton	First Choice	E/W or RF Choice
1	14:30	Greyfriar’s Drummer 1st

	Huntingdon	First Choice	E/W or Forecast Choice
1	14:20	Henry Hook 2nd
2	16:05	Cry Of Freedom 2nd
3	16:40	The Falklander UP

	Fakenham	First Choice	E/W or Forecast Choice
1	16:25	Emperor’s Choice 1st
2	17:00	Earth Dream 1st

Back to the one and only Fairyhouse race I'll be looking at today (fallen out and sulking after yesterday's abysmal results!).  The Irish National.  Having spent quite some time looking, searching, checking, researching etc, I really quite like the look of Four CommanderS.  Although he's never been around Fairyhouse before, his form at Thurles and Down Patrick shows that he has no problem with right handed (wouldn't be much of an Irish racehorse if he did!).  Certainly the distance won't phase him given his decent third over further at the Cheltenham Festival in the NH Chase.... and herein lies the question mark - whether he's had enough recovery time after such a marathon?  A couple of others that made my shortlist are Cross Appeal (slight concern over stamina especially since he's a flat bred horse) and Alfie Sherrin (stable going through an unaccustomed cold spell and AP has jumped ship to Groody Hill - although that one could do with the heavens opening overnight).  Finally Aigle D'Or got a lot of my perusals and time spent on it.  He's fairly versatile going-wise and although he was behind a couple of these lto (Cross Appeal, Groody Hill) the step up in trip should suit and the Henderson/Geraghty combo isn't often found with odds of 22/1 to be had!  

Bearing in mind that the majority of bookies are paying 1/4 odds on the first five (hang your heads in shame Hills, Coral, Ladbrokes, Betfred), I shall be a National tart and spread myself about these selections (each way):

1. Four Commander UP
2. Cross Appeal  UP
3. Alfie Sherrin 3rd 
4. Aigle D'Or  UP

Monday's Selections & Results - 27 February

You know it's nearly Spring when the first race of the day is after 2pm as it is on Monday!  


Three winners at Towcester yesterday for the blog!  Towcester is more like Cheltenham than Cheltenham is.......in that you need form over further unless there's proven C&D on offer.  Having said that though, it seems that it may be only during the Festival when this applies at Cheltenham.  A certain extremely clever horseracing 'investor' researched this in depth, proved the figures and came to the conclusion that it's the adrenalin pumping through the jockey during the Festival that has them setting sail for home too early and hence more stamina required! Which must mean that Ruby is ice cool! 


Plumpton (30.88%) and Wolves (29.78%) today - selections will be a little less profuse (I'll be going for quality over quantity!) over the next fortnight as my 'time management plan' (yeah, right!) kicks in and I step up the CheltFest research.

I may make Mondays my day off!  Just the one winner and some unexpected results - even the gamble on On Khee didn't come off!  The 15:00 race was one of the most inexplicable I've ever seen when Joe Fanning just stopped riding in the last 1/2 furlong when seemingly still in contention - perhaps he'd used all of his whip allowance?!

Unfortunately, a (becoming) typical Monday's end result of -6.88.  The good new is that February is still showing a profit!

	Wolves	First Choice	E/W or RF Choice
1	14:30	Kylladdie 2nd
2	15:00	Steelcut 2nd

	Plumpton	First Choice	E/W or RF Choice
1	14:45	How’s Business 1st
2	16:15	Songsmith PU	Where’s Johnny (EW) UP
3	17:15	Honeycreeper (EW) UP

Putting this blog together this evening has had me and the family in tears of laughter so stick with it right to the end...........

The hint for the nightly nap comes from the failed software that Microsoft released a couple of years ago.   It generates a  musical backing to accompany the singer's voice ...firstly, here's the (genuine) promo commercial for it (cringe alert - you have been warned!)

Of course, some people found way way better (and funnier) uses for it!  This one of the best.

Songsmith

Plumpton

16:15

In case you haven't seen it and before it's removed from everywhere (some humourless moaners have complained about this can you believe?), I thought I'd better put this Paddy Power ad up - it's brilliant!

Mondays Maybe Selections & Updates - 16 January

A fantastic weekend to help boost the broken car and Cheltenham coffers - both Saturday and Sunday saw returns of over 100% profit bringing the running total for January to +73.57.  

I'm not expecting a repeat performance for Monday though as these are notoriously a difficult day to find a winner but I will be putting up a handful of selections in the morning.  Plumpton and Wolverhampton are on the menu.....and Plumpton isn't inspecting as far as I know!!

I have a feeling that there may be some "I didn't see that coming" winners today so I'm keeping to small stakes and hoping that one or two of them may be on the list below!

And they were!  A healthy profit of +11.65 today (106%)

	Plumpton	First Choice	E/W or RF Choice
1	13:10	Henry San (nap) 1st
2	13:40	Owen Glendower NR
3	14:10	She’s Humble 1st
4	14:40	Lady Kathleen F	Thymeless (EW) NR
5	15:10	Niceonefrankie 1st	Alldunnandusted (EW) 2nd
6	15:40	El Diego (EW) UP
7	16:10	Where’sJohnny(EW)2nd

Notes:

2/            Although on stats alone, the pick would be Chariot Charger so I’m not going in big on this!

3/           It might be telling that Wosayu is making his chase debut in this race and not the novice chase previously.

4/            Lady Kathleen is the form horse here but has to carry an extra stone than LTO.  Thymeless is better than his last effort and could make the frame at a big enough price.

5/            Now here’s a penalty that should be manageable ….a small e/w saver on Alldunnandusted in case!

6/            There seems to be a huge gamble underway  on Amazing Valour (just so you know!)

7/            Where’s Johnny will have been laid out for this after winning last year.  Double Handful is the likely winner 1st but a silly price so I’ve looked for a decent e/w for the place and you never know what can happen!

	Wolves	First Choice	E/W or RF Choice
1	14:25	Bawaardi 1st

Plumpton 13:10

It's a crying shame that Will Kennedy has landed a ban and fined his % from his ride aboard Swincombe Flame in the Lanzarote hurdle at Kempton on Saturday.  He wasn't the only one this weekend though:  Kielan Woods (Strongbows Legend), Paul Maloney (Lucaindubai) and Andrew Glassonbury (Ambion Wood) were also handed whip bans over the weekend.  These whip bans seem to be getting nicely swept under the carpet by the BHA and the media lately.  Quite a few jocks tweeted their disgust at WKs ban for such a great ride and it's obviously not being forgotten about.  As one said, it would have been better (financially) to put the whip away and settle for second.....yet another said that he did just that (on an odds on shot last week).... "I would have won 2.20 in Huntingdon with one more smack - 1/4 Fav"  Nice one BHA!

Kieren Fallon was back in the UK to ride this weekend ....change that to 'ride on Saturday'.  He was 'ill' for his 3 rides on Sunday.  Perhaps he's been helping Kirsty test drive her new car (damn, I wish I could all but lose my livelihood for two years yet still buy a new car a month later - it obviously pays well !)