Friday's Selections & Updates - 10 February

Well I wasn't wrong about the sea of blue that dominated Meydan yesterday (Thursday) with Godolphin filling 9 of the 18 places and Frankie not on a single winner!  Barzalona and De Sousa both scored doubles with Fallon (2nd week on the trot) and Soumillon both scoring one apiece.

This weather throws up some strange sights but if you watch Kempton at 17:25 you'll see Grade 1 Aintree Hurdle winner Oscar Whisky running 2 miles on all weather - now that is a strange sight!


The entire card comprises  of Jumpers Bumpers which will be fun to watch but is most definitely not a betting medium for me. 


I'll be back later with some Dundalk selections !

	Southwell	First Choice	E/W or RF Choice
1	13:20	Caledonia Prince (nap) 1st
2	14:25	Where’s Reiley 1st
3	15:00	Broughtons Bandit  2nd

3/             Magic Millie has a too much weight with the penalty for a hat trick in my opinion

	Dundalk	First Choice	E/W or RF Choice
1	17:50	Rigid Rock UP
2	18:50	Elwazeer 3rd	Iron Major (EW) UP (4th)
3	19:20	Prince Of Fire 2nd
4	20:20	Chebona Bula  2nd

	Wolves	First Choice	E/W or RF Choice
1	18:40	Blackstone Vegas (EW) UP
2	19:10	Queen Of Denmark 1st	Mazij (EW) 2nd
3	20:10	Clerical UP

3 good winners (which I had in a Lucky 15 with Blackstone Vegas) but alas as singles we are down -4.72

Caledonia Prince 1st
Southwell 13:20

Something to while away a few minutes at 16:50 on a Friday afternoon!

Student Who Obtained 0% In An Exam but didn’t get  any questions wrong!!

Q1.    In which battle did Napoleon die?

A.   His last battle

Q2.    Where was the Declaration of Independence signed?

A.   at the bottom of the page

Q3.    River Ravi flows in which state?

A.   liquid

Q4.    What it the main reason for divorce?

A.   marriage

Q5.    What is the main reason for failure?

A.   Exams

Q6.    What can you never eat for breakfast?

A.   lunch and dinner

Q7.    What looks like half an apple?

A.   The other half

Q8.    If you throw a red stone into the blue sea what will it become?

A.   It will simply become wet    

Q9.    How can a man go 8 days without sleeping?

A.   No problem, he sleeps at night

Q10.  How can you lift an elephant with one hand?

A.   You’ll never find an elephant that only has one hand

Q11. If you had three apples and four oranges in one hand and four apples and three oranges in the other hand, what would you have?

A.   Very large hands

Q12. If it took eight men ten hours to build a wall, how long would it take four men to build it?

A.   No time at all, the wall is already built

Q13.  How can you drop a raw egg on to a concrete floor without breaking it?

A.   Any way you want, concrete floors are very hard to break.

 Sleeps Left To Go     

Tuesday's Racing Selections & Results - 07 February

Well, Mondays reverted to type for me yesterday with not a winners but a decent priced each way 2nd in the last made it a little less painful!  


I shall put my lack of a winner at Wolves on Monday down to the fact that (1) my selections hadn't been eating up their carrots and (2) none of them were fitted with fog lights!  By the way, six of the eight winners on Monday were drawn mid-stalls (that's 75% of the winners from 20%of the stalls) so it'll be interesting to see if this is the case on Tuesday as well (due to the frost/snow/harrowing) or if it was just the foggy conditions that helped those in the centre. Middle draws today at Wolves are: 
Suddenly Susan (3rd), Jericho (1st) & Bond Style (2nd), Pipers Piping (2nd), Cuore (3rd = last), Dew Reward (4th= last), Salaaheb (last)


New name Darren Edward Egan scored a double on Monday.  He's riding for Ron Harris so working with and learning from Luke Morris is obviously having some good effect.  He's very good value for his 7lb claim and has already had a handful of winners in Ireland so watch out for him over the next few days.


Two AW meetings at Southwell and Wolves (again) to go at on Tuesday.  Contingency plans are being prepared at Kempton for Friday so that if the NH card has to be abandoned due to the weather then they will run a card of NH bumpers on the all weather. 

Well I put the selections for the first race in the wrong columns apparently but up they were!  Only the one winner but it was enough to make a +12.25 profit for the day- this we like :)

	Southwell	First Choice	E/W or RF Choice
1	14:15	Clareintheblood 3rd	Laura’s Bairn (EW) 1st
2	14:45	Argentine 2nd
3	15:45	Joe Le Taxi UP
4	16:45	Hunters Belt 2nd	Unex Picasso 3rd

Notes:

4/            It’s significant that Barry McHugh is on board Hunters Belt and not riding for Brian Ellison in this.  I think Unex Picasso is a threat though….if Unex is available at ew odds then I’ll back him otherwise I’ll have a saver (or rev forecast) !

Southwell 14:15
Clareintheblood (groan!)

3rd - the each way selection above won!!

Kie is also running in an all weather affair today (Wolves 16:00).  He was Ike anagram blog nap from Sunday.

Thursday's Thawing Selections & Updates - 02 February

An interesting stat (borrowed from the Guardian website yesterday/Tuesday) is that of the 14 winners from the November Cheltenham Open Meetings, none won at the Festival meeting and yet seven Festival winners had been beaten back at the Open meetings.  Now added to my to-do list is to watch carefully all the losers from this meeting before March!  In the overall scheme of things, this is not the worst job in the world!

Is it only me who thinks that Kempton on a Wednesday evening is getting more and more like Dundalk on a Friday night!  It used to be that you could find at least one form horse or favourite that would come home first but lately it has been a case of look at the draw (good?), look at the trainers (do they or their owners like an 'investment'?) then take a look at the jockey booking and try somehow to figure out if andhow the three components slot together. 


On the plus side, I managed to pick Emerald Royal and Ocean Legend for the Guardian Talking Horses comp (and for once backed my three picks in a trixie,the winning double partpaying a nice return).  The comp that the guys run every week day is good fun (with some fab prizes) and which I persistently keep chipping away at. To be honest, I have more chance of collecting a gold clock at the end of 50 years service than ever winning but I try !

Poor show today with just the two each way selections placing (that;ll teach me for picking some goddawful races to look at and then talking myself out of my topline!).  Even they shortened dramatically and the SPs were far less than were available at the time of posting. -2.45 today 

	Wolves	First Choice	E/W or RF Choice
1	15:20	Ad Vitam UP	Prickles (EW) 3rd

1/             Prickles may well have been my first choice if Derek Shaw had managed a winner amongst the 14 he’s sent out in the past fortnight.  My Mate Les the other worry but I think needs to come down in the weights a little first

	Clonmel	First Choice	E/W or RF Choice
1	13:40	Noble Pageant UP
2	14:10	Is Herself About F
3	15:10	Spring Wine UP	Up The Girls (EW) 2nd

Wolverhampton15:20

To be honest, the racing tomorrow isn't great and the tracks aren't anywhere near the top of my successful strike rate list (Wolves is best with 30.19%).  I'll put up one or two selections in the morning but will more productively spend my time looking forward to Fridays racing.

Thursday's "Only Two Days Left Til the Weekend" Selections & Updates including Meydan- 05 January

Hayley Turner was reunited with Rose Aurora yesterday and came away with her ankles intact this time.....but alas not a winner.  

Meydan Carnival has it's first meeting today (Thursday).  I enjoy the racing there and have followed it since the very first race (and have religiously kept my stats and draw bias records from it's inception).  It takes a couple of weeks to get a feel for it again but then I usually find that my selections for Meydan work well.
I love the fact that I can watch high quality racing in winter and still recognise the trainers' and jockeys' names! 

Just three winners today and a reminder that for the first 2-3 weeks of the Meydan Carnival, it's best to follow trainer and jockeys and not so much the form until things settle down !! 

	Sedgefield	First Choice	E/W or RF Choice
1	12:40	Saga De Tercey 2nd
2	13:10	Realt Mor 2nd
3	15:10	Hellfire Club F

Notes:

1/             I can imagine that Judiciary will struggle on soft

	Lingfield	First Choice	E/W or RF Choice
1	13:20	Brimham Boy UP
2	14:20	Rosoff 1st

	Ludlow	First Choice	E/W or RF Choice
1	13:30	Forty Five UP (3rd)
2	14:00	Credit Swap (EW)  UP
3	14:30	Alasi 1st	Jacalou (EW) UP

Notes:

1/            A previous nap when it was headed near the finish last time out – can make amends today 

2/            Good a Grams And Ounces is and even with the rider’s claim, too much weight!

3/            Just a niggling picky doubt over Alasi stable form recently (0 winners from 13 in past fortnight and nothing closer than 4L)

	Wolves	First Choice	E/W or RF Choice
1	16:40	Marcus Augustus 2nd

Notes:

1/            Jamie Spencer getting down to 8st 10lb for this ride.

	Meydan	First Choice	E/W or RF Choice
1	14:30	Capponi 2nd	Secretive UP
2	15:05	Honour System 1st
3	15:45	Mutayaser (EW) UP
4	16:20	Zero Money (EW) UP
5	17:00	Quick Wit UP	Canwinn (EW) UP (5th) Famous Warrior (EW) (4th)
6	17:35	St Moritz (EW) UP
7	18:15	Moran Gra (EW) UP	Regal Parade (EW) 2nd

Notes:

2/         I don’t think any winner on Tapeta at Meydan over 11f has ever been trained by anyone other than Suroor or Cumani – maybe once! 

3/         Dreadful race to try to work out but I’ve gone for something with a high draw here over a mile and the best of the bad bunch (IMO)

5/          I'm spreading myself about in this.  Start Right has been tipped up and has obvious claims but I don't like low draws over a mile on the tapeta here and think this may go to an bigger price so I'm on three (!)  Canwinn, Quick Wit and Famous Warrior - all e/w

6/         I can’t decide between Derbaas and Mahbooba and they’re too short to dutch so am on my 3^rd pick for e/w

Nightly Nap is Saga De Tercey in the fist (12:40) at Sedgefield tomorrow...there is no way on earth that I could give you a clue that would remotely give even an inkling of which horse I'd selected but I did learn that Tercey is a place in France to the West of Paris!!!!

More selections in the morning.....................

It's been 3 days since I started "measuring food" and I haven't mentioned it once (until now!).  All I shall say is that it's a good job that we no longer have a dog, that the cat we do have can jump high and the horses I study and watch can move very very fast.......if my selections all start having a similar food themed name, then I'm in trouble!