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Saturday 26 October 2013

The Bet Through The Racing Post Mobile App Handicap.



This Class 2 event throws up the usual mix of horses for a Saturday afternoon, there was a 6f race here yesterday but having viewed it I don't think it made any difference as to were you were drawn it just happened to be that Spinatrix led this side of the group, the whole field coming down the middle of the track.
The going  appears to be very soft and as we know you need everything in your favour to win one of these sprints so previous winning form on soft is probably a must and in that case we need to look to the likes of the Irish challenger An Saighdur, Ballesteros, Free Zone, Jamaican Bolt, Judge 'N Jury, Kyleakin Lass, Pearl Blue, Steps and Take Cover.
The booking of JohnnyMurtagh for the latter is a positive as the horse is lightly raced and open to further improvement and Murtagh could be the man to extract that. The horse won well last time at York over the distance and beat several of his rivals, he is locally trained and his trainer is expecting a big run and although he is fav he seems to have a lot in his favour.
Jamaican Bolt hasn't had much racing this year but he now has his ground and having been second in this last year he is an ew alternative to Take Cover.

Wednesday 9 October 2013

Sprint News


Not done much blogging lately on this subject and there have been a few things happening.
Society Rock is to take up stud duties at Tally Ho Stud in County Westmeath for 2014 whilst Lethal Force will head for Cheveley Park Stud so the sprint division will be down two stars next season. Hopefully though we will see their offspring before too long on the racecourse.

A couple of weeks ago we had the Ayr Gold Cup and last weekend was of course the Prix De L'Abbaye won by soft ground lover Maarek. The son of Pivotal has been a consistent performer for a few seasons now and deserved this Group 1 win.

Tropics well and truly put himself back on the sprint map after his poor run at Ayr when winning the Group 3 John Guest Bengough Stakes at Ascot by 3 1/2 lengths and he will now be roughed off for the year and will look to step up to Group 1 company next season.

"He'll be rested now, he actually left this morning to go to Graham Thorner's yard for three months just to give him a break from our place. It will do him good to be in a different environment. Part of me would have liked to have run him as he's just won a Group race convincingly but I don't think he likes big fields. Whether that is because we only take him out in a small string here I'm not sure. He put up a Group One performance in my eyes, but it took a lot out of him. I feel he'll be a better horse next year and he'll start off in a Listed race at Doncaster on the first day of the season (Cammidge Trophy). His main aim will be the Diamond Jubilee (at Royal Ascot) and he'll have one or maybe two runs before that, then it will be on to the July Cup and we'll see where we are at. There's so much to look forward to with him."


I'm having a holiday in Norfolk next week and will be heading to the sales at Newmarket. I won't be buying anything mind just having a look round and taking in the atmosphere, maybe one day though !