Marvelous footage Cyc; great start to the sport on TV this Sunday. Currently watching 'my' team, Racing 92, leading at half time away to Leicester in the European Champion's League Also the 'Wee Tims' from Leith are stuffing (2 - 0) the 'Big Tims' from Glasgow; my Hi-Bees mates will be gearing up for a night on the tiles!
I read that it was a pretty scrappy game Kenny. I suppose England should beat them in a couple of weeks, but the French will be at home, so who knows. I'd love to see Scotland do well, but I'm still with Eddie's lads. The Irish have to be hard to beat, and the Welsh can be anything... **** one week, brilliant the next. I'm no chance of keeling over any time soon, but I hope Scotland can finally crack the 6 Nations before I kiss off.
I doubt Scotland will ever have enough of a player pool to compete with France, England, Ireland or Wales. Should move from solely New Zealand to Australia, South Africa and the South Sea Islands to check if any sperm has been carelessly spread around these lands! 'We' will always suffer in our away matches. It was however cheering to see Finn Russell have a great game for Racing 92 today. I suspect the Irish will repeat last year's performance in the 'Six Nations'.
Ready Cash, the two time winner of the Prix d'Amerique is proving to be some kind of stallion. He's the only horse to produce an offspring (Bold Eagle) who was able to emulate the deed of his dad. Bold Eagle has also finished second and fourth in the event. No other horse in the history of the sport has won as many Group races as Bold Eagle. (About 30 from memory.) The 3, 4 & 5 year old championships have all been won at one time or another by the sons and daughters of Ready Cash. He just keeps pumping out quality stock. Another went around last Sunday. Hot off the back of a big win in the G1 European 3 yo Championships last October, the exciting Face Time Bourbon made it back to back G1 wins in taking out the 2700m French 3 Year Old Championships at Vincennes. What a flogging. No 12. Yellow and Green. Starts 4 from the outside. https://www.letrot.com/fr/replay-courses/2018-12-16/7500/4
Black Tarquin's St. Leger win at Doncaster in 1948. King George VI gets in a ciggy mid race. The winner sits 3 deep and 3 back. White with dark spots. Dark cap. No 12 and ridden by Edgar Britt.
Last Saturday night the Final of the Australasian Trotting Inter Dominion took place in Victoria. Again, the final field was made up of qualifiers who earned their spots from 3 nights of racing over 15 days. The favourite going into the race was the tall, bold striding Tornado Valley, the winner of 16 of his last 18 races.
Cheers for that Cyc. The first afghan hound we ever bred, we called Kalahari (our affix) Black Tarquin. I was a complete novice but we qualified for Crufts in an entry of 42 as a puppy. He only got 4th at Crufts but it was our first visit to Crufts. In fact another reason I remember it was, the day before I was told by the doctor I couldn't go to Crufts because my back was so bad. But I wasn't going to miss that. The strange thing was, the minute I entered the ring with my puppy, my back pain disappeared. It reappeared as soon as the class finished. I was such a novice I didn't even realise I could park at Crufts (then in London) and I parked about a mile + away and walked in. That didn't do my back any good either . Happy days
The second last qualifying race for the G1 Grand Prix d' Amerique was run a couple of weeks ago. The G1 Grand Prix De Bourgogne brought together Bold Eagle (No8) and Readily Express No( 6), two of the best totters on the planet. Last year's Prix d' Amerique winner Readily Express stated second favourite behind the 2016 and 2017 winner Bold Eagle. Bold Eagle hasn't been at his best this campaign, but this win marks a return to form for the champion. It was a cracking drive by Nivard. Bold Eagle wins the start, but is eventually crossed by Readily Express.
Just heard a French gentleman on Sky Sports Racing talking about today's trotting from Vincennes. To all my friends who visit Paris for the flat or the jumps or, in fact anybody who likes a good night out in the French capital, I would recommend a visit to Vincennes. Forget that you know 'zip' about trotting or the form of the participants this is the racing of the real punters of Paris. If you have ever stumbled into a 'local' brasserie offering PMU punting on the horses imagine this on a grand scale where large groups of 'worthies' seem to know each other and continually argue before, during and after each race; it is f****n' brilliant! Great facilities with grub'n'booze at very reasonable prices. Go,go,go!
The sport is huge in France. There are 7,000 gallop races per year in France. (68% flat and 32% jumps.) There are 11,000 trot races.
I had two great evenings at Vincennes with my Mum. Also visited Daglfing (SH's home track) in Munich many times; this wee gem remains the 'home' of the finest race track grub I have ever tasted! The atmosphere was great and my Mum became instant friends with the family with whom we shared our table and benches.
Today in Hong Kong, the G1 Stewards Cupwas run and won by the 1-10 favourite Beauty Generation. He's some sort of horse. Te 200m sectionals just got faster and faster. 24:73, 23:17, 22:92 & 22:69. 1:33:51 for the 1600m. N01 in the Pink & Black.
This is the World's highest rated miler. Didn't recognise the sire or dam so had a look at the pedigree. 3 generations back we have Royal Academy on the dam side and Fairy King on the sire side (so obviously Nijinsky and Northern Dancer respectively one generation further back). But one further generation back and there are more familiar names on the sire side;Nearctic, Star Appeal, Mr Prospector (twice), Ribot, St Paddy and Sun Prince
With these Antipodean breds it had been the custom to see the bottom-half of the pedigree to be full of AUS and NZ mares and the top-half to be (especially one generation back) half-full of mainly European sires. We are seeing this being left behind and we are now living in a time of change. Sure globalism has created some of this through the shuttling of sires but Australia (especially) is now developing excellent sires and supplying a good helping of these sires to us today. The world shifts. Don't often see Sun Prince in a pedigree! He was Dick Hern's first Group 1 winner (Prix Robert Papin) for Sobell and Weinstock (Ballymacoll). and achieved the rare feat of winning different races (Coventry, James Palace and Queen Anne) at three consecutive Royal Ascots.
The world's premier mounted trot race, the Prix de Cornulier was contested at Vincennes last weekend. Last year's winner Traders set a torrid pace which in the end played into the hands of Bilibli, the third placed horse in the last two renewals of the event. Biliblii is in the green and white stripes. No14. Bilibili set a mounted course record. He also matched the fastest time set by an Grand Prix of America victor.
The field for the $9,000,000 Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes (G1) is to be run at Gulfstream Park this weekend. According to the online pundits, it's a race in two. Accelerate at 9-5 just holds sway over City Of Light at 5-2. 1. BRAVAZO. 12-1. 2. SOMETHING AWESOME. 20-1. 3. CITY OF LIGHT. 5-2. 4. SEEKING THE SOUL. 12-1. 5. ACCELERATE. 9-5. 6. TOM'S d' ETAT. 20-1. 7. TRUE TIMBER. 30-1. 8. GUNNEVERA. 8-1. 9. KUKULKAN. 30-1. 10. AUDIBLE. 10-1. 11. IMPERATIVE. 30-1. 12. PATTERNRECOGNITION. 10-1.
This arvo, the premier trotting race on the planet, the G1 Grand Prix Amerique, run over the 2700m trip will be run at Vincennes. Last year's winner Readily Express returns to defend his title. Bold Eagle, the winner of the previous two renewals also takes his place in the field. The old warrior Lionel, along with Bird Parker, Propulsion, Belina Josselyn and Traders come into the race with solid chances. 1. 27710. LOOKING SUPERB. 50-1. 2. 09192. BAHIA QUESNOT. 100-1. 3. 50214. ERIDAN. 66-1. 4. 13129. DAVIDSON DU PONT. 16-1. 5. 12188. DELIA DU POMMEREUX. 28-1. 6. 20900. CHARLY DU NOYER. 250-1. 7. 1x1x1. URLO DEI VENTI. 50-1. 8. 50736. UZA JOSSELYN. 66-1. 9. 25443. CARAT WILLIAMS. 40-1. 10. 38040. VALKO JENILAT. 150-1. 11. 11822. TRADERS. 66-1. 12. 60260. BELINA JOSSELYN. 11-4. 13. 1962x. LIONEL. 50-1. 14. 12807. BILLIE DE MONFORT. 150-1. 15. 31x25. READILY EXPRESS. 5-2. 16. x3381. BIRD PARKER. 16-1. 17. 11x32. PROPULSION. 11-2. 18. x1461. BOLD EAGLE. 11-4.
