Daily Racing Thread Saturday 4th. May 2019

Kick On ran pretty well in the Guineas so I will have a go at Walkinthesand in the 4.50 Newmarket. UAE Jewel could be anything but Walkinthesand ran Kick On to a neck when 14/1 and unfancied, so any improvement from there will ask a decent question of the Varian colt today. 2/1 looked a bit big for the Hannon horse.

4.50 Newmarket Walkinthesand 2/1

 

Love it. Me nan used to say that, being north Yorkshire folk. Congratulations on the win.
She might say now, 'well, you could knock me down with a feather'

 

Probably would not have bothered the first two home, but I would still like to have seen the filly Surin run in that 4:25 Punchestown race, but she was withdrawn, unfortunately. Still, could be a pretty useful NH mare next season?

 

Old boy Henderson had a decent week this side of the pond, normally stays over in Jesse's gaff, I'm sure he was well fed and plied with red wine.

 

That's the old jumps campaign wrapped up then, wasn't the best season in terms of quality but still more exciting than the flat will be!!

 

As I feared this turned out to be a messy race. It was devoid of pace - the time was almost 6 seconds slow,which meant that the winner and the second raced keenly Egan did the right thing by taking up the running about 3 furlongs out,and UAE jewel was ridden out for a 3 quarters of a length win. There was still signs of greenness when Egan asked for an effort. There is a Dante entry in a fortnight which may be an option,but with the Derby just a fortnight later it is probable that Varian will give it a swerve. The bookmakers are scratching their heads 20/1 being the longest price and 12/1 the shortest.

 

Improbable for the kentucky tonight for me!

 

Vekoma 14/1 for me tonight in the Kentucky Derby

 

as expected

 

Does anyone know a free streaming site where I can watch the Churchill downs derby card

 

as if he didn’t know

 

I thought Walkinthesand just looked pretty slow, it seemed to take him forever to pick up. In the end it was closer than the odds suggested and at 11/4 the Hannon horse at least made a go of it when the market drift suggested otherwise.

I felt UAE Jewel had to go out and thrash his field to be a Derby horse. The Dante and Derby would be a big ask now and to be honest I would swerve the Derby myself because I wouldn't be sure he will improve as much as necessary and I would have doubts he really wants 12F. I would tend to be thinking about leaving him for one of the 10F contests later in the season, when he has grown up a bit more and has perhaps improved more in the interim. Lots of colts have been set back by meeting Epsom as inexperienced horses.

 

Is the calendar working backwards this year?

When I went to Newmarket for the Craven meeting in April, it was shirt-sleeve weather.

When I arrived today, sitting in the car it was blue skies and a few white fluffy clouds. I opened the car door to be met by a freezing breeze. Okay, so put the coat on and go in the course.

Some rather grey clouds then came along and there was a heavy shower. Then a little later there was another shower. As the afternoon progressed, there were a couple of hailstone showers too. After the second race, they changed the going to Good all-round.

Quite frankly, this seemed more like the weather that one might expect in March at Cheltenham, not May at Newmarket.

Just to add to the feeling that someone had it in for me, I watched horse number one win the second, third and fifth races while the number one that I wanted to win in the fourth race went missing in action.

 

I think that this may turn out to be a very ordinary 2000 Guineas. I have no idea what the rest of them were doing as it was quite clear at halfway that the three on the stands rail were in front and most of the pacesetters in the group in the middle did not seem to be travelling easily. Well done to Donnacha for continuing his 100 per cent record in the race – last year Ryan cleared off and left him the ride and this year he chose the unbeaten sprinter.

I guess you already know that O’Brien stated after the race that they were inclined to stick to a mile with Magna Grecia. Perhaps they are hoping that Too Darn Hot will step up to middle distances so they can Hoover up the mile races. Ballydoyle have plenty of other Derby ammunition (theoretically) so I can only see him showing up at Epsom if they have no obvious contender and it looks open.

 

I listened in on David Egan’s comments as UAE Jewel was led in. He said the race was run at a crawl that did not suit his horse so he was forced to commit for home early. I am not sure what he was expecting in a four runner race. Did he think that the Johnston horse was going to go off like a scalded cat and set the race up?

I asked the horse’s groom later on about where they would go next and he thought the trainer had a Derby trial in mind but he clearly had not been told which one by his boss!

I do think that this one looks like a very promising prospect. He won the Wood Ditton quite readily and that frequently throws up a few decent horses as well as the winner. Clearly much is expected as he has gone off odds-on for both his starts but he is nowhere near paying off his 400,000 price tag yet.

 

Maximum Security for me in Kentucky, made all last time and stayed on strongly, joint top rated on RPR. 7/1 for a fiver.

 

I'm watching it on Sky Sport Racing Channel 415

 

Squid-Dubai-Racing

Three simple words in a search engine can sometimes work wonders.

 

What a disgusting track. Was that a beach after the tide went out?