Sunday's Meetings Nottingham Flat 8 Races 1:15-5:10p.m. Curragh Flat 8 Races 1:30-5:30p.m. Fakenham N/H 7 Races 1:55-5:20p.m. Racecards At The Races Racing Post Sporting Life Place a bet in the Virtual Betting shop here Good Luck
Far from Curragh great race today at Auteuil, the Grand Steeplechase De Paris - Grade 1, 3m 5f with more than 500.000 euros for the winner. All French horses (Ajas among them with Rachel Blackmore) except Lord Du Mesnil.
Morning all, going to have lazy days betting with all my selections having many 1's in their form. Will also see if Grendel has a write up on probably 2 of my selected races. At the Curragh I fancy 2, both ridden by R. Moore which is one jockey I don't particularly like but he could actually have a good day today. 2.40 BROOME. 3/3 so far 6/5. 3.15 JOAN OF ARC. Current fav will be hard to beat but this one will be race fit and is 2/3. Think will go very close 11/4. At Nottingham, 3.30 MUSTARRID 7/1. This one is currently 2/2 over c/d and has soft conditions to add. Has had a recent run so I'm hoping this one is one of those horses for courses. Finally there are many at Fontwell with several 1's in their form and I'm interested in these 3. 1.55 TOMMIE BEAU 15/8 4.10 DILIGENT 5/2 5.20 BEGIN THE LUCK 15/8 Good luck everyone
I cannot fathom how racing Is going ahead at Curragh, or "the" Curragh as us Irish have somehow managed to turn it into. You wouldn't say I am going to the Leopardstown, after all. Anyway, it stuck and it works it's been bucketing down again since early morning and on top of the rain we had Thursday and Friday, it is going to be bottomless, heavy bottomless in places. Sure to continue to throw up results askew of what the form might tell us. Good luck folks.
The Irish 1000 Guineas looks to lie between three fillies on the betting. Fev Rover represents the Newmarket form and she ran a belter to be third there but Mother Earth has been beaten since and it was a race where a length covered the next four fillies home. The ground is very different today and although she was second to Dandalla in a Group 2 on soft, that was a race that worked out very poorly and Fev Rover was beaten fav on Heavy in the Prix Marcel Boussac. She needs respecting today but I think she is getting too short now as joint second fav in places. Joan Of Arc started this season with a win in a 7F maiden on this type of ground. Not the best of races but it was a fair start for a filly bred to improve. Next time out she was only 6th when upped to Group 3 class behind rank 80/1 outsider Keeper Of Time. That looked a really dodgy race at the time, with a 66/1 shot filling third place. Joan Of Arc gained revenge on some of those same fillies when landing the Group 3 trial at Leopardstown but again a 50/1 second and 40/1 third cast doubts on the form for me. The 87 rated runner up and several exposed looking fillies in the race gave the form a weak look to me. I have been with Pretty Gorgeous for a while and was hopeful she could land the Newmarket version at the 20/1 odds I took. A lot looked to be falling in place for her but she scoped badly and had to miss the race. The deal with her last year was that soft ground seemed to suit her best and her two defeats came behind Shale on faster surfaces. She always looked to have much more physical scope than Shale and gained revenge each time she got her ground. She has her ground today and her Fillies Mile form has her the clear filly to beat today. The only question is whether she is at a disadvantage not having had a run this season? My thinking is that they would have had her forward enough to go for the Guineas and that it was a case of getting her over her bad scope and then bringing her back for this target. I think she has enough in hand to win without being at her peak. A concern might be how poorly Thunder Moon ran in the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket but something else must have been amiss with him to run so far below his peak that day. I am wondering if Mother Earth ran in France because Joseph gave his father the nod that Pretty Gorgeous was going to be tough to gain revenge on from the Fillies Mile form. If Pretty Gorgeous has trained on I think she will win this with a bit to spare. Having been burnt late last time I decided to wait until the cusp of midnight so that my bet wasn't ante-post terms this time and I backed her at 5/2 for today's race. I see Fev Rover as the danger and forecast horse. I would have Pretty Gorgeous 6/4 Fav Fev Rover 4/1 and Joan Of Arc 5/1 myself. Miss Amulet and No Speak Alexander are candidates to perhaps deny those 2nd and 3rd choices a place. Signs of support for Pretty Gorgeous while Joan Of Arc looks a bit weak. 3.15 Curragh Pretty Gorgeous 2/1 now is the clear choice for me. I think she will have needed to fail to train on not to win this. Pretty Gorgeous/Fev Rover SF
Sometimes the obvious answer is the right answer. Pretty Gorgeous should be the one to side with. I had a good look at the race this morning with the view of taking the favourite on. Fev Rover at 4s and Zaffys Pride for the ew at 33s were the two I landed on. However I didn't fancy either with much confidence so ended up leaving the race alone. Basically I'm waffling on just to say I haven't had a bet in it and good luck with yours.
No quarrel with anything in your analysis, Grendel, but have you taken any account of the draw ? Some good judges in Ireland seem convinced that a low draw is essential at 8f in this ground, and certainly yesterday's 2000 had the first six home all drawn between 1 and 7. Pretty Gorgeous is 14/14.
The Gallinule looks a fairly moderate affair. Despite Dermot Weld not being in great form I thought Erzindjan had a good chance here. He should be OK on the ground and I think the longer trip today should suit him. In an uninspiring line up he might just be the one at 9/2. 2.05 Curragh Erzindjan 9/2
The way I looked at it was that Joan Of Arc is in box 11, Fev Rover in box 9 and Miss Amulet in box 12. That means none of the fancied ones are well drawn, so it would be one hell of a bias if a lesser horse were to win by dint of a low draw. Hopefully class will prevail.
Erzindjan travelled up promisingly but he blatantly ran out of petrol and dropped back. Earlswood stayed on strongest and won from Arturo Toscanini. Earlswood came in rated 98 after being 3rd in the Dee Stakes last time behind El Drama. Arturo Toscanini was putting in a much better effort after being abysmal in the Feilden. Taipan didn't really do a lot for Bolshoi Ballet, having been beaten only 3/4 of a length further in the Derrinstown than he was today. I doubt this was a good race today but fair play to Earlswood.
Hard lines with Joan Of Arc guys. Empress Josephine finished with a rattle to pinch it on the nod. I don't think Pretty Gorgeous ran to form today. She held every chance but folded tamely at the business end and there must be a possibility she has failed to train on considering the fillies she has finished behind today. Empress Josephine had been beaten in Listed class last time and it is amazing how Aidan O'Brien pulls these outsiders out of the bag to trouser Classics and equally amazing how Ryan Moore is on the wrong one time after time. Fev Rover was terrible today, not even managing to beat Pretty Gorgeous who was herself only 7th. The Fahey filly had been 3rd at Newmarket but was in 10th place today. It's not just the finishing positions that cast a doubt, it's the ratings of those fillies who finished in front of Group 1 form today. The Racing Post man has his ratings in in double quick time and rated today's winner on 106. Runner up Joan Of Arc has the same figure, while Pretty Gorgeous was given 98, 15 below her rating and Fev Rover 90, 18 lower than her official mark. These look low ratings for a Classic and the ground was changed to Heavy, reflected in a time more than 11 seconds slow. Maybe it was too Heavy for the favourite despite her form on soft and maybe she needed the race but this was clearly a race where her OR of 113 would have sufficed comfortably had she run to it. I would perhaps give her one more chance on better ground but Joan Of Arc looked the one to take from today's race. She is clearly improving and has run 5lbs higher than her OR on RPR today, so despite not winning she has made further progress. Very disappointed with Pretty Gorgeous today and it looks a messy race to try to assess. The winner came from stall 13 and the runner up stall 11, so the draw theory seemed unfounded. Certainly game on for the Coronation Stakes at Ascot now with the French and Irish Guineas throwing up surprise winners.
Trainer and gambler of legendary status Barney Curley has died. Recently saw an interview with him by Nick Luck. Really interesting fella who lived some life and had many more strings to his bow than just plotting and landing massive gambles. Didn’t die wondering, RIP
RIP Classic his rant at McCririck - “you couldn’t have 2 bananas to a banana” Just reading the obituary on the Racing Post website - I never knew about DAFA nor how much he helped so many people in racing. A giant
