Saturday's Meetings York Flat 7 Races 1:15-4:45p.m. Newmarket Flat 8 Races 1:25-5:00p.m. Hexham N/H 7 Races 1:35-5:05p.m. Naas Flat 7 Races 1:40-5:10p.m. Chester Flat 8 Races 1:45-5:45p.m. Chepstow N/H 7 Races 1:55-5:22p.m. Chelmsford(E) A/W 9 Races 4:20-8:30p.m. Racecards At The Races Sporting Life Racing Post Good Luck
Scampi runs again tomorrow in the 3:35 @York. Hart takes the ride. I will of course be havng a couple of sheckles e/w on it.
Indeed, that was another of the four or five I like in the race, but I had to decide on one. I never play more than one horse in a race, except in the Grand National. Stable is in good shape (5-24 last 14 days).
City of Troy is the one they have to beat in the Dewhurst. I'm going to side with Alyanaabi, who comes from a family who improve with racing. Went into My Little Red Book when 4th to Rosallion at Ascot in July, not getting the run of the race. He made up for it with a brave win in the Somerville Tattersall Stakes. He's by Too Darn Hot out of a half-sister to 1000G winner Ghanaati, so is made for 7-8f. With plenty of rain about I've got big hopes for Serried Ranks in the first at York. This was the race that first put the majestic Kris on the racing map 45 years ago. I'm sure Serried Ranks is no Kris, but he's useful and can win this. Finally, I'll be on Dreamrocker at Chelmsford.
Future Champions Weekend at Newmarket is made a bit of a mockery when the main betting race, the Cesarewitch, is a contest for old NH plodders attracted over from Ireland by the huge pot. Most of the field would never have any chance to run for this sort of money over timber (total prize fund £196,740). If the last few years are indicative of what we can expect from Climate Change then I will be giving up betting on horses to find winners and switch to the exchanges and just lay losers. From a betting point of view I am having one of my worst years ever as I have hardly had a bet at any of the big meetings because virtually all of them have been on soft ground of one type or another. I was quite amused this morning to hear someone reference the dry weather that we had had so far in October after a miserable wet summer. Two days of rain this week (from the same weather front) turned Newmarket from Good to Firm to Soft, at a fixture that historically has been run on good or slightly easier ground because of the time of year. Good luck to those punting today; I won’t be.
It is sad to see how **** UK flat racing is when the Irish jumps horses can raid whilst using the races as a prep for the real stuff.
Cesarewitch. 2.40 Newmarket Grand Providence. 10/1 NAP. An improving 3 yr old filly which gets in 10 lbs light re. future rating. Won cheekily last time and has a cheeky filly on board with a good draw.
It's not even a good Cesarawitch. Tamerlo and Ron will remember when a near Gold Cup horse would be topweight and a lot of improving 3yos would get in at just above 7 stone. Nowadays it look like a geriatric's bumper.
Fields at Chepstow decimated by non-runners due no-doubt to the soft/heavy ground conditions. The Midnight Legend gelding, Nocte Volatus, has a squeak in this Class-2 Handicap Chase (15:40) over an extended 2m3f. 189-days since last run, but stable will have him well-prepared for this. Past form matches-up well in this event, with loads of previously-fancied runners scratched. Wearing a tongue-strap. Stan Sheppard on board for the Tom Lacey yard. 7/2 (Bet365/BetUK) best price at time of writing. (Prices from Oddschecker)
Yes, Bustino. It’s a long time since class horses like Grey of Falloden and John Cherry hacked up with big weights.
Not really. It makes perfect sense for trainers of slow old plodders to run them just a few times on the flat so that they have ratings that do not reflect their ability and then enter them off favourable marks in very valuable flat races. The flat trained horses have much less favourable ratings because they have been exposed to the flat handicapper all season. As has been pointed out elsewhere, this did not exist in the past, one reason being that the race was not worth as much. I am sure many here can remember the days when the Autumn Double was promoted but the Cambridgeshire also now seems to attract handicap good things from the big flat yards – although this year’s good thing was hammered by total idiots down to 5/2 and got beaten as the bookies had 33 horses running for them, which got in the good thing’s way.
