Saturday's Meetings Beverley Flat 7 Races 1:30-4:55p.m. Curragh Flat 8 Races 1:45-5:47p.m. Sandown Flat 6 Races 1:50-5:20p.m. Chester Flat 7 Races 2:10-5:35p.m. Newton Abbot N/H 6 Races 2:15-5:05p.m. Lingfield(E) A/W 6 Races 4:50-7:25p.m. Chelmsford(E) A/W 6 Races 5:40-8:40p.m. Racecards At The Races Sporting Life Racing Post Good Luck
I've been told Appleby will be withdrawing Pacific avenue tomorrow so lump on publish, but probably still be rule4 unfortunately
I liked the look of He’s Waliim in the Solario but soft ground tempers my enthusiasm. I think he is a very nice horse but definitely has a fast ground action which he put to great use at Beverley.
I was looking at backing Publish for the Dewhurst at 10 and 2000gns now at 16 (I had quite decent bet for me at 20)... same path Fields of Gold took last season. I wouldn't want to touch Evens tomorrow on rain softened ground and looking at its dam and second dam pedigree its all American fast ground. Still, he's a big strong colt, the ground might not beat him, the jockey might...so rather the take Evens take 10 for the Dewhurst...
Unless I missed something by skimming too fast, Roger Varian takes just the one to Deauville tomorrow (Saturday) and it is De Sousa's only ride there. Unbeaten in 3 runs this year, the latest being the Royal Hunt Cup at Ascot, the Blue Point 4yo colt out of a Nayef mare should go well. I won't be going there to back it because he has never ran on soft ground before, and that's what he will be faced with, so 5/2 seems a bit short to me. Big danger is Devil's Point who goes on soft and heavy. 2nd in the G1 Futurity last year on heavy ground and now has the magician Soumillon aboard. Why that one is 20/1 and drifting I have no idea
Publish will be Donald Ducked if it's soft for the Dewhurst or the Guineas. Gosden was the same with Kingman in his day with all the Goldilocks carry on of too soft, too firm. In the end the colt won on just about every kind of going there is, including on soft-heavy in the Irish 2000 Guineas where he pissed up by five lengths. What's the worst that can happen? He's already been beaten. Not as if we know for certain he will be useless on soft. There seem few enough really good horses these days and endless bookies benefit handicaps
Charlie Appleby's only other runner, at Sandown Park, is a non-runner - the filly, Act of Kindness. Pacific Avenue weak in the market at the time of writing. Now up to 21 non-runners at Sandown Park. Cor blimey that cruel mistress, old girl Mother Nature, certainly having quite an impact. Among those gorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrn include the one that I liked in the fixture finale, the concluding contest, the lucky last (anyway, you get the idea). But don't fret, regular readers, am displaying my disappoint stoically. In fact been quite an odd weather week here as well - borderline heatwave on Sunday and Monday and then nothing but rain, and a chill in the air, from Tuesday morn onwards. The weather it is a changing.
The deluge at Sandown has made that a write off from a betting point of view (Bright Thunder and Spiritual have winning soft ground form in the Atalanta whilst favourite Blue Bolt has never encountered it; and there is no soft ground form in the Solario). Over at The Curragh two of the pattern races see one with an odds on Ballydoyle favourite and the other with two Ballydoyle contenders: one is the form horse and the other is the favourite ridden by Moore having run once and won once. There are quite a lot of non-runners at Chester, a Haggas hotpot in the 4.25 and a Haggas favourite (beaten at Shergar Cup last start) in the 5.00 thanks to seven non-runners. The feature Listed race at 2.40 looks one to avoid. Over at Deauville, six contest the Group 2 Grand Prix de Deauville. Derby fourth New Ground is looking to get back on track after finishing only third in the Grand Prix de Paris. Fourth at Longchamp Uther also takes his chance but the British bookies favour Francis-Henri Graffard’s Prix Maurice de Nieuil winner Sibayan and Andre Fabre’s Group 3 winning gelding Marquisat. With the betting looking like a greyhound race, this won’t be a case of who traps and gets to the first bend; it will be the usual sprint in the last two furlongs. Over at Beverley there are only three decent races on the card. Do I want to back Regional dropped in class in the Beverley Bullet (2.05) with first time blinkers? No. With the Haggas hotpot out of the opener (1.30) that has become more open and there is little between most of the field on recent form. Has Saeed bin Suroor ever had a runner at Beverley before? His six race maiden Desert Shadow boasts a good second in a Sandown handicap last time but that was four lengths adrift of another Godolphin horse. Time Tells All won over course and distance seventeen days ago and was third here last Sunday; and now has the services of the winning jockey that day instead of the 3lb claimer. Titian beat Financier in an amateur riders’ race at York in June and is now a pound worse off with that one but followed up with fourth in an apprentice race and has the services of a 5lb claimer today. If I were having a bet in this I think Richard Fahey’s Glistening Nights would be of most interest having won with something to spare at Chester under today’s pilot but being touched off at Ayr last time (Dawn Of Liberation half a length third ridden by a 5lb claimer). The original favourite for the sprint handicap (4.17) is a non-runner and there is not much between the remaining eleven on Timeform ratings. There are several that do not look in the best of current form and so I would eliminate Spring Corn (last of eight last time), Yazaman (no win since 2024 but from last year’s winning yard), Wrestling Revenue (last of nine when last seen nearly eight weeks ago), Cape Sovereign (seventh of nine when last seen seven weeks ago) and Emperor’s Son (second last three weeks ago, no win since debut). Fortunate Star would need a career best to win today and was fourth of six under the same claimer last time but gets to claim 4lb more as that was an apprentice race. Atomic Mass has been fitted with a visor after finishing fifth last time over six furlongs. He managed to find traffic trouble that day so what is to say that he won’t over five here? King’s Crown is another hold up horse that might not get a run being dropped out from the plumb 1 draw. He has won two of his last four (Sergeant Mayer third when he was second between the two wins) but the claimer from his last two races is replaced with Sean Kirrane so he is effectively 5lb worse off. After that third, Sergeant Mayer was fourth over this course and distance behind Rock Of England, who would be the selection for last year’s winning trainer but for the worst draw – if he goes left at the start from the 11 stall he will be on Beverley Westwood! So that leaves what I expect to be the favourite, Julie Camacho’s HUNDRED CAPS. He beat Cape Sovereign off today’s mark back in May (hopefully he won’t duck left from stall 6!) and returned with a modest second in a similar race here after wind surgery having failed to trouble the judge in three races in between (two at six furlongs).
Looks like some of the flat trainers have brought forward the strike day by a few weeks. It’s soft ground ffs. Not heavy or bottomless. These ****wits worry about the future of their sport but cry off if conditions aren’t exactly in their favour. Get a ****in grip.
ITV racing pundits/crew are bang average. They can’t be watching the race they’re pontificating about. In the first at Beverley the first past the post cut right across the second as they turned in forcing Mulrenan to almost pull up. Stewards enquiry called and they only show the action from after the incident occurred, then express bemusement when the winner gets chucked out. Good decision, dangerous riding.
Well worth watching Keane's ride in the Atalanta. Was Keane trying to scratch his elbow with 100yards to go? Did he lose his whip while trying to do it?
Amazingly most flat horses are bred for speed and do not handle soft ground (of course there are some exceptions). When the ground turns soft in the Autumn the races are not won by the best horses but the ones that can slog through it. I figured this out a long time ago and stopped betting on flat racing in this country when the going was soft or heavy. This works the opposite way around with the slow old plodders of National Hunt racing. In the summer months when the ground is not soft the fields are all small as few of the horses are bred for speed and jumping is the name of the game. Do you complain then?
Sibayan won the Grand Prix de Deauville very easily with the disappointing New Ground more than three lengths third and Uther nearly seven lengths last. The British raiders in the Prix Quincey were repelled by Dreamliner with Charlie Hills’ Cicero’s Gift second and a reverse for Roger Varian (when he was winning everywhere on these shores) as My Cloud was fifth. George Boughey came home with the euros for the Prix de Meautry thanks to Rosy Affair seeing off the locals under Billy Loughnane.
Presumably ground too soft for My Cloud. So surprising Devil's Point a NR. Glad I didn't go now. Went for a lunch at the local Golf Club instead
