Munaaser didnt seem to get home again over 1m2, I think I was right about him being a miler, he cruised up looking the winner but emptied pretty quick. Hes a nice horse though and he should get some more 1s next to his name when they go back to a mile. Mutakaayef won as he was entitled to, nice little confidence boost and he will be competitive in group races.
I didnt write these are horses that you are going to make money off backing blindly, I didnt write these are horses who are going to win every race and become champions. I said they are horses that I will be following through the season. Thats exactly what im doing and as ive said, if your not interested in them then you dont need to read or post on the thread, but thats up to you. Ill be the first to admit if I give up on any of them, the only one thats close to that just now is Folk Melody, some of them have not even run, some of them once or twice and I still think a few will come good, time will tell. I think with Ron bringing up the points idea, it has effected some peoples view of what this actually is. Betting was not at the forefront of my mind when I started the thread, it was basically just horses that I liked and thought had the potential to progress, as stated, some to higher levels than others. As an example, if you look what I wrote about Munaaser who I imagine prompted you to post tonight. "you would hope he could end up holding his own in Group company in time." I didnt say he was the Derby winner. I still think Munaaser could be up to becoming a competitive group horse. If a few of these turn out to be decent animals then as far as im concerned its far from a catastrophe, it might not be very profitable, but that wasnt the point, or certainly not the whole point. Getting a few winners at nice prices would be good but there is plenty of time as I said.
Munaaser entered at Newmarket tomorrow in a good looking handicap, the apparent 3rd string for Hamdan but that suits me fine as he gets the best jockey. Hanagan rides Zerfaal who is a brother to Makfi and has looked quite smart winning a maiden and handicap this season, looks to have a bit to find on form with Munaaser though. Dane Oneill is on the filly Muteela who beat none other than Shasta Daisy in her maiden and hacked up in a Beverley handicap off 78 first time out, this is much tougher though and the handicapper didnt miss. Pretzel beat Mutakayyef when winning his maiden last season but he seemed to know his job that day and while he has potential, this is a tough spot to start back in. Glorious Empire is quite hard to weigh up coming in off two AW wins, he looks a decent type but I suspect this will be a step up for him and he will need to take another step forward but he looks a player. It looks a wide open race but provided it doesnt come to soon for Munaaser, I would be a bit dissappointed if he doesnt go very close to winning this, that was hot handicap at Sandown last time and the drop back to 1m will suit. This will be my biggest bet on any of these so far by a long way.
Please refrain from any criticism on this thread. It's one of the threads that makes the forum interesting and not to be discouraged.
Quite so Ron. I find this thread,and its ilk,very interesting. My two outsiders for the year,Adelaide and Agena,won't be going for the Derby...possibly King Eddie at at RA or GV colts at York..possibly not!..still not given up though and fancy the latter may be the better in time despite Adelaide's soft G3 win recently. All about opinions..mine are generally more incisive than others...but hey...
I mentioned Adelaide early on this thread Dex as one I quite liked of Obriens outside the bigger names, also gave Marvellous a mention incidentally, he won easily at the Curragh but not sure how much of a race it was. I fancy Free Port Lux in the French Derby and he might be worth watching to get a better read on Adelaide as there wasnt much between them in one of the trials over there.
Well Munaaser took a big step backwards today, never went a yard, cant really say the race came too soon as its not as if he got tired late. Even Moore said in his betfair column today he thinks hes a fair bit better than 82 but he just isnt doing it on the track. There is definetely something there with him judged on that Sandown run but I was confident he would run a massive race today and after that its going to be hard to make a case for him until he shows something else. Muteela on the other hand, looks to be going the right way, I was sure the handicapper had her in a race like this but shes clearly a smart filly, has good tactical speed and a good attitude. To think I chose Shasta Daisy over her, ive still plenty to learn about the game.
Shasta Daisy keeps up the trend of being unable to put 2 runs together. Absolutely woeful this page has been, My Titania not right before Guineas, Be Ready probably never be seen again, same for Balansiya, Cambridge another, promising horses turned to dust, I will be surprised if Taghrooda is beat less than 50 lengths in the Oaks. Its absurdly bad and extremely embarrassing, first time ive done anything like this and judging the majority of them on 1 run in a maiden as 2yo, but I will try again next season. This has been so bad its making me want to do it again just to prove to myself that im not a complete idiot. The worse it gets, the more I care, will be putting a lot more time and thought into next season, and ive took plenty of notes already on decisions I got wrong. I thought it would maybe turn a bit but it just isnt on the cards just now, any glimmer of promise is quickly followed by inexplicably bad runs.
Very admirable Joe. It's a very difficult task you have set yourself. But if you feel you have made some mistakes along the way and are learning from them, that's progress in my book. I wouldn't get too disheartened. I remember Timeform raving about some 2yos that were going to be superstar 3yos. And some of their capital P horses don't do too well either.
I wouldn't beat yourself up too much Boris, that's horse racing. For even the most knowledgeable people, like yourself, who know about all form and everything else, at the end of the day it's simply animals running around a field and luck always plays part of the equation. There animals, things go wrong, some days they run to a certain level other days they don't. It's must be a tiny, tiny percentage of people, who win on horses (though plenty may kid themselves otherwise!). It's the bookies that win, not us! I can certainly vouch for that with my useless tipping
Catch yourself on Boris - you gave it a crack which is more than most of us did. Anyway, we haven't even had Epsom yet so there's months to come before you can call it a total write off. When my Titania wins the Arc you'll be getting it right up all of us
Cheers lads, was very frustrated yesterday, not about losing money, the only big bet I had was on Munaaser last time and I knew if Taghrooda won the Oaks I would be well up on them. Just annoying that none of them were going the right way, most of them going backwards and the supposed bug guns have barely seen the track. At the minute only Taghrooda and Mutakaayef have pass marks, at least we have a Classic winner in the bag, that eases the pain but still overall its been very disappointing.
Taghrooda showed her class today, finally something has went right just after I was starting to seriously doubt anything would. This game will chew you up and spit you out. She got a nice start, travelled supremely well, Hanagan was having to take tugs she was going that well, and we knew she would stay so it was never in doubt from a long way out. Races like the Yorkshire Oaks and other top fillies races should be on the agenda for her next and hopefully she keeps going the right away, the Oaks might not have been a great race but she is a top filly and was in a league of her own today.
