- Saturday, 18 July 2015 07:59
- Written by Chelsea Morgan
It's a busy day ahead with eight meetings taking place and yes, there are a couple of jumps cards among them! The six flat meetings come from Newbury, Newmarket, Chester, Ripon, Haydock and Lingfield while the National Hunt action comes from Market Rasen and Cartmel. David runs Kie and Purple 'N Gold in the Summer Hurdle at 2.55pm and Dell' Arca in the Summer Plate at 3.30pm - both look extremely competitive races as you would expect for the sums of prize money on offer. Dell' Arca (pictured above) is the shortest priced of ours at around 9/1 and he was a ready winner of a novices' chase last time out and he might be okay from a mark of 142. He has run creditably in most of the big handicap hurdles and some of his chase form has also worked out nicely. Kie makes his debut for the stable in the hurdle, while Purple 'N Gold finished runner-up in the race last year (albeit from a 7lbs lower mark) - he always runs his race and I am sure he will perform creditably again this afternoon.
- Friday, 17 July 2015 08:07
- Written by Chelsea Morgan
I'm afraid it's another blank day if you are a fan of the jumps as there are six meetings taking place this afternoon and they are all on the flat with the action coming from Hamilton, Haydock, Newbury, Newmarket, Nottingham and Pontefract. The other thing I noticed about today was that there are 41 races and there is not a single seller or claimer among them. Back in my time as assistant to MCP we used to get lots of our horses out of these type of races - I may be looking back through rose tinted spectacles but there seemed to be more opportunities to obtain horses from those races. I remember one day claiming the first three home in a race from Bath - owners and trainers were following us around trying to find out which horses we were going to try to claim. I wonder why there aren't more sellers or claimers these days - with all of these 0-60 and 0-65 handicaps on the flat, you cannot tell me that there are not enough horses to run in them!
- Thursday, 16 July 2015 07:36
- Written by Chelsea Morgan
There are five flat meetings taking place this afternoon with action from Leicester, Hamilton, Chepstow, Doncaster and Epsom. I would love to know why one of yesterday's jumps cards from Worcester or Uttoxeter could not have taken place today and given a bit more balance for National Hunt fans - I reckon plenty of people would have attended both meetings had they been on different days, but then again what do I know?! Following the defection of Street Entertainer, Susie Sheep was our only runner yesterday and she finished fourth in the 2m4f handicap chase. She was beaten about seven lengths from a mark of 118 - remember she was second on her previous outing from 112 but the handicapper put her up by 6lbs. If she can't win from 112, how is she supposed to win from 118? I bet she doesn't get dropped by 6lbs!
- Wednesday, 15 July 2015 07:43
- Written by Chelsea Morgan
There are five meetings taking place this afternoon with flat action from Lingfield, Catterick and Sandown as well as a couple of most welcome jumps fixtures from Uttoxeter and Worcester. Stable jockey Tom Scudamore is at Uttoxeter for the ride aboard Susie Sheep in the last. Our mare ran a good second on this track last time in her first start over fences, looking all over the winner for much of the contest - she went up 6lbs for getting beaten which seems a bit harsh to me but with that experience under her belt she should go well once again. Over at the other meeting Michael Heard partners Street Entertainer (pictured above) who has been in good form this season. Michael takes a handy 7lbs off his back and he too should give a good account.
- Tuesday, 14 July 2015 07:24
- Written by Chelsea Morgan
The flat jockeys championship became a lot more interesting last week when Ryan Moore sustained an injury. The resultant shake-up in the market means that Silvestre de Sousa is the new favourite at 8/13 - he is just two winners behind Moore (pictured with me above, right at A P McCoy's retirement party) so a lot will depend on how long Moore's neck injury will keep him out of action. William Hill make Ryan Moore a 10/1 chance which seems like a big price to me and I am tempted to have a small interest...get well soon Ryan! I just love this picture and by the way, did you know that between the three of us we hold 28 British titles?
- Monday, 13 July 2015 07:06
- Written by Chelsea Morgan
Today we have four meetings, all on the flat at Wetherby, Ayr, Windsor and Wolverhampton. There is a 7 race card at Wolverhampton for £30,000 so pretty poor prize money. I still find it hard to remember that Wetherby is a flat track! Purple N Gold and My Brother Sylvest both finished fourth at Stratford yesterday and both ran okay. Lets just hope the handicapper drops them a few pounds. Both Sir Frank Morgan and Skylander were disappointing at Southwell. They were talking about Gordon Elliott going through the card at Perth. In the end he never had a winner - it's a funny old game!
- Sunday, 12 July 2015 09:01
- Written by Chelsea Morgan
My Brother Sylvest runs at Stratford
There are three meetings, all over the jumps today at Perth, Stratford and Southwell. David has two runners at Stratford, Purple N Gold and My brother Sylvest plus two runners at Southwell, Sir Frank Morgan and Skylander. Purple N Gold is very consistent and always runs his race, he has finished third on his last two starts at Aintree and Newton Abbot. Kieren Edgar rides and gets on well with him taking a handy five pounds off. He has run well before at the track and although this looks competitive hopefully he should run well again. My Brother Sylvest runs in a valuable 0-150 handicap chase. This is again very competitive as you would expect for the prize money on offer. He does have to bounce back from a disappointing run, but he can be forgiven that as it was his fourth quick race in a row. He has been freshened up at home since then and hopefully he can return to form with Michael Heard, who gets on well with him, taking seven pounds off. Tom Scu goes to Southwell to ride our two runners there. Both look to have chances in again competitive races.
