Entries & Recent Form
- Thursday, 12 May 2011 06:56
- Written by James C Smith
The stable continues in great form and we enjoyed an across the card treble at Wincanton and Fontwell yesterday afternoon. MCP took care of things at Wincanton and young Conor did the steering aboard our winners Businessmoney Judi and Swing Bowler. Conor's claim is now down to just 3lbs but even so, he still looks well worth it (sounds like some sort of hair product!). Businessmoney Judi was providing owner Bob Lefroy with a great birthday present when beating favourite American Ladie in a sprint finish. Swing Bowler won the concluding bumper with her head in her chest and this daughter of Lady Cricket looks to have a big future.
- Wednesday, 11 May 2011 07:35
- Written by James C Smith
There is plenty of good jumping action on this afternoon, with meetings at Wincanton, Perth and Fontwell. The stable has runners at Wincanton and Fontwell, including a couple of well-related bumper horses making their racecourse debuts this afternoon. A P McCoy is in the saddle aboard Barney Cool at Fontwell - he is a half brother to prolific winners Mr, Miss and Very Cool, while Swing Bowler makes her debut at Wincanton - she is a daughter of that great mare Lady Cricket. It will be interesting to see how they get on first time out on the racecourse - both look to be nice long-term prospects.
- Tuesday, 10 May 2011 06:48
- Written by James C Smith
I always enjoy looking through the jockeys and trainers statistics, so as you can imagine I was in heaven this morning as I was reading through the Racing Post's review of the 2010/11 jumps season. There were a few surprises in there and the one that probably most caught my eye was the owner's table. Congratulations to Trevor Hemmings for being champion owner, obviously this was due largely to Ballabriggs Grand National success and he finished just ahead of J P McManus, who had no fewer than 650 runners during the course of the season...only two trainers in the entire list had more runners than that! For that statistic alone we should applaud J P, who is a massive supporter of racing in this country - without owners such as him our sport would be much the poorer.
- Monday, 09 May 2011 07:26
- Written by James C Smith
The stable's horses continue in good form and I thought that Hunterview ran a cracker to finish third (at 25/1) in the Swinton on Saturday at Haydock. Spanish Cruise occupied the same position at Worcester yesterday and I am sure that his turn in the winners' enclosure is not far away, meanwhile Qulinton won the 2 1/2 mile handicap chase under Conor O'Farrell. It seems to me that young Conor is improving with every ride and he was seen to great effect aboard Qulinton as he won by a short head - this followed hot on the heels of his win aboard Trucker's Delight at Punchestown on Saturday and the young Irishman will now claim 3lbs (rather than 5)...even so, he looks very good value for it.
- Sunday, 08 May 2011 00:00
- Written by James C Smith
This Thursday sees the Dante Stakes take place at York...it is the single most important trial ahead of the Epsom Derby and has been won by some very good horses on their way day Derby success. It will be fascinating to see how Henry Cecil's "second-string" and current Derby favourite World Domination fares (now that Frankel has been confirmed a Derby non-runner), or the The Queen's horse, Charlton House. My connections are screaming about Charlton House, and I must admit to having had a little ante-post interest for Epsom at odds of 6/1. There is still plenty of 11/2 available, but I don't expect that to last long if he wins the Dante!
- Saturday, 07 May 2011 07:17
- Written by James C Smith
What an amazing performance from Hurricane Fly in the Rabobank Champion Hurdle last night at Punchestown. He made a field of proven Grade One performers look positively ordinary as he burst five lengths clear in the straight under a motionless Ruby Walsh. Neither Menorah or Binocular had any answer and it was down to Thousand Stars to chase the reigning Champion Hurdler home. He certainly appears to be the best hurdler since Istabraq, and who knows, he could go on to even greater things - one thing is for sure, it would appear that one of last season's top novices' is going to have to progress for the home team to challenge him at next season's Festival. I wonder what is wrong with Binocular? He seems to have completely lost his way and maybe a change of scenery might help...whatever the problem is, he seems a shadow of his former self.
- Friday, 06 May 2011 06:55
- Written by James C Smith
I was watching the action from Chester yesterday, and while it is not ground breaking news - it never fails to amaze me how vital the draw is there. The widest drawn horse to be successful at the track yesterday came from stall number eight (and that was in a 1m2 1/2f race where they had time to sort themselves out). If you are drawn on the outside in sprint races then you might as well go home - I backed Sea Odyssey yesterday in the five furlongs sprint (drawn ten) and he finished runner-up. In fairness it was a good performance and the winner, Gabrial did look useful - I just wish that I had kept to my rule of not backing high numbers at Chester...hindsight is a wonderful thing - you would have thought that I would have learned by now!
