- Wednesday, 27 June 2012 07:05
- Written by Chelsea Eggleton
Battle Group after finishing 4th at the Cheltenham Festival
There are five meetings today, four on the flat at Carlisle, Bath, Salisbury and Kempton and a jumps card at Worcester. The stable has lots of entries at Worcester and David is going to have a busy day! Battle Group kicks off proceeding in the novice chase. He is extremely talented but a little quirky and if he puts his best foot forward this afternoon he should hopefully win. He is very clever and does know what this racing game is all about if you know what I mean! Soulard runs in the handicap chase while Too Generous is making her racecourse debut in the Bumper. She works well at home but it does look a fairly competitive little race. Beattie Green runs in a handicap hurdle and the handicapper put her up twelve pounds for winning a seller on her latest start which seems a little harsh. Ladyvie runs in another hurdle race after finishing third last time out at Towcester, she was the winner of a chase on her penultimate start and is still looking for her first win over hurdle. UPDATE: Ladyvie is now a non-runner. Royal Peak is also making his racecourse debut in the maiden hurdle while Qulinton runs in the final race of the day. He ran well at the course last time out and again has Tom Scu in the saddle.
- Tuesday, 26 June 2012 07:03
- Written by Chelsea Eggleton
There are four meeting on around the country today, three on the flat and plus a local jumps card at Newton Abbot this evening. The stable has a couple of runners there, Dandyvic in the maiden hurdle and Kusadasi in the handicap hurdle. Dandyvic is having her first run for David having won an Irish point to point so it will be interesting to see how she gets on. Kusadasi has not shown much in two starts for the stable and needs to find some improvement to have a chance of winning. The track had 2mm of rain overnight which has not altered the going, it is still heavy, soft in places. I hear there was not a big crowd at Newton Abbot's fixture last week, perhaps due to it being on the same night that England played. There is usually a good turn out so I am sure there will be lots of people there this evening and there are some good races to look forward to.
- Monday, 25 June 2012 06:59
- Written by Chelsea Eggleton
Today there are four flat meetings at Chepstow, Thirsk, Windsor and Wolverhampton. Once again there was heavy rain around the country over the weekend and we have 15mm of rain to add to the recent deluge. The ground at Chepstow is forecast as heavy so make sure your selections go on the ground. There is jumps racing at Newton Abbot tomorrow evening and David has a few entries. The going there is currently heavy, soft in places so they will be hoping that there is not too much more rain before then. Check back here tomorrow for more news of runners coming up this week.
- Sunday, 24 June 2012 00:00
- Written by Chelsea Eggleton
Well, Royal Ascot is behind us for another year and there are three race meetings taking place this afternoon with a flat card at Pontefract and two jump meetings at Hereford and Hexham. There has been plenty of rain up north with localised flooding and the ground is being described as heavy at Hexham. Hexham is a stiff track at the best of times, but when the ground comes up very soft, it can become a real slog for the horses.
- Saturday, 23 June 2012 06:51
- Written by Chelsea Eggleton
It's a Saturday and once again there is no jump racing on! Instead there are six flat cards headed by the final day of Royal Ascot, as well as Ayr, Redcar, Newmarket, Haydock and Lingfield. Of course all eyes will be on Australian wonder mare Black Caviar in the Diamond Jubilee Stakes at 3.45pm as she bids for an incredible 22nd consecutive win and her 12th in Group One company. She looks like going off at long odds-on so I will only be watching enjoying the Aussie superstar - god knows, they need one...I am of course refering to their cricket team!
- Friday, 22 June 2012 07:05
- Written by Chelsea Eggleton
It is a blank day for the yard with no runners, although there are six meetings on across the country with the fourth day of Royal Ascot the highlight. It was another fantastic day's action at the Berkshire track yesterday afternoon with Frankie Dettori landing the centrepiece, the Ascot Gold Cup aboard Colour Vision. It was a great race with no less than four horses involved in the closing stages and Dettori prevailing in a driving finish from the other Godolphin runner, Opinion Poll. Frankie looked so pleased, I don't think I have ever seen a higher flying dismount - many more like that and he will have to use a safety net! Favourite Fame And Glory never really looked likely to get involved - his run was too bad to be true and I am sure we will hear an explanation for this below-par performance in due course.
- Thursday, 21 June 2012 07:11
- Written by Chelsea Eggleton
Today is Ladies Day at Royal Ascot and the highlight on the card is the Ascot Gold Cup and it will be interesting to see if Fame And Glory can follow-up his victory of twelve months ago and maintain Aidan O'Brien's stranglehold on the race (Yeats' four victories mean that he has won the race and incredible five times in the last six years). It was a good day for the Ballydoyle team yesterday with them winning the opener with Islivana and the Prince Of Wales with So You Think, who was recording his tenth success in Group One company. Incidentally Islivana was owned and bred by Anne-Marie O'Brien (Aidan's wife) - talk about keeping it in the family! There was a sting in the tail for jockey Seamie Heffernan though as he landed himself in hot water with the stewards and picked up a seven day ban for his use of the whip.
