Friday 13th

I hope not too many of you reading are too superstitious but a little reminder that it is Friday 13th today!  It is a busy day on the racing front with lots of meetings but there are none from Pond House today.  There are four flat meetings at Newbury, Newmarket, York and Hamilton with a jumps meeting at Aintree this evening.  In Ireland they have a meeting on the flat at Leopardstown and they race over the jumps at Kilbeggan.  Our stable amateur Martin 'Fly' McIntyre heads to Aintree to ride in the final race on the card, a point to point bumper which looks like a competitive heat.  He rides number 1 on the card Broomfields Cave and the Racing Post have him at about 7/1, fifth in the betting.  The five year old has won his last two starts in point to points and it will be interesting to see how he gets on.  Another interesting contender in the field from our point of view is number 6, Good Boy.  He is the winner of his only start to date in a point to point bumper at Sandon.  He is of interest in this as he is actually a half brother to our very own Eden Du Houx.  He was unsold at the Cheltenham sales last month and he is entered again for Doncaster sales next week.  Eden Du Houx was a listed bumper winner for us so if this fella, by Diamond Boy has some of his ability he should run very well in this.  The race doesn't jump off until 8.45pm so it will be a late night home for some of these jockeys and horses.

Desert Crown was the impressive winner of the Dante at York yesterday for Richard Kingscote and Sir Michael Stoute and he is now the hot favourite for the Epsom Derby at the beginning of next month.  The feature race on the card today at York is the Yorkshire Cup, Group 2 at 3.35pm over 1m5f.  There are only five runners but it is a race full of quality with the mighty Stradivarius heading the betting for the Frankie Dettori and Gosden team.  While we are missing Trueshan from the line up, Stradivarius has some tough opposition but I would take him to win this race for the third time in his career.  

I see there is quite a lot being written at the moment about the crowd sizes at racecourses.  York is reporting that their first two days this year show crowd numbers down on previous figures.  The course is not the only one to notice a drop in attendance and racecourses will need to pull together to try and stop the downward trend.  Covid and the economic crises are cited as possible reasons for the decline in numbers but maybe the high cost of entrance badges needs to be looked at as well?  Racing and racecourses need the crowds so hopefully they can do something to encourage the public back on track.

There was a crucial clash in the Premiership last night and it was Tottenham who came out well on top beating Arsenal 3-0 in their race for a Champions League spot.  If Arsenal could have won last nights came they would have cemented their fourth place position but a win for Spurs means that they are now just one point in front of them with them both having two game left and it is all to play for.  

Looking ahead to Saturday racing, the stable has one runner on the flat tomorrow, Lady Reset on the flat at Doncaster.  Check back here in the morning for more stable news.  Have a good day.