It’s Monday so it must be time for….
THE 5 THINGS I HAVE LEARNT THIS WEEKEND.
1) I’m off to Vegas for my birthday!
Yee-hah. The missus has booked a surprise holiday for the two of us in the gambling capital of the world. The surprise being that she booked it on my credit card!
Who cares, 6 days in sin city with the little one staying at grandma’s has got to be the perfect birthday present no matter who ends up paying. What a great start that was to my weekend…
2) SEA THE STARS
Another fantastic performance from the Guineas and Derby winner puts him well on the road to immortality. He’s now won 3 Group 1 races this season over distances of 1m, 1m 4f and 1m 2f. The St. Leger over 1m 6f would complete the set and just about seal his place as one of the all time greats but as that’s unlikely we’ll have to hope John Oxx sends him to the Breeders Cup for a rematch with Rip Van Winkle and/or Fame and Glory. And I’ll be there to see it!
3) Nicky Henderson got off lightly…
He and his vet knew that using TA was against the rules and they, wrongly, thought it couldn’t be detected. It can, they got found out and they then set about lying to cover their tracks and deceiving the hearing panel. A £40,000 fine is just and is going to hurt even a big name trainer like Henderson but banning a NH trainer for 3 months out of the regular season is ridiculous. It would be like banning Sir Michael Stoute for 3 months in November-January. Henderson should have been banned until the end of the year at the very least. I can’t imagine a smaller stable doing the same thing would have got off so easily.
4) I should have been a Dutchman….
It’s there to see in black and white. Another weekend where faced with a choice of two selections I opted for the wrong one…..again! I hope you all took the hint and backed Acrostic.
Having had Matt text me within 30 seconds of the horse passing the post berating me for not recommending to ‘dutch’ the selections I can take it no more and will from now on will begin ‘dutching’ selections when faced with a straight choice of two.
(For those of you unfamiliar with the term ‘dutching’ it simply means splitting your stake between the chosen selections.)
I’ve learnt my lesson…
5) A race to look out for…
While researching our latest trends guide for Newmarket (more to follow) I stumbled across a race that has proved a reliable guide for another race run later in the season. On Wednesday, the 2nd race of the day at Newmarket is a 6f handicap for 3yo’s and in the last 8 years six of the winners have gone on to run in the Shergar Sprint at Ascot.
They finished 111214 winning at odds of 6/1, 6/4, 9/2 and 4/1 which can’t be too bad.
So get out the notepad and pen and mark down the winner of the 2pm Newmarket on Wednesday.
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FESTIVAL TRENDS
The July Meeting at Newmarket is the next port of call for our Festival Trends Guide and we’ll be covering 3 races each day from Racing HQ. There will also be a Special Bonus race included which will be Saturday’s John Smith’s Cup at York.
It’s just £9.95 and available by clicking here…
or for just £19.99 you can subscribe for the entire month of July and receive Newmarket, York, Ascot and Glorious Goodwood.