Posted in Berts Horses, Kings Head, Winker Watson on Jul 19th, 2008 1 Comment »
Up and down betting at the moment. Good bets on Addikt and Whispering Angel came in but I took a heavy loss on Royal Destination last night. I missed an opportunity when Papradon, who had nearly reeled in Lilac Moon last time, won the first at Newmarket at a big price. It’s a nice boost […]
Posted in Berts Horses, Kings Head, Bouguereau on Jul 4th, 2008 2 Comments »
Last week we took delivery of a climbing frame, although you wouldn’t have recognised it as such when it arrived. There were six bags of tubular steel rods all drilled with holes, three bags of nuts, bolts and assorted fitments, a swing, a slide and a canvas “den”. There were also a couple of alan […]
Posted in Berts Horses, Kings Head, Bouguereau on Jul 2nd, 2008 1 Comment »
A good day yesterday with Lilac Moon winning in fine style. In quality terms she’s not one of my leading lights, but she’s developed into a lovely looking horse and and I’m very fond of her. She isn’t what I would consider broodmare quality, but I’m looking for a few cheaper mares to have on […]
Posted in Berts Horses, Kings Head, Shawhill, Bouguereau, Winker Watson on Jul 1st, 2008 7 Comments »
I had a good day at Wimbledon with Jane and our two daughters. In truth the girls were a bit too young to appreciate it and they got bored towards the end. When Andy Murray went two sets down we decided to call it a day and head home. Oh well.
I spent most of the morning […]
Posted in Berts Horses, Kings Head, Lord Snooty on Jun 29th, 2008 4 Comments »
I’ve been busy this week working on something that I’ll publish some other time. Kings Head was supposed to run on Friday but we pulled him out after the overnight rain. Lord Snooty ran in the US last night coming third.
My first four bets of the week, all at decent prices, all came second - I […]
Posted in Berts Horses, Kings Head on Jun 26th, 2008 2 Comments »
I can’t remember a more enthralling day’s sport than yesterday’s fare. In the afternoon I watched the key bits of Ivanovic/Dechy, including a point where at match point down Ivanovic slams a forehand into the top of the net and it hovers and drops over just on the right side for her. You couldn’t write the […]
Posted in Berts Horses, Kings Head on Jun 16th, 2008 1 Comment »
… that is the question, and in my opinion the answer is a big yes. Tariq runs in the Queen Anne, and gets the nap vote for the first day. He’s in great form and he won at this meeting last year. He’s progressive, he’ll be happy on the ground and the stable may finally […]
Posted in Berts Horses, Kings Head, Winker Watson on Jun 13th, 2008 3 Comments »
Unfortunately Winker now passes Royal Ascot - the next opportunity may be the Prix Jean Prat at Chantilly next month. He worked on Wednesday with Al Qasi - he tired at the end of the gallop and blew the house down afterwards. It’s frustrating as he’s not far off full fitness, but he wasn’t quite going to […]
Posted in Berts Horses, Kings Head, Bouguereau on Jun 11th, 2008 5 Comments »
Derby day finally came, although the rain I’d been hoping for didn’t. It was a blow - I’d only kept Bouguereau in the race in the hope that the ground would come up on the soft side, but that wasn’t going to happen. Still a great day out beckoned. I got dressed in my fancy […]
Posted in Berts Horses, Kings Head, Bouguereau on Jun 6th, 2008 10 Comments »
Only a day away from a runner in the Derby, and although he’s a rank outsider I’m still pretty excited. The rain didn’t come for me, but there’s still a fair bit forecast and it might be enough to turn the ground at the last minute. Fingers crossed for a big run.
Thoughts on the big […]
Posted in Berts Horses, Kings Head on May 17th, 2008 6 Comments »
No luck yesterday with King’s Head. I spoke to Gary before the race - he thought the ground was slightly on the soft side of good rather than the fast side as I had originally thought. KH will win again whan the going is fast.
One runner tonight - Parisian Gift goes at Doncaster. We had […]
Posted in Horse Racing, Berts Horses, Kings Head on May 16th, 2008 1 Comment »
I had hoped for three runners today but I’m down to one after the two Maxes pulled out. He’s a good one though - King’s Head runs at Aintree tonight, and if the rains stay away I see no reason why he won’t go in again. He’s fit and well.
Nine days break isn’t a lot, […]
Posted in Berts Horses, Kings Head, Mon Michel, Bouguereau on May 9th, 2008 5 Comments »
A winner on Tuesday night with Kings Head doing it nicely. We’ve believed for a while that he is a decent hurdler in the making and it’s good to see a little proof of that. He needs top of the ground and he doesn’t get that often in the winter months, so he’ll probably always […]
Posted in Berts Horses, Kings Head, Bouguereau on May 7th, 2008 6 Comments »
The first piece of collateral form for Bouguereau comes today with Patkai, who runs in the final race at Chester. I like him as a bet. He was staying on in the Newbury race and will surely benefit from the extra two furlongs - he may also prefer the ground today. 90 doesn’t look like too […]
Posted in Berts Horses, Big Paddy, Ours, Kings Head, Effingham on Apr 27th, 2008 2 Comments »
I’ve had jumpers running over the last few days with no luck In truth it’s been a pretty disappointing jumps season - some fairly expensive purchases have run poorly, the only real high point having been Mon Michel winning a few months ago. I’m pretty happy with what I have for the flat this year though […]
Posted in Berts Horses, Kings Head on Mar 28th, 2008 6 Comments »
It was a big day for Betfair yesterday, with an important high court ruling coming through from Australia. The Western Australian government had introduced legislation that banned betting exchanges in WA and gave the racing authorities the right to decide who could and could not offer betting on WA racing. Betfair had little choice but to challenge […]
Posted in Berts Horses, Prince Ary, Kings Head, Mon Michel, Shawhill on Mar 9th, 2008 1 Comment »
A busy week, and a difficult one with Jane being ill with flu and me not being able to drive. I still managed to fit in three visits to the racecourse, and with Cheltenham coming up I’m going to be raced out be the end of next week.
On Wednesday I went down to Fontwell, where […]
Posted in Berts Horses, Prince Ary, Kings Head, Mon Michel on Mar 5th, 2008 4 Comments »
Cheltenham approaches and I have a few potential runners, but it brings a few dilemmas. Currently I have both Mon Michel and Prince Ary declared for the Imperial Cup on Saturday and the County Hurdle on the Friday of Cheltenham, and they could both run in both races. I also have King’s Head and Hope […]
Posted in Berts Horses, Kings Head on Mar 1st, 2008 1 Comment »
Bert is en route to Lambourn and has asked me to report that King’s Head won’t be running as Gary Moore is concerned that the ground will be softer than he wants. The times and jockey comments from yesterday suggested that it’s unlikely to dry out enough despite a bright and breezy day today. At […]
Posted in Berts Horses, Kings Head on Mar 1st, 2008 No Comments »
The time has come to name the 2yos, and the Comic Strip Heroes horses are always good fun to do. Jeremy and I compiled a list of around 40 names and we sat down with Ed to hammer it out.
We have three colts with Pete by Rock of Gibraltar, Bahamian Bounty and Fasliyev - they will respectively be […]
Posted in Berts Horses, Kings Head, Major Eazy, Captain Hurricane, Winker Watson on Jun 16th, 2007 3 Comments »
…and I’m beginning to get excited. Winker is extremely well and we’ve been arguing the toss with Pete all week as to which race he’ll go for. It’s looking like we’re going for the Norfolk on Thursday. Major Eazy will run in the Windsor Castle on Tuesday, and Frankie is taking the ride. He’s run […]
Posted in Horse Racing, Berts Horses, Kings Head on May 24th, 2007 No Comments »
A very poor show from King’s Head. Having spoken to Gary I was feeling pretty confident before the race, but he ran badly again and there could be no excuses this time. I’ve had a long chat with Gary - he says the KH is throwing away his chances by racing to keenly, […]
Posted in Horse Racing, Berts Horses, Kings Head on May 23rd, 2007 No Comments »
King’s Head goes today at Huntingdon, and he could be a real value bet. The ground is key for him. Last time he ran the rains came and ruined his chances - he gets another chance today on ground that he will appreciate. The firmer the ground the better his chances - the first races […]
Posted in Horse Racing, Berts Horses, Kings Head, Shawhill on May 11th, 2007 No Comments »
The end of a long week. King’s Head didn’t win, but after the rain I didn’t expect him to and I didn’t have a penny on him - for some reason he was heavily punted. Crimson Monarch didn’t stay. Ger Butler proved that he is very much in form, winning Highland Legacy’s race with a […]
Posted in Horse Racing, Berts Horses, Kings Head on May 10th, 2007 No Comments »
King’s Head goes to Wincanton tonight to try to open his account over hurdles. We took him back to the flat last time, but there were technical reasons for doing that - if he had won a hurdle before May 1 (the beginning of the new jumps year) he would have lost his novice status, […]
