Bert’s Horseracing Blog

I went to Lapland on the weekend, which was good fun.  It was a real winter wonderland - pine forests of deep snow.  We had a late night husky ride (they don’t half motor), a reindeer sleigh ride followed by a trek to meet Santa in a hut in the woods and a snowmobile trek.  The cabin was decent but the food was poor, there was lots of tobogganing time and we built a snowman.  All good fun, though it was nice to get home and see the kids…

I had a big bet on Ashkazar on Saturday. which was a mistake.  If there’s an area where I need to tighten my game it’s veering off long term fancies when the short term considerations are negative - everything should be right when you back a favourite and in this case Pipe’s horses just haven’t been well enough recently.  I probably should have walked away, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it.

King’s Head ran fairly poorly and subsequently didn’t make his reserve on Monday.  He’s running to a decent level but he isn’t looking as keen as he should - we’ll probably send him claiming now.  Pansy Potter ran reasonably well in a claimer without troubling the judge - she has a win in her in that class.

Prince Ary arrived at the farm yesterday and is out in one of the paddocks now with a couple of local horses for company.  It’s a momentous day as he is the first horse to arrive on the stud, although he lacks the equipment to feature in the breeding side.

I don’t think I’ll be doing much betting over the Christmas period.  I may back Straw Bear in the Christmas Hurdle.  I never thought he was designed to go chasing but I see no reason why he shouldn’t relish the return to hurdles - Nick’s horses are in better form than last year and he’s a nice price.  In the King George I’ll go small each way on Briareus.