Bert’s Horseracing Blog

A disappointing day yesterday on the track and an expensive one for my account but by no means a disaster.

Nicky Nutjob was disappointing, but it’s probably not the end of the world.  He’ll improve plenty for the experience, but he’s not looking like a sharp or early type - he’ll probably be more effective over longer distances when he’s older.

Skid Solo finally ran a decent race.  Jeremy was bullish beforehand and I asked him why.  He said that there were excuses for all of his bad runs, and it was too early to assume that he was a morning glory.  He may have been right - whatever the case he looked a far nicer horse in the ring beforehand and there’s no reason to assume he can’t go on from here, which is excellent news.

Marine Boy was disappointing, although he didn’t finish far away.  Tom’s view was that the race may have come a little too soon after his illness, and in retrospect perhaps we should have waited for longer.  I take a lot of the blame as I pushed Tom to get him out for this race.  He’ll go away for the season now.  He’s a big horse and is still a little unfurnished - he’ll be a far better 3yo than a 2yo and there’s little point in risking him now.

Disappointments apart it was a good day.  I booked a big box and invited a mix of horse people, Betfair people and Betfair punters - it finished off a week of getting out and about.  I was going to go the the EIG (European I-Gaming conference) in Barcelona next week but I decided to duck out and get on with a few other things.

I run two in the same race today - Prince Ary and Kings Head both run in the 3:30 at Plumpton.  Prince Ary has become disappointing, and although it is hoped that the return to hurdling will help it is far from certain.  King’s Head, on his preferred G/F ground, must have a good chance and is preferred, although he hasn’t been very consistent lately.