Boy racer

Good and bad yesterday.  Quaker Parrot ran no sort of race, but we were fairly unworried.  She fell out of the stalls in a heap and never got moving – she’ll learn from the experience and will run better next time.  Tikka Masala was more of a concern – she ran no sort of race and we couldn’t explain it …

Triple chance

I actually have pieces of three runners today and two of them are paper favourites.  Quaker Parrot runs in the 2:10 at Bath.  She’s coming along fine at home and has a respectable chance – it’s really a question of what else is in the race.  There are several likely types in the line up that could be smart – …

Survival

A big day on Saturday with Swindon winning at home and guaranteeing their survival in League 1 this year.  We’ve not had an easy time of it at STFC – we were hoping to go up this year but it didn’t work out and we were in real danger of relegation despite a goal difference of only -3.  It’s an …

Back on track

A weak day on Saturday with no winners – costly as I felt good about a couple of my picks and got stuck in.  It was the first day of the flat when I really spent time checking out the form and annoying to have decimated my account. I’ve put it right since with a series of winning bets.  On Sunday …

Looks like I picked the wrong time

… to give up gambling.  Actually I haven’t given up – I planned to but when I came back from holiday there was so much racing going on that I got stuck straight into it.  I went to Newbury yesterday – the third days racing in a week.  Tom Dascombe had taken a box, and I also popped in on …

Too free

A disappointing run from Marine Boy today but I’m prepared to forgive it.  We had a chat about tactics beforehand and Tom was very much of the view that the horse needed cover to stop him running too free – Richard was to drop him in somewhere in the middle and produce him with a couple of furlongs to go.  …

Ups and downs

A serious disappointment from Winker, coming fourth of five in a race that was several leagues below the class of race he was running in last year.  It’s hard to know what to think – his most recent work on the gallops had been exceptional (Alan, who is generally quite pessimistic, described it as proper group 1 work).  We’ve found no …

Happy Easter

Back from my hols and raring to go.  It was a nice relaxing break – the farm is a building site at the moment and the weather is a long way below Portuguese standards but it’s nice to be back all the same. It’s a big and important week for the horses.  Winker and Maxwell Hawke go today at Warwick.  …

Best fresh

I’ve been in Portugal for a week now with the family and my mother-in-law.  The weather’s great and we’re all having a good time. The news from home starts with one real tragedy.  Astrodome had an accident on the gallops – he struck into himself, severing two tendons including his digital flexor tendon.  There was nothing to be done – he …