A great day yesterday with Manor House scoring its first win at Royal Ascot – Rhythm of Light won extremely well under a confident ride. I hope it’s the first of many.
It saved my days betting – I was on course for one of my worst days ever having bet (and lost) heavily on every race bar the Prince of Wales. It all had a happy ending and I go into today with plenty of ammo.
As I sit here just up the road from Ascot it’s raining heavily and it has to be enough to change the going. There are several Manor house runners at Ascot and elsewhere today – it’s a very important day.
We have two runners in the Norfolk. There isn’t much to choose between Bear Behind and Pymans Theory on home work, but the betting has them wide apart. BB will not appreciate the rain, but it won’t inconvenience Pymans. They are drawn next to each other on what has been the wrong side of the course – the track bias might change but maybe that’s hopeful. I’ll have a small bet on Pyemans as she’s the better of the two on the ground and I don’t want to oppose Michael’s horse.
In the Ribblesdale I have Sunday Bess running. I still believe in her and at 50-1 I will be backing her – I’m concerned about the ground though as she may not appreciate it. She has a nice enough knee bend in her action that should work well in softer ground, but she has small feet – we don’t know how she will go on it. It isn’t a positive for her chances but I will be backing her anyway and hoping.
I haven’t given a lot of thought to the Cup, but I’m siding with Blue Bajan who will cope with the softer ground and may have improved for young trainer David O’Meara. In the Britannia I’ll be backing Kuala Limper who is owned by a friend – I’ll have a saver on Captain Bertie who is bred to go on the ground and has an excellent name. In the Hampton Court I’ll go with Slumber who is nicely bred from a family who typically appreciate a little cut.
In the last Michael runs Brown Panther, and he will definitely be happy with a little cut. It’s probably a very good race with several in it that are hard to assess. BP has a great chance and it would be fantastic if he went in – obviously I will be siding with him.
I have pieces of two other horses making their debut around the country today. Kenny Powers goes to Ripon, and he is a really nice horse. I was hoping for a price on him but he’s already been backed off the boards and is likely to go off very short. Juno the Muffinman goes at Leicester tonight – he could also be nice but wouldn’t be quite as sharp as Kenny Powers at this stage. I certainly wouldn’t rule him out.