David Massey

Good morning all,

The start of the last Bank Holiday Weekend before Christmas (there's a frightening thought) sees plenty of racing across the country and although thunderstorms will be moving in later on today, it hopefully won't spoil our enjoyment of what promises to be an interesting day's racing.

As now tends to be the case on a Saturday, I had a root through the TV races yesterday and came up with a guide for the majority of today's action at Beverley, Newmarket and Goodwood. Here's hoping for a few winners.

Read More »The Long Weekend

Good morning all,

The start of what looks a busy old week coming up for me, with fixtures both North and South that I'll be attending. And the first of those comes today, as I awake to the sound of (hungry, I'm guessing) seagulls at half past six this morning on Hove's seafront, as I'm off to the second day of Brighton's August fixture.

Brighton, much like Fakenham, is one of those tracks you have to visit at least once in your racing life, despite being well out of your way. I first visited here a couple of years ago and rather fell in love with the place, for some inexplicable reason, and try to come here at least once a year.

Read More »The Sound Of….Seagulls

Good morning all,

It's about as quiet a day as we're going to get in the Summertime as far as racing is concerned, with Ayr cancelled due to false ground because of the amount of rainfall they have had. It's remarkable to think how much has actually fallen at the venue, given how pleasant it's been further South these last few days, but hopefully they can get back on track before much longer. Entries for the Ayr Gold Cup have to be in today and I'll be casting an eye over them later in the week.

As for the weekend just gone, the two I liked at Rasen ran no sort of race, but for those of you who read the Eyecatchers feature, I was absolutely delighted with the run of Where's Cherry at Southwell yesterday. Read More »Busman's Holiday

Good morning all,

Late back from Newmarket last night thanks to motorway closures and the like, so it's with a slightly sleep-deprived body I haul myself up to Doncaster today. It'll be another busy day, and I always think the Donny crowd are a good punting crowd, even on event days like this. Perhaps it's because the lads and lasses there are brought up in households that teach their kids the important things when they're young, like never betting a round robin – have a trixie with bigger singles instead – so hopefully I'll be busy from start to finish today.

Newmarket was as expected – dreadful business at the beginning (we took £41 on the first race) but had built up by the time the last came around. Sadly, every man, woman and child wanted to be Frankie in his efforts to ride his 3000th winner in that race and he duly obliged, with the other jockeys helpfully letting Frankie set his own steady fractions to the cause. We were paying out for 15 minutes after the race, along with just about every other bookmaker on the track! Worse, it beat yesterday's selection, Palmerston, by half a length, just rubbing salt into the wounds….

So to today's racing. I have taken a look at a couple of races from Market Rasen, on their Rasen Rocks night (Jess Glynne again!)

Read More »Rasen Rocks