John Burke

Good morning all,

I got my Hook's mixed up yesterday. Many apologies for that. It was gremlins in the works.

Oh, what a night. It was seriously biblical in my part of Yorkshire last night.  I’m not sure how much rain we had but it was a lot.

The going at York was being described as good, good to soft in places yesterday evening. Now I’m about 20 miles from York so if they had the heavy rain we had last night, then it will be soft today. The thing is though last night’s weather was likely localized so it hard to say what the ground will be like. Some more showers are forecast today but is sunny at the time of writing  So, if you having a punt today, I would suggest you wait until you know what the going is.

Racing returns to York today with the first of three days of its Dante Festival and with it the last meaningful Derby & Oaks Trials.  We have one of those trials’ today: The Group 3 Tattersalls Musidora Stakes (3:10).  The feature race of a seven-race card is the Group 2 Duke Of York Clipper Logistics Stakes (2:40).

You can watch the best of the action this afternoon on ITV who are showing five races from the Knavesmire.

Inside today’s main piece I have had a look at the first four races on the card.

Read More »York Dante Festival – Day 1

Good morning all,

The Derby Trials had been rather underwhelming until Sunday. However, that all changed at Leopardstown with Bolshoi Ballet demolishing his field in the Derrinstown Derby Trial. The recent Ballysax winner maintained his improvement with a decisive 6 length success.

Ryan Moore kept it simple on the winner who was always in a good position. Taking it up three out the colt showed a good turn of foot two out to put the race to bed. After that it was just a case of the jockey keeping up to his work which he did.

Last season’s Futurity winner Mac Swiney had been expected to go close on his seasonal reappearance. He went second three out but couldn’t match the winners change of gear and lost two places inside the final half a furlong.  A disappointing effort on the face of it and the bookies pushed him out in the betting for next month's Derby. As he showed last year the more testing the ground the better and if he was to get deep ground at Epsom, he would have each way claims.

Lough Derg a stablemate of the winner plugged on for second but he looks more of St Leger type, although he wouldn’t be bred for 1m 6f.

As for Bolshoi Ballet he will now head to the Derby, for which he is the 7/4 ante post favourite. He’s bred for 1m 4f so his improvement hasn’t levelled out either.  If he handles the track, he’s the most likely winner. Visually impressive as he was at 7/4 he looks plenty short to me.

Inside today’s main piece I have few horses that caught my eye last week from Chester. Plus, there’s a couple of interest from Killarney.

Read More »Hook Head at Killarney

Good morning all,

Chester’s May Festival is back after a year off due to lockdown. It’s the start of a busy week of Derby & Oaks Trials starting at Chester today. Moving to Lingfield on Saturday and York’s Dante Meeting next week.

The feature races are the Group 3 Chester Vase (3:15). It’s an Epsom Derby Trial which was won in 2013 by Ruler Of The World before he went onto victory in that year’s Derby. In 2017 Wings Of Eagles finished runner-up in the race before going onto success at Epsom. Both horses were trained by Aidan O’Brien who has farmed the race in recent seasons winning seven of the last nine renewals.

The other classic trial is the Cheshire Oaks (2:15).  The race was won in 2017 by Enable before her win in the Epsom Oaks. John Gosden or Aidan O’Brien have saddled the last five winners of the race.

Inside today’s main piece, I’m concentrating on this afternoon’s racing from Chester. If you’re lucky enough to be off today or working from home you can watch the best of the Chester action on ITV Racing.

Read More »Chester May Festival – Day 1

Good morning all,

It was raining steadily in my part of Yorkshire yesterday. Not great for outside drinking & eating or a day at the seaside. However, we haven’t had any rain here for over seven weeks and the racecourses will have really welcomed every millimetre of the wet stuff that fell.

The field sizes at Newmarket’s Guineas Festival the two Classics apart were dreadful. The 3-year-old handicaps were poor for a prestigious meeting like the Guineas Festival. Granted the good to firm ground at Newmarket didn’t help and the prize money isn’t anywhere near back to pre-Covid levels. Still, it was a worrying sign and it’s not been confined to Newmarket some other tracks have suffered from poor field sizes for Class 3 handicaps.

Maybe the lack of racecourse hospitality is putting off some owners from running their horses. You also have the problem that some courses are still unable to accommodate overnight stays. I know that’s been an issue at the likes of Ripon.  Hopefully it’s simply those two reasons which are causing the lack of runners rather than something more worrying like a reduced number of horses in training due to the pandemic.

Inside today’s main piece I have several horses that caught my eye last week. Plus, I have an ante post tip for Royal Ascot and a selection from Wolverhampton’s evening fixture.

Read More »Horse's To Note & Wolverhampton Selection