Good morning all,
Quiet day today with a visit to Uttoxeter for me, where I'll be working. But looking at the weather for tonight and into tomorrow morning, there's plenty of rain coming and that will change things. As such, might be a little later posting tomorrow morning as I want to see what the damage is rain wise before I put the Saturday selections up.
Not much to say today so just a couple of observations from Fakenham on Wednesday and also some Breeders Cup selections for tonight from the London Racing Club, reproduced with the kind permission of my friend Kate Austen. I'll also post their Saturday selections up tomorrow too.
I was very surprised to see the Racing Post omit quite a bit of detail regarding the result of Fakenham's opening Maiden Hurdle at 1.10 yesterday. They have reported the facts as they happened in the race, which is fine, but omitted to tell you about favourite Royal Ruby's behaviour beforehand, which was far from ideal. In fact, the moment he came into the paddock he started spinning around and a second handler ran across the paddock pretty quickly to grab hold of him.
He proceeded to get very warm and edgy and by the time he left the paddock had got himself into a real mess. Fair play to Jerry McGrath for keeping a hold of him to post but all his exertions took it's toll in the end and he could only manage third. In the circumstances, not a bad effort but he really needs to calm down pre-race and isn't one to play at short odds next time.
I mentioned what a poor time of it Neil Mulholland was having of it a couple of weeks ago but since then he's tuned things around nicely and The Way You Dance was a decent winner of the handicap hurdle at 3.10. It would appear the bad spell was down to a bad batch of hay, so now that's gone through the system he should be able to kick on and it could be that a few that have run poorly over the last few weeks might be a slightly bigger price than they should next time out. Worth keeping an eye on.
Onto the Breeders Cup tonight. Kate made her own notes (and apologises for the poor spelling and flow!) but here's what she got for Friday night –
Huge thanks to Mark Johnson & Rachel Candelora for their time, knowledge & the following picks. Time constraints mean I'm just posting the picks, not the reasoning.
But…there are a couple of things to note.
Summer Del Mar form is important as it means success on the new laid, deeper track & experience for jockeys, most of whom won't have ridden here before (esp Euros!)
Run-ins are incredibly short. Leading from the front early could, if a stayer, be advantageous. Need to close earlier!
The turf track is inside the dirt; it's sharp.
The dirt track is banks up on the wide outside. Affects if you're going wide. Kickback is bad.
Stall 1 is on deeper dirt. 3/4 from rail wld be good.
FRIDAY
1. Juv Fillies Turf 1m
Significant Form ew
Capla Temptress – small ew
2. Dirt Mile (1m 88yards)
Mor Spirit win
– Cupid ew
MJ – Sharp Azteca ew
– Accelerate (loves Del Mar) ew
3. Juv Turf 1m
Encumbered (2/2 @ DelMar) ew and a small play Mendelsohn
Untamed Domain ew
4. Distaff (Feature race)
Abel Tasman each way on her US Oaks win, and the giant Elate possibly worth an e/w play.
To today, and I don't like a lot at first glance but Minella Fiveo was one of a handful from Sue Smith's yard that I saw at Wetherby a couple of weeks ago that badly needed the run and he didn't run that badly in a race that I think should work out well. He's been dropped another 3lb for that and now is just 2lb higher than his last winning mark. The soft ground here will suit much better than the good ground that day too, and this does look a bit easier. Danny Cook takes over the reins and he looks fair value at 7-1.
Today's selection – Minella Fiveo 3.10 Wetherby
Good luck with all your bets today,
David.