Good morning all, It was great to see racing back at York. Made even better when you manage to find three winners in the big… Read More »York Dante Festival – Day 2

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,

It's a wet start to the weekend, and heavy rain is going to be affecting the ground at all tracks as the morning progresses. Warwick, which is my intended destination later today, now have a precautionary inspection at 1pm due to a patch of standing water, so please be aware of that.

I've looked at some of the big TV races, hoping to buuild on a good Chester Cup result yesterday!

Read More »Soggy Saturday!