Morning folks
A tough month thus far but not much damage being done. A few points dropped yesterday and whenever odds on/short priced favourites win it goes against my approach. I was feeling really down after racing yesterday (you know how passionate I am for us) as Ascot is starting to grate on me and to be honest I will be glad to see the back of this flat season ASAP. Flat racing is notoriously tough end of season but it was a hard watch!!
The past 11 years low numbers have dominated that fixture so trying to fathom out what happened yesterday is mind boggling. High drawn numbers getting right over, what’s going on, especially in a top class 6 furlong race?? I must say though, I’ve never been a fan boy of Ryan Moore and the ride he gave James’s Delight was truly awful IMO.
Had Dancing Gemini, who was 4th, had placed we would have made a nice profit. I was strong for a 50/1 poke on Royal Rhyme whom I thought at one point was going to do it for us but early pulling possibly cost him. His placing damaged the blow and the next horses I was looking forward to as they had been well punted and we were sitting on good value bets.
The milers both ran stinkers for whatever reason, probably the Ascot factor and this is not after timing but when I was typing out Friday morning I deleted Carrytheone which kind of sums the day up!!
I used to love soft ground, backend handicaps. Low weighted horses had a great chance but those days have long gone. Form was also King but the handicaps these days are all more like rated stakes now with little between most of the runners which leads to run of the race, luck etc on the day which should never be.
Take the Cambridgeshire, a brilliant Heritage handicap I have had numerous winners of but Halling, a superstar Group 1 horse, although didn’t struggle to win, would have off top weight IMO back in that day yet the last TWO running have gone to middling handicappers off TOP weight. Never before has that happened so something has changed and maybe as I look back on this flat season I may have to tweak my approach a little without straying too far from the principles that have served me so well for over 25 years.
That’s my feelings so we swiftly move on, just a couple more weekends of the flat to go before switching into National Hunt mode. In saying that, it’s the opening 2 day Cheltenham fixture Friday & Saturday. The midweek fare looks unappealing but I will be looking on Thursday at the Friday Cheltenham card. It’s early days but getting a sighter/feeler for the form will be good and I don’t envisage I will be going mad but if I can find any strong, value selections I will post them out from late Thursday afternoon onwards or send out an update mail either way.