Just Junior

The stable has one runner this afternoon, former Royal Ascot and Cheltenham Festival winner Junior at Wetherby.  Our ten year old produced a good effort when second at Huntingdon last time out and he looks feasibly treated from a mark only 1lb higher than his best winning mark.  Conor O'Farrell gets on well with the top-weight, who has to concede upwards of 17lbs to his rivals today as he shoulders 11-12.  I thought that Midnight Tuesday ran a decent enough race at Worcester last night, he seemed to drop away before staying on again in the closing stages to finish fourth in the handicap chase.

Above: Junior strides out impressively on the Pond House gallops

The stable has one runner this afternoon, former Royal Ascot and Cheltenham Festival winner Junior at Wetherby.  Our ten year old produced a good effort when second at Huntingdon last time out and he looks feasibly treated from a mark only 1lb higher than his best winning mark.  Conor O'Farrell gets on well with the top-weight, who has to concede upwards of 17lbs to his rivals today as he shoulders 11-12.  I thought that Midnight Tuesday ran a decent enough race at Worcester last night, he seemed to drop away before staying on again in the closing stages to finish fourth in the handicap chase.

*****

Unsurprisingly the front page of today's Post is dominated by the story about Eddie Ahern receiving a ten year ban from racing.  The BHA have found him guilty of stopping horses - a practice that needs stamping out completely.  Hopefully the severity of these punishments will deter people from considering doing similar in future.  The average punter in the betting shops still thinks that this sort of thing goes on every day, despite racing never having been cleaner than it is at present.  The trouble is that there are still one or two corrupt people on the fringe of the sport who are trying to make a quick buck.

There was a bit of a shock result at Southwell yesterday as odds-on favourite La Estrella was beaten in the claimer - this was the ten year old's first defeat on the level at this track in fourteen attempts.  One of the punters in the betting shop implied that because it drifted from 4/6 to 10/11, someone knew that yesterday was the day La Estrella was going to be beaten.  These are the kind of attitudes you are trying to alter, so publicity surrounding the likes of the Eddie Ahern case is the last thing the sport needs.

*****

There was an interesting piece in yesterday's Racing Post about the new look Channel 4 Racing coverage.  For what it is worth, I think that the coverage has become far too serious and straight-laced and not as entertaining.  The sport is part of the entertainment business and without any colourful, entertaining characters on air, the viewing public will switch off.  I was a great fan of John Francome - not only did he know what he was talking about, he had a great sense of mischief and fun, something that is sadly lacking in the current 'vanilla' Channel 4 team.