- Friday, 20 September 2013 07:05
- Written by Chelsea Morgan
This afternoon there are four flat cards to look forward to at Ayr, Newbury, Newcastle and Wolverhampton. The question that comes to mind is how on earth have Newcastle managed to get away with staging an eight race card for only £29,000 in prize money? Moreover, why are owners supporting the meeting? They have fields of sixteen and seventeen runners even though the most valuable race of the day is worth less than £3,000 to the winner. As far as I can tell, if the tracks think they can get away with putting on poor prize money, they will.
- Thursday, 19 September 2013 07:09
- Written by Chelsea Morgan
This afternoon there are four flat meetings at Ayr, Yarmouth, Pontefract and Kempton while over in Ireland there is another mixed card from Listowel. There was a bit of a shock result in yesterday's feature Kerry National as White Star Line bolted up at odds of 16/1...he should have been that price just to get a run considering he was the third reserve for the race in the morning - it must have been a 'titanic' result for the bookies! I see that A P McCoy has just one ride at Listowel this afternoon - let's see if the theory about jockeys with one ride at a meeting works! A P is going to another country for his one ride so it should be a certainty?!
- Wednesday, 18 September 2013 07:15
- Written by Chelsea Morgan
It is an all flat racing day in England with meetings at Yarmouth, Sandown, Beverley and Kempton so if you like your jumping you are out of luck...unless of course you can get coverage from the meeting at Listowel in Ireland this afternoon which hosts the Kerry National. As always it has attracted a competitive field which isn't surprising considering the good prize money on offer. J P McManus has a strong hand with no fewer than six of the eighteen runners, while Conor O'Farrell travels over for the ride aboard Romanesco for Gordon Elliott.
- Tuesday, 17 September 2013 07:37
- Written by Chelsea Morgan
The headlines in the racing papers today are unsurprisingly dominated by the memorial service yesterday of legendary trainer Sir Henry Cecil. MCP was one of more than a thousand people who travelled to Ely Cathedral to join in the celebration of his life. I was particularly amused to read of Lord Teddy Grimthorpe's recollections of the great man, 'millions loved him without ever having the great fortune of meeting him'. I was one of the lucky ones that did get to meet Henry - I stayed for a weekend at Warren Place and it was a weekend I will never forget.
- Monday, 16 September 2013 07:08
- Written by Chelsea Morgan
This afternoon we have three flat meetings to look forward to at Musselburgh, Brighton and Wolverhampton - the prize money for those three cards combined comes to £96,000, while over in Ireland their mixed card at Listowel offers £107,000! I must be missing something, a bit like the prize money in this country! Our only runner of the day yesterday at Bath, Beyond proved disappointing so it is back to the drawing board with him. With no jumps fixtures taking place today, the stable does not have any runners.
- Sunday, 15 September 2013 00:00
- Written by Chelsea Morgan
This afternoon there are just two flat cards to look forward to at Bath and Ffos Las. The stable has one runner at Bath, Beyond who goes in the 2.40pm race over the marathon flat trip of 2m1f. He has to defy top weight of 10-2 (less Willie Twiston-Davies' 3lbs claim) and a couple of disappointing recent runs. Our six year old was victorious on the flat at Salisbury on his penultimate start on the level and hopefully this quicker ground will help him recapture that sort of form.
- Saturday, 14 September 2013 07:14
- Written by Chelsea Morgan
Sadly it was a very different performance from Diamond's Return at Bangor yesterday from the effort he produced at Uttoxeter on Wednesday. According to jockey Conor O'Farrell he ran flat and the race could have come too soon after his success 48 hours earlier. It will be interesting to see what the handicapper does with him after this lacklustre effort.
