- Monday, 09 May 2011 07:26
- Written by Chelsea Morgan
The stable's horses continue in good form and I thought that Hunterview ran a cracker to finish third (at 25/1) in the Swinton on Saturday at Haydock. Spanish Cruise occupied the same position at Worcester yesterday and I am sure that his turn in the winners' enclosure is not far away, meanwhile Qulinton won the 2 1/2 mile handicap chase under Conor O'Farrell. It seems to me that young Conor is improving with every ride and he was seen to great effect aboard Qulinton as he won by a short head - this followed hot on the heels of his win aboard Trucker's Delight at Punchestown on Saturday and the young Irishman will now claim 3lbs (rather than 5)...even so, he looks very good value for it.
- Sunday, 08 May 2011 00:00
- Written by Chelsea Morgan
This Thursday sees the Dante Stakes take place at York...it is the single most important trial ahead of the Epsom Derby and has been won by some very good horses on their way day Derby success. It will be fascinating to see how Henry Cecil's "second-string" and current Derby favourite World Domination fares (now that Frankel has been confirmed a Derby non-runner), or the The Queen's horse, Charlton House. My connections are screaming about Charlton House, and I must admit to having had a little ante-post interest for Epsom at odds of 6/1. There is still plenty of 11/2 available, but I don't expect that to last long if he wins the Dante!
- Saturday, 07 May 2011 07:17
- Written by Chelsea Morgan
What an amazing performance from Hurricane Fly in the Rabobank Champion Hurdle last night at Punchestown. He made a field of proven Grade One performers look positively ordinary as he burst five lengths clear in the straight under a motionless Ruby Walsh. Neither Menorah or Binocular had any answer and it was down to Thousand Stars to chase the reigning Champion Hurdler home. He certainly appears to be the best hurdler since Istabraq, and who knows, he could go on to even greater things - one thing is for sure, it would appear that one of last season's top novices' is going to have to progress for the home team to challenge him at next season's Festival. I wonder what is wrong with Binocular? He seems to have completely lost his way and maybe a change of scenery might help...whatever the problem is, he seems a shadow of his former self.
- Friday, 06 May 2011 06:55
- Written by Chelsea Morgan
I was watching the action from Chester yesterday, and while it is not ground breaking news - it never fails to amaze me how vital the draw is there. The widest drawn horse to be successful at the track yesterday came from stall number eight (and that was in a 1m2 1/2f race where they had time to sort themselves out). If you are drawn on the outside in sprint races then you might as well go home - I backed Sea Odyssey yesterday in the five furlongs sprint (drawn ten) and he finished runner-up. In fairness it was a good performance and the winner, Gabrial did look useful - I just wish that I had kept to my rule of not backing high numbers at Chester...hindsight is a wonderful thing - you would have thought that I would have learned by now!
- Thursday, 05 May 2011 07:21
- Written by Chelsea Morgan
All three of our runners at Punchestown performed with credit, especially Street Entertainer who put up an excellent performance to land the novices' hurdle under A P McCoy. It just goes to show what a good eye for a bargain David has - he picked up Street Entertainer at the Newmarket Sales for just 12,000 guineas and he has now won his last two starts. Yesterday's race was worth €14,625, so he is already looking something of a steal. It also provided champion jockey A P McCoy with a nice 37th birthday present, and David with his first winner in Ireland...one thing is for sure, I bet there were a few pints of Guinness downed last night! He looks certain to win further races, including on the flat where he has a rating of just 65.
- Wednesday, 04 May 2011 07:10
- Written by Chelsea Morgan
It is the Chester Cup this afternoon and we are represented by last year's winner Mamlook in this competitive handicap. A draw of nine will not make things easy, but it is far from being a disaster too - Richard Hughes gave him a fantastic ride last season and hopefully he will be able to repeat the dose today. To hear David's thoughts on the task facing Mamlook click here...We also have three runners at Punchestown this afternoon: Street Entertainer, Battle Group and I'msingingtheblues. I saw David being interviewed on Attheraces yesterday and he was still looking okay (although it was only day one of the Festival!). Mr Thriller was in the process of running a big race in the champion novices' chase when capsizing at the fourth last and judging by the way he was going at the time, he looked booked for a place at the very least. Let's hope that we get some better luck today.
- Tuesday, 03 May 2011 07:12
- Written by Chelsea Morgan
It has been a good few days for watching some extraordinary performances on the flat and there was another at the Curragh yesterday as the Aiden O'Brien trained ex-Australian import So You Think completely outclassed the opposition to land the Group Three High Chaparral (which is a nice bit of publicity for the sire as he is by High Chaparral!). He made the rest of the field look like a bunch of selling platers and picked up a cool £47,000 for what turned out to be no more than a racecourse gallop. The five year old is one of the best middle distance horses ever to come out of Australia and looks as though he will strip even fitter next time out. He looks to be some horse and is clearly a Group One performer.
