The Luck Of The Draw!

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!

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If you went to Wincanton last night it was certainly a good night for favourite backers, with five out the six jolly's obliging.  It never ceases to amaze me when there is money around for horses that are as short in the market as 1/10 - someone had £1000 on to win £100 - a man much wiser than me (David Pipe Snr) once said "if you have a thousand pounds, what do you need a hundred for?".

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We have one runner at Punchestown this afternoon - Swing Bill in the handicap chase at 4.55pm.  He has been a model of consistency all season and produced another good performance at the Grand National meeting at Aintree last time.  He was just behind Gonebeyondrecall that day and once again there should be little between them.  It is the last day of the Festival there tomorrow and we could have a couple more runners yet in Sure Josie Sure and day two winner Street Entertainer - David arrived back yesterday...I don't think his liver could stand anymore, although travelling head lad Craig Wylie is still going strong!