Saturday, April 19, 2008

Bits and pieces

Tomorrow Great Leighs in Essex will go into the record books as the first new British course to stage racing since Taunton opened in 1927. I think it's fair to say that they've met with more than their fair share of delays on this project; let's hope everything operates smoothly from hereon in. To ensure the course's infrastructure is properly tested, the first few meetings at Great Leighs are 'invitation only' events and, yes, you've guessed it, they forgot to invite me. If you're keen to get to a meeting in the coming week, you could do a lot worse than Sandown's combined flat and jumps card on Saturday, with the Bet365 Gold Cup (formerly Whitbread Gold Cup) serving as the finale to the National Hunt season.

Watching a review of this week's Guineas trials on televison, Infallible looked impressive in winning the Nell Gwyn but John Gosden clearly rates Natagora. Twice Over held Raven's Pass, the pair clear, in the Craven; both John Francome and Jim McGrath envisage the same outcome should the pair reoppose in a fortnight's time. John Dunlop's Muthabara won the Dubai Duty Free at Newbury despite looking backward in her coat - you would expect her to improve significantly, although it was interesting to hear the trainer rate her as 'good but not fantastic' before the race. Mick Channon's yard is under a bit of a cloud at the moment; Nahoodh took a walk in the market and went on to disappoint but she is clearly held in very high regard. 6/1 shot Paco Boy took the Greenham and will probably be supplemented; Sir Michael Stoute's 11/8 favourite Confront didn't handle the soft ground. To my mind this Greenham form looks weaker than the Craven.

Missing a birthday - a mere peccadillo, isn't it? Three weeks ago this blog celebrated its second birthday with over three hundred and forty posts. I know what you're going to say - you wouldn't care if the tips were half decent. The truth is I only do blogging so I don't have to watch East Enders...

On the footballing front, Wrexham's 1-0 defeat of fellow strugglers Notts County appears to have postponed relegation from the Football League for another few days. The inevitable now looks likely to become reality at Edgar Street on Tuesday evening when promotion-chasing Hereford entertain The Dragons. I feel a little like someone who works on obituaries at a newspaper - I've done the preparation, I know what has to be said, it's just a question of when it comes about...

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

It says something about the state of modern racing that the first new course since Taunton is on a surface made out of recycled styrofoam, rather than the green stuff.
I went to the course site after reading your post. I worry that those two poor girls aren't dressed for racing, particularly for a windy evening in Essex. They are with a young man, clearly a cad as he is seated while the ladies have to stand, and he has failed to tie his tie up. Behind them some horses are trying to race, but none of the trio pay them any attention.
Like your. my invitation seems to have been lost in the post.

GeeDee said...
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GeeDee said...
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GeeDee said...

Julian Muscat's description of proceedings in Monday's Times does little to whet the appetite...