Good evening to whoever may read this.
It’s the Friday before the Festival so it’s time for a general chat before decision time. My views are now tainted by watching several previews including, in particular, the Betfair preview:
Click on the links on the right hand side to get the previews for the subsequent days.
As indicated in the day two comments below the broadcast, I think that Anthony Bromley is the star in this. He’s the only man who, in a meaningful way, bridges the gap between Henderson and Nicholls (plus anyone else who gets a chance). He’s obviously French focused but that’s accounted for much of what we’ve seen in the UK over the last few years, and increasingly in Ireland (look at WP’s stars).
I don’t take any pleasure (really) from the fact that opponents to my selections seem to be drifting away. I’m sure that we would all want all the best horses to turn up. However!! We are now looking at very interesting weather with reports of covering all the courses and below freezing overnight for every night of the Festival until next Friday. I can’t tell you off hand which year it was that there was a lot of snow at the Festival (I’m thinking it was the early 90s). If I spent long enough watching the Racing UK replays I’d be able to tell you. Here’s the thing. If the ground is coming off frost, even if it is officially good to soft (as it will undoubtedly be), ground off the frost just isn’t the same and will be much better suited to winter campaigners – it just will be that way! That’s very significant for the horses requiring good ground (it won’t be) and is a good reason for supporting winter campaigners rather than those who have been saved.
Some of the selections might not perform so well on that ground but the bottom line is that good horses will go well in anything other than terrible ground. For example, I feel better about Sprinter Sacre, Jezki, Dynaste, and all the other Irish challengers. Well, that’s it for now. I’m going to take a look at tomorrow’s runners so there may be a brief list of selections to follow.
Good luck!
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