Saturday was a poor day for our list to follow with no winners although a couple of my miscellaneous selections came good. English Ballet won the Sweet Solera Stakes, a Group 3 at Newmarket in good style. She handled the rain softened ground OK while giving the impression that she might be even better on a faster surface. This race has thrown up some smart winners over the years including Soviet Song, and English Ballet is being quoted at 25/1 for next years 1,000 guineas.
Audience is a horse I have been keeping an eye on for a long time, before he had even seen a racecourse in fact. He was featured as a “dark” 2 year old in one of Marten Julian’s publications, and a couple of years after appeared as a horse to follow in one of Mark Howard’s annuals after he had changed hands for 48,000 gns. I backed him that year when he won at 11/1. He does seem to be one of those horses that doesn’t win that frequently but when he does “the price is right” because his only win in 2005 came at 33/1. He had been running well without quite getting there this season and he did seem a winner waiting to happen yesterday.
Sunday was a much better day for the list to follow with a couple of winners. Moss Vale was an expensive purchase for David Nicholl’s but he has repaid his transfer fee with 3 excellent wins, the latest coming this afternoon at The Curragh. Our other winner was Spectral Star at Leicester at 8/1.
There are no runners from the list tomorrow but there are a couple of 2 year old races that are worth a look.
In the Thirsk 5.55 Le Masque is worth noting. Both the sire and dam were multiple winners at 2. The stable does not have a good record first time out however.
The other race that took my eye was the Windsor 6.15. Dance of Dreams, a colt by Johannesburg is related to a number of winners and although Nick Littmoden has a poor record first time up with his juveniles this looks one for the notebook. The other newcomer in this race that I want to mention is Woqoodd. Michael Jarvis has been doing well with his 2 year olds of late and this one is apparently well thought of by connections.
Of those with previous experience Oldjoesaid should be better for his debut run at Chepstow when he was 7th of 8. The one they all have to beat though is Sakhee’s Secret. The form of his 3rd here last month reads well as the 2nd that day, Cheap Street has won since. Sakhees Secret finished well that day and is related to all sorts of winners.
I will finish thyis eveing with an idea mentioned to me by “Lancelot” whose web site you will find as one of my lonks (well worth a visit by the way). His favourite bet is a Patent and his betting pot is still nicely on the plus side over two years purely because of doing Patents.
His latest strategy is a "Rolling Patent" where instead of backing the three horses he puts the single, double and treble on the first. If it loses he starts again. If it wins he banks the stakes, takes the winnings from the single (one third of the total) and then puts the other two thirds on the next horse for the double and treble to continue. A second win and he keeps the treble going and pockets the rest.
Apart from anything else it means you need not have three horses in one day, the Rolling Patent can stretch over, say, three days at one selection a day. The returns for a block of three might be slightly down on a real Patent but that is more than made up when the third selection of one block and the first of the next come up. A double which would not normally have been claimed.
A staking plan well worth consideration.
See you tomorrow.
ahorse 