In between the York Ebor meeting being washed out and rerouted and the Haydock sprint having similar problems with the weather the 3.30 at Brighton may have escaped your notice. The Ian Carnaby Selling Stakes at the seaside track is a race I always look out for though as it is sponsored by one of my favourite racing journalists. Mr Carnaby writes with a great deal of humour and good nature and knows a thing or two about horse racing as well. If you get the chance to read his book “Not minding that it hurts” I would strongly recommend it.
The draw at Brighton over 6 furlongs goes a long way towards settling the result and in this year’s race the front 3 came from stalls 3, 1 and 4. The sponsor’s own fancy for the race, Caustic Wit, was drawn 16 of 16 so had little chance.
Brighton racecourse has a bit of a literary heritage as Graham Greene’s rather bleak tale of gangland warfare in “Brighton Rock” was set partly around the races. The nearest thing to a literary connection in this race was the runner up, the Dandy Nicholls trained Trinculo, named after a character in The Tempest.
At the moment the wish expressed in the Tempest “Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground,” seems quite apt, in fact 5 furlongs of decent ground would be a good start! At least we have the all weather to keep us going, where Kempton has staged some quality racing over the last couple of days. My analysis of the mile handicap yesterday was pretty well spot on (for once!) – “The London Mile handicap at 3.25 has attracted a competitive field, and I have come up with a short list of 3, Formation, The Fifth Member and Premio Loco. For my selection I am going with Premio Loco who was a winner over course and distance at the end of July in a race where the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th have all won since.” Premio Loco won with the other two finishing 3rd and 4th. Just to prove that I do get it right sometimes.
On the subject of mile handicaps I see there is talk of reopening the old racecourse at Lincoln where the Lincoln handicap used to be based, which gives me the perfect lead in to a bit of “turf trivia.” Ron Sheather, who later went on to be a trainer, holds the unenviable record of the only man to finish 58th in a horse race! He finished plumb last in the 1948 Lincolnshire Handicap on the old course when the contest attracted the biggest field ever for a flat race. His horse was Lucose, clearly lacking some ade!
There is racing at Bath and Folkestone tomorrow, weather permitting.
Tudor Prince doesn’t boast the greatest strike rate in the world with just 2 wins from 23 attempts. I get the feeling he might just be approaching win number 3. He runs in the 4.40 at Bath and will appreciate the soft ground. There are a couple of old favourites of mine in opposition. The former trainer Bill Wightman is well into his 90s now. Mick Channon used to have horses with him but the roles have been reversed and the ex Saints striker now trains Digital, who is owned by Mr Wightman. Digital is an 11 year old now but has won 3 times at Bath and it would not be a huge surprise if he were to run well tomorrow. Harrison’s Flyer is on a 23 run losing streak and is not the force he was when he won 9 races. Anything like his form of old would see him in the shakeup though.
Wyeth runs in the 5.10. He is a half brother to George Washington but has rather let the family honour down thus far and is still a maiden after 8 tries.
There is one runner from my list to follow in action at Folkestone. Recent course and distance winner Fearless Warrior has a 6 lbs penalty which would not necessarily stop him. More of a concern would be the ground, it was good to firm when he won last time, and there is also the worry that the blinkers may not work a second time. Fingers crossed he will go in again.
There is nothing that really catches my eye in any of the races scheduled for Tuesday.
Today’s pictures are by kind permission of the artist Jo Stockdale (see links).
ahorse 