Riknnah, heavily-backed, concluded what became a troublesome week of missed opportunities when prevailing narrowly Saturday night, on Lingfield polytrack; how significant and ironic!
Injustice of over-watering turf racecourses surfaced dramatically (yet again!) at Epsom where starting prices, positioning of runners was farcical as jockeys were again completely mystified by underfoot conditions, which one specified in this column yesterday; just look at the huge, unbelievable starting prices and race-times.
Don’t take my word for the angst of discussing indiscriminate application of sprinklers on already damaged ground, the data is superbly illustrated in the Sporting Life/Racing Post online publications and it’s a right storyteller.
A long time ago I decided to nigh on give up selecting/backing racehorses on English grass tracks, apart from ‘unwatered’ Bath, and stick to all-weather racing but last week, predictably, like all the other sheep, got involved with the ‘Derby’ meeting as is my wont but, I can assure you, will be never be the case again.
The whole scenario reminded me about the difficulties of playing bowls on uneven ground; remember ‘Crown bowling’ a few years ago which was televised from the North and smacked of Epsom Downs with the undulations and trickery? Even that had an alternative, indoor carpet surfaces, a reminder of synthetic joy!
My first port of call every day will definitely be AWR meetings, whenever possible (or summer-jumping) because my ‘speciality’ rewards readers consistently and you punters are the reason why this is penned, blog-style, every day of every year; Lingfield stages another fixture today, a ‘mixed meeting’ on polytrack and turf!
‘Someone up there’ has always been good to me but is surely having a laugh producing ‘dual’ surface racing, what’s the point?
Obviously it’s a question making the best of a bad job and hoping lessons will have been learned from the Epsom debacle; surely the British Horseracing Authority will issue a directive about the folly of watering, given such an outcry.
With an each-way patent in mind Adaay To Remember looks a solid bet for a Novice Stakes over six furlongs but, be careful, eight are declared and bookmakers will be ‘on the the prowl’ to get this vunerable number reduced. Make sure they all run before venturing forth because ‘the enemy’ will stop at nothing to shoot us down.
C’mon, ‘let’s get ready to rumble!’
Here’s a bit of useful advice: AYAC is an acrononym for Are You Absolutely Certain and so think about it, every time, before investing.
Selections, Leicester, 1.00 Bay Breeze (e.w); 3.00 Tacitus (e.w); Lingfield, 3.45 Adaay To Remember (e.w).
Jeffrey Ross, horse-racing correspondent for WMN since 1983 when winning the most prestigious racing journalist award, Sporting Life Naps Table, before winning it a record number of six times collectively in the Racing Post, the current ‘trade’ paper, including 2019