What have Tyson and Dazzling Dan got in common?
Both were napped during a weekend Newmarket meeting on the July course and were ‘turned over’ unceremoniously, finishing well in rear without giving readers the slightest flutter as they watched on TV screens throughout the world.
First port of call Saturday night was the ‘results’ page of the Racing Post which encapsulates everything and is a good reason why I never buy the newspaper for £4, robbery on a grand scale!
Apparently the index for Newcastle Saturday was page 44 and during a phone call, when a colleague turned to it, (as I flicked this cursor to the site!, he found Newmarket!
After a few under the breath expletives he unearthed Gosforth Park and now threatens not to buy RP again!
I said my bill of about £120 a month (for years!) is now scrubbed and our food bill at local supermarkets is offset considerably; nowadays we ‘Just Eat!’
Within minutes of extensive analysis of a ‘good to firm’ fixture it soon dawned, dramatically, something was seriously wrong; race-times revealed several established, consistent handicappers had failed to beat my ‘standard times’ and sure enough tucked away in small print was the dreaded word, WATERED!
Again I’d fallen for the ‘three card trick’, or at least that’s how it felt, and let down punters/readers who rely on this column to profit and enjoy horse-racing, having vowed, several weeks ago, all-weather racing and ‘summer-jumping’ would be a combined speciality.
Unfortunately they are not programmed every day but tonight Lovely Mana and Turna are expected to fight out the five-runner Novice Stakes over five furlongs of ‘standard’ Wolverhampton tapeta. Earlier Newton Abbot stages a National Hunt meeting which could provide holidaymakers with the ‘Ultimate Getaway’ in a weak-looking Novices’ Hurdle over two and three-quarter miles.
Consistent Turna, advantaged by Ray Dawson’s 3lbs apprentice claim, could overturn the favourite, but why has Richard Fahey booked Jack Mitchell for once-raced Pearl Of Beauty, by no means disgraced when ‘having a run’ on debut last month? ‘Why’ indeed!
With low TH marks, the ‘front two’ are vulnerable and we might well be with a real ‘Beauty!’
Ayr hasn’t been watered and so top-rated, progressive twice-raced Cotai Class is risked in the juvenile race.
It’s ‘Glorious Gioodwood’ this week, please don’t water Mr Clerk!
Selections, Newton Abbot, 1.00 Ultimate Getaway; Ayr, 1.45 Cotai Class (e.w); Wolverhampton, 6.05 Pearl Of Beauty (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