Two, recent big-priced selections, Rosa Mystica, a fast-finishing close third, and Thefastnthecurious, length second to hot favourite Future at Windsor on Monday night, could/would have made a massive difference had they prevailed but both provided a psychological tonic for this beleaguered racing columnist who knows ‘big-time’ is still just around the corner, on any given day; it’s so exciting to think what would have happened but, there again, it did, so often, in my long and illustrious career spanning several decades.
Eight supreme journalistic awards (national Naps Table Championships in the Sporting Chronicle, Sporting life and Racing Post can never be erased from records and neither is it possible to forget I owned Cragside, whose actual time-figure, when unluckily beaten a head by Doulab in the ‘Cornwallis’ at Ascot, represented the joint best of the year, 1984. Lester Piggott would have ridden him at a heartbeat and, apparently, let his feelings known to my jockey when behind ‘Craggy’at the famous Berkshire racecourse.
My life has been shaped by dedication and knowledge, the harder you work, the luckier you become; when nowt was happening I buckled down and turned negativity into positives, armed with a stop-watch and the ability to compute a personal time-handicap which was devastating and led to many accounts being closed to bookmakers (sorry accountants!) down the years.
A tinge of sadness in this respect because the one-time characteristic ‘enemy’ is now a cynical trade which has a firm stranglehold on the English racing scene, which is a far cry from yesteryear, for so many reasons.
I’ll never go ‘to the races’ again, about as much chance of pulling on the old ‘number nine’ shirt which I ditched when I ‘found’ journalism and realised footballers were slaves of the greed which permeated throughout the United Kingdom with dominant, undesirable owners/directors of ill-kept grounds squeezing the life-blood from the ‘beautiful game’, until Jimmy Hill put his bearded head above the parapet.
As I sit here in the darkness of another morning, compiling my daily ‘blog’, it dawns my modus operandi of specialising with two-year-olds/set-weight races provides readers with a tremendous edge; you simply must take advantage of the daily patent/trixies of an experienced, fiercely-competitive racing professional because there will never another to take my place, fact.’Time’ is indeed running out!
What was the biggest factor? ‘knowing something no one else knew’ and now you must surely realise my motto, ‘less said the better, and that’s too much’ was smack on the money, which we’ll carry on seeking again, every day. Don’t gamble.
Stick to the selections, avidly, and profit!
Luke Morris is confident about Twilight Secret in a Bath ‘ dash today.
Selections, Bath, 1.35 Twilight Secret (e.w); Yarmouth, 5.45 Princess Shabnam (nap); Kempton, 6.00 Karuoka (e.w).
ADAAY IN ASIA proved a heavily gambled on fourth consecutive winning nap last night for the best and most up-to-date column on the fabulous English racing scene!
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