Tippy Toes is a long time winning but there’s a good chance the Mark Johnston-trained Havana Gold filly will finally ‘nail it’ at the sixth attempt in the Fillies’ Novice Stakes over six furlongs of Chelmsford polytrack today; it’s important for stud purposes ‘winning brackets’ are secured for this consistent, hitherto luckless two-year-old, second on first three starts, once at the Essex track.
Ryan Moore has been aboard three times!
Last time at Brighton, a switchback course which rode ‘softish’, Tippy Toes missed the break and was always on the back foot under David Probert, replaced on this occasion by Jason Hart, a real ‘favourite’ whose honest endeavour has paid off handsomely these past three years.
Two previous winners oppose, carrying penalties, which virtually rules them out but Macon Belle and Kape Moss, like Tippy Toes, are advantaged considerably with maiden allowances and in my ‘little world’ of specialising with juveniles a real cracker of a dash, on a spacious punter-friendly course is in prospect.
To think but for six all-weather venues I’d be guessing on the National Hunt scene confronted by varying ground conditions; no wonder November used to be a desperate month for achieving consistency, pre-1989!
I’ve enjoyed AWR and won the Press Naps Table Championship in the Sporting Life four times in the first six years years of its introduction; I walked Southwell, where I ‘owned’ about twenty winners, familiarised myself with Wolverhampton, which yielded several ‘firsts’ in my colours and ventured to Surrey where they were in evidence with my only equitrack runner, Master Tyke, a bonnie little chap which landed us a tremendous big-priced gamble at Leicester on turf.
Strangely I’ve never been to Kempton ‘poly’ circuit, Newcastle tapeta or the Essex left-hander, initially known as Great Leighs before closing and then reinstated as Chelmsford!
My enthusiasm has been infectious; probably many world-wide publications, which used to carry this column, have had an effect because artificial tracks are now part of the racing scene all over this beleaguered planet. Hopefully I’ve made a difference.
What will become of humanity in the hands of egotists, nutcases and eccentrics all gathering to talk about a distant period when most of us wont even be remembered with graveyards prime spaces for meeting building criteria. Brrrr, what a thought!
In the meantime enjoy profiting from my ‘time’ exploits.
Selections, Newbury, 2.00 Ahorsewithnoname (e.w); 3.40 American Gerry (e.w); Chelmsford, 3.25 Tippy Toes (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