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  • Dec 2013

Category - Racing Thought-Provokers!

[vc_row][vc_column width="1/1"][vc_column_text] AND ANOTHER THING... THIS SHOULD BE AN EASY WEEK! Aintree is always easier than Cheltenham, which stands to reason when you consider it; we are in a better position to assess jumpers now as events at the Festival dispensed with some of the guesswork. To a degree, we know the pecking order; all we have to decide is which horses will adapt best to a faster track on quicker ground. Some Cheltenham runners had Aintree written all over them - the Triumph Hurdle third is one that springs to mind. To make it easier, Aintree is a word comprising of only seven letters, making it simpler to spot[...]

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  • Dec 2013

Category - Racing Thought-Provokers!

[vc_row][vc_column width="1/1"][vc_column_text] AND ANOTHER THING... A GHOST IS WRITING THIS. A man that is out of form is as much use as an apparition. That's me; for I am what is referred to as out of form. Except, at least privately, I contest this. No one is about to sit down and listen to my problems unless I am willing to pay £100 an hour; and if you can afford to pay people £100 an hour, then any problems may recede, if only fleetingly, depending on whom you pay and for what service. Actually, I don't think there is such a thing as being out of form. What happens[...]

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  • Dec 2013

Category - Racing Thought-Provokers!

[vc_row][vc_column width="1/1"][vc_column_text] AND ANOTHER THING... Succeeding IT HAS BEEN A TOUGH couple of weeks for most people, racing folk not excepted: too many brown envelopes and not enough of the other kind. To compound any hardship for those of us in racing, the weather has wreaked havoc with the fixture list. Even allowing for the dearth in turf racing, the all-weather - so often a source of winter fortune - has been mostly dire. This is not an excuse for a moan. The end of December and the early part of January is traditionally a lean time for punters. It is a good idea to let the Kempton Boxing[...]

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  • Dec 2013

Category - Racing Thought-Provokers!

[vc_row][vc_column width="1/1"][vc_column_text] AND ANOTHER THING...  A UFO? WELL THAT'S it, another Christmas gone, another year consigned to the wreckage that is history. Any hope that 2009 may sur its predecessor is looking as shaky as a raft preparing to sink in a stormy sea. There is the economy, events in the Middle East, a pipeline that appears to be more hot air than gas leading from Russia, and Britain's high streets threatening to become ghost towns. Nine days gone and it is not looking promising. A propeller blade is mangled on one of those wind contraptions in Lincolnshire. Bright lights are spotted in the sky - it must be[...]

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  • Dec 2013

Category - Racing Thought-Provokers!

[vc_row][vc_column width="1/1"][vc_column_text] AND ANOTHER THING Worried about Jack I AM WORRIED ABOUT JACK. In case you do not know (and why should you), Jack is described by Sporting Index as their, Bet on the Move manager. I am not sure why 'bet' and 'move' are capitalised here and manager is not, but I assume Sporting Index know what they are doing. Or do they? Leaving aside the possibility of a grammatical faux pas, Jack's function, according to today's advert that appears in the back page of the Post, is to prevent punters from becoming frustrated. Stopping people from becoming frustrated seems like a neat trick and if Jack can[...]

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  • Dec 2013

Category - Racing Thought-Provokers!

[vc_row][vc_column width="1/1"][vc_column_text] And Another Thing Back From Holiday ... DESPITE misgivings about leaving my office and formbook for seven days, a week in Corfu turned out to be a most relaxing and pleasant experience. The weather was unseasonably kind and I have returned with a deep suntan. But having been staked out on a sun-lounger may not achieve much except make me feel better. I have a lot of work to catch up on so apart from the postman, if he is delivering a parcel or a ed letter, it is likely to go unnoticed. And as with every positive there is a negative; my tros seem to be[...]

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  • Dec 2013

Category - Racing Thought-Provokers!

[vc_row][vc_column width="1/1"][vc_column_text] And Another Thing When Successful gamblers win BIG money I HAVE HEARD THE theory that gamblers have an inherent wish to lose. I know this appears strange, a sort of boffin equivalent to spending millions on creating a think-tank to tell us something we already know, don't need to know, or that is just plain stupid. You know the sort of thing: After two years of intensive study, an erstwhile body informs us that people who do not smoke live longer, or that single mothers find life harder than those in a stable relationship. Well, it keeps people fit for little else but to pontificate in work[...]

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  • Dec 2013

Category - Racing Thought-Provokers!

[vc_row][vc_column width="1/1"][vc_column_text] And Another Thing So that's Glorious Goodwood over for another year – one festival nearer to the darkness of autumn. Well, how was it for you? Did you lay Infallible reckoning a three-year-old filly had it to do against colts? Or Henrythenavigator because you felt lucky, Yeats because two miles was a minimum and Lush Lashes because the ground had turned against her? I pose such questions because, with the exception of feeling lucky over ‘Henry’, the other three propositions were all credible reasons for taking a chance. But when it comes down to it, it is what you actually do: whether or not you press that button,[...]

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  • Dec 2013

Category - Racing Thought-Provokers!

[vc_row][vc_column width="1/1"][vc_column_text] AND ANOTHER THING... WE ALL KNOW you should not attempt certain ventures under the influence of drink. Driving is top of the list – trying to chat up the opposite sex features highly, as does betting and attempting to write a column. Not guilty on the first two; unfortunately, woefully culpable in the last two cases. I am in Paris: Longchamp to be precise. They run the first – a Listed event – as lunch is served. Everything in stops for food so we don’t really notice the victory of Never Forget which, given its name, seems inappropriate. Instead, there are discussions concerning the merits of[...]

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  • Dec 2013

Category - Bush Telegraph

[vc_row][vc_column width="1/1"][vc_column_text] BUSH TELEGRAPH SATURDAY OCTOBER 31st NEWMARKET RACING TIPS: 12.20: Revered stayed on over this trip on debut at Salisbury and is said to have improved since. After a decent enough first effort she is certainly the filly to beat in this maiden. She ought to win but, as always, with so many unknown quantities in opposition, the betting will be informative. Countenance Divine is said to be useful but is nominated as no more than an each-way hope by her stable. 12.55: This is the division won by Sariska last year so today's participants have plenty to live up to. The word is for Safina to provide[...]