Friday & Saturday's Thoughts (9th August)

A quick recap on Thursday's blog. 

Lord Of The Lodge made a competitive race look easy when making all to win by 5-lengths. The disappointment for me was the Richard Hannon trained No Show who did exactly that and finished fifth. Throne Hall was my fancy in the 16.00 at Haydock and after some support in the market the Kevin Ryan trained colt ran a promising race to finish a close third and should come on for the experience. Master McGrath won well at Sandown with another tracker Colonel Whitehead again finishing third at 25/1 for trainer Heather Main. 

Lord Of The Lodge bolts up in impressive style to take the British Stallion Studs EBF Novice Stakes at 3-1 for @karl_burke 👏👏 pic.twitter.com/8vy3wOTzzz

— Haydock Park Races (@haydockraces) August 8, 2019

Not much jumping out at me this weekend so I may do a small Trixie on these three over the next few days. 

18:10 Haydock 09 Aug 2019 

Only six runners go to post here which is disappointing because I do love an each-way bet. On the face of it, Unresolved faces an uphill task after a disappointing debut at Sandown last month. Unresolved is an £85,000 Frankel bay colt who is trained by Mark Johnston and owned by Saif Ali. Unresolved was away quick on debut and led until weakening dramatically the final furlong and a half. I am hoping he needed the run that day and today he will show improved performance. Mark Johnston has another Frankel colt called Fred who was also fancied on debut but finished last before an improved performance to win the second timeout. He also trains a Frankel filly called Frankel’s Storm who also disappointed on debut but finished second on her next start. Some support will be the key to her chances.  

15:45 Newmarket 10 Aug 2019 

Nine runners go to post in what looks a nice race. My fancy Dark Lady is a well-bred Dark Angel grey filly who is trained by Richard Hannon and owned by Cheveley Park Stud. Dark Lady showed plenty of promise on debut when finishing second to the nice Archie Watson filly So Sharp. She made no mistake second time out when easily winning at Lingfield by 5-lengths. Her third race was the Keeneland Group 3 Stakes at Ascot which saw her finish fourth in what was another professional display. Watching the race again she looked to be staying on well and the extra furlong will hopefully bring some more improvement. The race has some nice fillies in and one danger looks to be UltraViolet who was very impressive on debut and has been given a host of Group entries since her debut, which is always a good sign. 

18:15 Lingfield 10 Aug 2019

I am going to give the Richard Hannon chestnut colt Always Fearless the benefit of the doubt here after what was a disappointing run last time out. An expensive purchase for the King Power Racing Team. In fact, this Camacho colt was bought for 270,000 gns in October last year. No show on his debut when not fancied at 8/1 but his second outing saw a much-improved effort when keeping on to finish third to the Mark Johnston colt Fred. That wasn't a bad race, to be honest even though it was a bunch finish that effort should see him with a great chance to break his duck in what doesn't look the strongest race here. 

Thanks for reading and good luck.