Friday (20th May)

Bets

Wednesday 18th May Kempton

The Kevin Philippart De Foy filly Mai Alward was quickly cut to around sevens Tuesday night. I had taken the 12s and was happy to see she had been supported. I was watching the betting through the day, money was coming in, it's always good to see support and my cash out was climbing, 13/2, 6/1, 5/1 9/2 unbelievable, the support continued and Mai Alward was actually as low as 7/2 but drifted back out to 11/2 come race time. A  decent start this time as Daniel Muscutt had her covered in behind the leaders as the race devolved, another gamble Speriamo was travelling strongly with previous winner Land Of Summer, Mai Alward was slightly blocked in as the Speriamo and Land Of Summer went for home, a little flat footed Mai Alward stayed on to take third as the Pat McBride runner won by a nose, I will take a 12/1 place as it's better than a kick in the plums!

Thursday 19th May Sandown

Amaretti Virginia for Richard Hannon, disappointed with that effort and looking limited after finishing fourth.

14.20 Bath Friday May 20th 

Trackers: Estate, Knowwhatimeanharry.

I could be playing for a place here as the likely favourite is odds on shot  Commander Straker for David Loughnane and owner David Lowe. The Kodi Bear colt has finished second on both his starts, beaten odds on when bumping into the John Quinn trained Breege. 

Rod Millmans Ignac Lamar has finished third on his last two starts. The Dandy Man colts best effort last timeout when third to Dunnington Lad, the second Rumstar won easy next timeout and the fourth placed at Nottingham since. Nice winner for the Millman stable with Cuban Mistress at Sandown on Thursday, interesting.

Interesting runner for Clive Cox here called Valdai for owner Mr Nurlan Bizakov. Trainer won this race last year with Caturra who had an excellent season winning the group 2 Flying Childers. Clive does have a great first timeout strike rate at Bath, definitely one for the short list. 

Fox Degree for Ralph Beckett and King Power Racing. A 200,000 gns purchase. I imagine price will be the key, over sevens would be a negative here. 

Jilted for Richard Hannon, sent off 8/1 finished and behind Cuban Mistress at Salisbury. The winner Katey Kontent looks decent, and would need to improve a fair bit too figure here.

Knowwhatimeanharry and Zarrafina both need to improve.

I've had a small each way on the Andrew Balding colt Estate here who was 9/2 when I put the bet on. The son of Showcasing was an 80,000 gns Breeze-up purchase and made his debut in a class 2 at Chester at the start of the month. Not an easy course to make your debut, especially for debutantes, a few had experience already and it showed, drawn in stall 11 and slowly away David Probert was playing catch up, it all looked a little tough for the Balding newcomer as he was ridden to keep in touch, he was never catching the leaders so it looked to me that Estate was just guided home without given a hard time. A bit of support wouldn't go amiss here in what looks an easier race. 

Tracker: 17.53 Catterick May 20th  

Exquisitely for Karl Burke. 

Thanks for reading. 

Wednesday (18th May)

Wow what a day Saturday was, emotional, ups, downs, alcohol, bets, winners, losers, celebrations.

I wrote this part Sunday morning with a slight hangover shall we say, yes I'm pretty sure you know I'm a Liverpool fan by now and enjoyed a cracking day watching the mighty reds lift the FA Cup, that's enough football. 

Bets

 

My main bet of the day was Flying Barty at Thirsk, I was confident the Kevin Ryan filly would run well here so put a few quid on at 7/2, Flying Barty ended up 15/8 favourite which led me to believe it was a formality, well things didn't turn out that way as Flying Barty ran no sort of race and faded to finish fifth in what was a puzzling run, back to the drawing board with her 

The other two bets I put on the night before had nice little cash outs but I let them both ride, Princess D'Or was the biggest as I took 6s and she ended up 15/8 joint favourite for Charlie Appleby. It was a bit of a gamble as her only run last season was awful but felt confident with the money that came in but as with Barty another no show, this horse cost 2 million quid unbelievable! 

Next up was Double O, had a few drinks by this time and I guess chasing my losses, stupid I know but that's what drinking and betting does, did make a profit here abeit a small one as took 6s and the David Loughnane filly ran well to finish second beaten by a 20/1 shot though. 

Mawj is a tracker for Saeed bin Suroor, I did check the stats and place strike rate was pretty good to be honest but ignored that and left the Exceed And Excel filly alone. It was one of them watching the race wanting her to do well because it's a tracker but also hoping she didn't win and I could back her next time out, the writing was on the wall though as Mawj travelled like a dream and showed an impressive turn of foot to scoot away, looks the business to be fair. 

Onto Sunday and the race at Ripon which I previewed in my last post. I think I got it pretty spot on apart from Royal Mariner running an absolute stinker. The James Tate runner has decent stats below 7s, I took 16s and waited to see if the gamble came, it did late on but stopped at 9s, another in hindsight I should have made money on.

Another one of my Three-Year-Olds to follow Galleria Borghese won after making all at Naas but as I've said before it's hard to catch a O'Brien horse right so of course I didn't back him. All in all it could have been a great weekend but I ended up losing. 

If you follow me on twitter you will know I've had a few winners including Panama 9/4 and the Roger Charlton trained Garner who stayed on to win well at Nottingham yesterday 13/2. A bit of a rush job this post as I don't get much time with working the early shift this week so I do apologise for it being all over the place. 

19.00 Kempton 18 May 2022

I had a quick look at this race about five o'clock yesterday and when I say quick it was quick. Land Of Summer won well for Richard Hannon on debut and has a penalty to overcome here.

I'm pretty sure the connections of Poppy Field were disappointed with her debut at Bath. The Eve Johnson Houghton filly was keen and didn't look to be given a hard time once the winner had flown, the type to do well if backed.

Another of the early market leaders is the Michael Bell trained Mont Champs who was beaten by the Marygate Stakes fourth Beautiful Eyes last timeout. Reproducing that form should see her involved again. 

Time is getting on so I'm going to cut to the chase. 

I've had a speculative bet here on the Kevin Philippart De Foy trained Mai Alward I say speculative as when I put the bet on the Havana Grey filly was 12s but has been backed since. If you look at the write up of her last race you would be thinking is he mad (could be to be honest). I watched the race back and she was given a pretty considerate ride by the apprentice Benoit D L Sayette. The grey was slow out the stalls at Brighton last month and pretty much detached for most of the race. It wasn't until the last couple of furlongs she made up ground, all things considered wasn't beaten that far. Daniel Muscutt is riding today and has a great second timeout strike rate on De Foys 2-year-olds. I could be a mile off but just thought was worth taking a chance at the price. 

Tracker:

17.40 Sandown 19 May 2022 

I'm not the biggest fan of Pat Dobbs but he's back on board my tracker Amaretti Virginia for Richard Hannon after finishing fourth of four on debut at Lingfield. A bunch finish and another I think has more in the locker. Hopefully an each way price.

Good luck and thanks for reading.