Karl Burke will always be known for training the amazing John Dance filly Laurens but he can also train a nice 2-year-old. This season a few have done me a good turn especially when the money comes in. The first was the Dandy Man colt Lord Of The Lodge who won on debut for owner Mrs. Elaine Burke at 4/1 after opening up 9/2 and ridden by the brilliant Ben Curtis. His last race of the season was the Group 2 Gimcrack Stakes at York and another brilliant performance seen him finish second to the class Richard Hannon colt Threat, only beaten just under two lengths. Lord Of The Lodge finished the season with an official rating of 109. Hopefully, Lord Of The Lodge will have another good campaign next season.
Rayong was another success for Karl Burke and the King Power Racing team after winning on debut at Carlisle in May. The Mayson bay colt then went on to finish third in the Listed Dragon Stakes at Sandown behind Liberty Beach. Rayong finished the season with an official rating of 97 and despite finishing out the places in some decent races Rayong should be winning again next season.
The filly Living In The Past brought Karl Burke and Clipper Logistics Group success this year. The Bungle Inthejungle filly won the second timeout at Beverley before going on to finish third in the Group 3 Princess Margaret Keeneland Stakes at Ascot. Better was to come as Living In The Past was sent off 12/1 and given a positive ride by jockey Daniel Tudhope in the Group 2 Lowther Stakes at York. Living In The Past made all and went on to beat Liberty Beach by just under a length. Even though unplaced in the Breeders Cup Juvenile race that was a great season and should be in the winner's enclosure again next season.
I was expecting to see another Karl Burke 2-year-old this season but I imagine she has had a few issues or just needs strengthening up before making her debut. The horse in question is DO YOU LOVE ME. The lovely bred Galileo filly was purchased for an incredible 3.2 million at the Goffs sales by owners Phoenix Thoroughbred Limited and has a big reputation at Spigot Lodge. I have been waiting for a good while for this bay filly to run after she was given a few significant entries this year but it's looking more likely she won't be seen till next year as the 2-year-old races wind down.
Karl Burke gave an update on her back in July saying she was still a bit backward but she’s a lovely filly. Do You Love Me has been given early entries for the Irish 1000 Guineas and also the Irish Oaks which is interesting?
After another busy year for Karl Burke and his team, it looks like he will be reducing the number of horses next year which sounds like a good move to me, and he can now concentrate on quality over quantity and hopefully, the 2-year-old horses will still be a money-spinner for me.
Thanks for reading and look out for my next horse to follow coming soon.
I will start today's post by declaring my love for trainer Karl Burke, but as my mentor and friend Jason Coote have written once or twice before if you can’t make money backing Karl Burkes 2-year-olds then you need to pack in betting. After a quiet April Karl has come to life in May with three 2-year-old winners and if you were to look closely at the results you would see that money came in on all three and my latest tracker was another prime example of this.
Bet Review:
With two trackers in the same race on Wednesday I had to make a decision and especially since I was putting my bet on the night before, as always it's a gamble not being able to see any market movers and at the minute I am playing a dangerous game, I am sure my good fortune must be coming to an end soon. The Mark Johnson trained Frankel colt Fred was too short for me, so I took the gamble and done the Karl Burke-trained Dandy Man colt Lord of the Lodge who had been given a couple of Class 2 entries but didn't run in both.
Lord of the Lodge opened up at 9/2 (I took 8/1 the night before) and was 4/1 on the off, which added to my confidence and as with Rayong Ben Curtis gave him a great ride and stayed on to win by just under 2-lengths and give me my fourth 2-year-old winner in a row. I have mentioned before the market is crucial and if Lord of the Lodge had drifted in the betting then I would only have myself to blame. I won’t be giving up on Fred just yet even though he finished last and will be checking the market on his next run.
Looking through the cards on Saturday there is not much jumping out at me, to be honest, I like the midweek smaller meetings when you can often find a little gem to bet on. As a racing fan I would have loved to have gone to my local racecourse Haydock on Saturday to see the talented Calyx, but as you must be aware by now it’s marathon day Sunday so, I will have my feet up resting and hopefully the father-n-law can get a few nice pictures for me as he’s off to Haydock on a jolly boys outing.
Timeform Early Declaration Alert
16:15 York 25 May 2019: War Storm had an entry for the Class 2 race at Chester today but is running here instead.
15:10 Goodwood 25 May 2019: Silent Wave had an entry for a Class 2 race at Ascot on May 1st but didn’t run.
16:05 Chester 25 May 2019: Endowed had a couple of early entries, first was the Class 2 race at Ascot in May and second was today's race at Chester.
The Saturday Trixie:
Week five and things are getting desperate as I still haven't had a winner, Aaron is storming clear with three wins out of four selections and Sam still can’t get one to stay on its feet.
Aaron: El Astronaute 3.45 York: Front runner who won 2 big field handicaps last season at this track, also finished 2nd in this race last year.
Craig: War Storm 4.15 York: It was a close call between Endowed at Chester and my selection War Storm. This Archie Watson trained Due Diligence Colt ran a pleasing debut at Wolverhampton finishing third of eleven behind the Godolphin pair, backed in that day from 6/1 to 9/2 shows he was expected to run a nice race. I would like to see some support tomorrow and hopefully, he can get his head in front, the danger looks to be Dutch Decoy.
Sam:5:00 Cartmel - Canyon City - been keeping good company and Bryony Frost remains in the saddle to keep the partnership after their latest victory, making the partnership 3/4. The long trip might stretch him a bit but won a tad cosily last time and every chance they will make it 2 on the bounce.
Thanks for reading and good luck for the weekend.
It doesn't happen very often but when it does you have to enjoy the moment. It’s a great feeling getting a few winners under your belt and your confidence is high, I know it probably won't last long and I have probably put the kiss of death on my good run but this season I had a few nice doubled priced winners and to be honest, I don’t feel like I'm doing anything different from last year. A few of my trackers have come up trumps with a couple of 14/1 winners and an 11/1 winner already. I guess this season I have tried to be a bit more patient and few times trust my instinct which leads me on nicely to my betting reviews.
Bet Reviews:
In Saturday's post I mentioned a few trackers I had running, well, in fact, three in the same race which is always a dilemma, so the one that stood out was Misty Grey who Mark Johnston had given an early entry in the Class 2 Lily Agnes race at Chester but didn't run him. I looked back at his last race, he was up with the pace until tiring and eased down. An early morning price of 14/1 did not fill me with confidence and also no sign of a market move, so I just trusted my instinct and put my each way bet on. I also done a win bet on Oso Rapido for the O’Meara yard who’s juveniles have been running well this season.
To be honest, Misty Grey had the race won two furlongs out when leading from start to finish to win by an impressive 7-lengths. I will also be looking out for Oso Rapido who was well-backed and ran a race full of promise.
On to Monday and I mentioned three horses on my Twitter feed that I liked the look of, first up was a horse called Rayong for one of my favourite trainers and jockey combinations, this is what I wrote on one of my profitable courses for flat jockeys post way back in March (When I think of Ben Curtis I always think of Carlisle racecourse so it’s no surprise to see it’s a profitable racecourse for him, so over the past three years in maiden and novice races only, see him have 31 rides and winning 14 with an impressive 45.2 percent win strike rate and an even more impressive 341.6 per cent win return at starting price, look out for Ben Curtis riding for trainer Karl Burke).
I put my bet on Rayong the night before and took 7/2 which he actually ended up after opening up at 9/2. This Mayson colt is owned by the powerful King Power Racing team who have transformed racing of late by buying lots of quality horses. Watching the race, Rayong looked professional from the off, broke well and tanked along before Ben Curtis took it up a furlong out before staying on well, he looks a nice recruit to the Karl Burke yard and should come on a lot after a great debut.
Next up was Mark Johnston trained Rose of Kildare at Redcar who ran in a Class 2 race at Chester and brought some good form to the table, she won easy enough at 6/5 and another winner in the bag. Last up was a tracker from last year, the Clive Cox-trained Eligible who had a Group 2 Champagne Stakes entry as a 2-year-old but never ran. I noticed he had been gelded and took a gamble and done a each way bet at 20/1 and was pleasantly surprised to see him backed into 8/1. I think he ran a great race to finish a close third and looking like he could win at one stage, I will keep an eye on him for next time.
The One That Got Away
I caused a bit of a stir on social media a couple of weeks back when my post about the brilliant Aidan O’Brien stringing us along, and to be honest, I had a good chat with a few people who thought the headline was unfair, and I was told he doesn't have second or third strings, I take that on board but looking at the stats I said I would follow his less-fancied 2-year-old horses in Group races, well I bloody missed one as I didn’t even check the Irish racing on Sunday and surprise surprise Etoile the less fancied of the O’Brien pair won at 12/1, gutted as it would have been a great start.
Timeform Early Declaration Alert
2.00 Ayr 22 May 2019: Fred had an early entry for a Class 2 race at York but never ran.
2.00 Ayr 22 May 2019: Lord Of The Lodge had two early Class 2 entries, one at York and one at Chester.
Thanks for reading and good luck.
If you ever have any questions email me at craignewton175@gmail.com.
