O'Brien Hoping For A Double At Leopardstown (October 16th)

The drift told the story with newcomer WALTZING at Leicester on Tuesday as the Martyn Meade runner, who was up with the pace, faded badly the final two furlongs. 

My other fancy STONEGARTH, who I had a small each way bet, ran a promising race at Newcastle. The Karl Burke trained Gutaifan gelding was a big price the night before but was heavily backed into 17/2 at race time. The one thing you don’t want to see at the start of a race is your horse slowly away but yes, of course, Stonegarth missed the break but soon caught up and stayed on without threatening the leaders. I will be keeping an eye out for him next timeout so one for the trackers I think. 

In my last post I wrote about the one million gns horse MAHOMES who was another who took a drift and went from 5/2 to 9/2 in around an hour. As I mentioned in my post, I did like the winner ANNANDALE but couldn't bet at the price. Not sure what to make of Mahomes' performance as the Dubawi colt, trained by John Gosden, kept on without looking like landing a blow. Maybe with the winter behind him he could improve and make a nice 3-year-old. 

50 juvenile winners this season for @Johnston_Racing! Annandale improves from defeat on debut to win nicely at @BathRacecourse under @RKingscote… pic.twitter.com/oHRWIdUSMs

— At The Races (@AtTheRaces) October 14, 2020

I also mentioned SIR LUCAN on Twitter who is very well-thought of by O’Brien. 

I’m not one for short odds but the 5/4 was a great price in the end. 

It was nice to see one of Ed Dunlop 2-year-olds to follow come in. This is what Ed said about the Sixties Icon colt: 'Tara ITI is the son of St Leger winner Sixties Icon. He is a powerful looking colt with a good shoulder and hind end. He has taken to work well and should be ready fairly early.' 

13:25 Leopardstown (IRE) 16 Oct 2020 

Plenty of meetings in England tomorrow but all look potential tough races and nothing stands out, so I will venture back over to Ireland with two potentially nice horses plus a potentially nice newcomer for the future. 

BOLSHOI BALLET will no doubt be running in class races in the future. Well, there's no guarantee, of course, but the Galileo colt was born into a nice family and looks a nice type himself after a promising debut at Newmarket at the start of the month. A full-brother to Southern France who improved with age and won the Group 3 St Leger trial Stakes at Curragh at four. Bolshoi Ballet looked in need of the experience at Newmarket and stayed on well when the penny dropped. 

There are plenty of dangers in what looks a nice race. Aidan O'Brien also has SIR LAMORAK, who is a half-brother to A New Dawn. I’m pretty sure we will be hearing more about this Camelot colt in the future so just keep an eye out how he runs tomorrow. 

12:55 Leopardstown (IRE) 16 Oct 2020 

WILLOW has an excellent pedigree but as we know it doesn't guarantee success. The American Pharoah filly has run twice already this season. She ran a decent race last timeout when being snatched up and holding on for third here 85 days ago. Her dam, Peeping Fawn, made her racecourse debut at three and never looked back, winning the Oaks and the Irish Oaks in a memorable year. 

I’m pretty sure we haven't seen the best of the Aidan O’Brien filly and another one from Ballydoyle I am looking forward to watching tomorrow. 

Thanks for reading and stay safe.

Meade to Dance a Jig at Leicester (12th October)

The date was 26th Feb 2019 when I first started my blog, well fast-forward to the 12th October 2020 and I have over 100,000 views. I never imagined I would make it this far but here we are and the hard core are sticking with me through the good and bad times. I just want to say a big thank you to everyone who reads and hopefully I can keep motivated to carry on for many more years to come. 

Talking about sticking with me through good and bad times brings me on to my last post. My headlined horse was the Aidan O’Brien No Nay Never colt HOROSCOPE who was making his debut yesterday at Curragh. Horoscope was sent off 17/2 and it was definitely a learning experience as he was slowly away and kept on without threatening the leaders to finish a neck fourth which was no good for me because I actually had a small each way bet. That being said I thought that was a real promising effort and pretty sure we will hear a lot more of Horoscope in the future. It kills me to even mention Leafhopper as another that made a dent in my profit this year, the John Gosden filly was well-thought of last year but I guess that means nothing a year later as the Dark Angel filly was well-beaten. The more I looked at her last race the more I was thinking of cashing out but decided to let it ride and the rest as they say is history. I’m going to try something different and put a few newcomers that might run a decent race over the next few days. I might just watch how they go for interest as one I don’t really like backing first time out runners and two, this soft going is driving me crazy. 

13:50 Yarmouth 12th Oct 2020 

ALDAARY on paper looks a nice type for the William Haggas team. A 55,000 gns foal and a 150,000 gns yearling who was bought at the 2019 October Yearling Sale out of book 2 by Shadwell Estate. William Haggas has a nice strike rate with newcomers here at Yarmouth and only last month I mentioned AROUSING who went on to win nicely, KADUPUL and YAZAMAN both won on debut here. Aldaary is a half-brother to Easy Road who was a smart performer. I do enjoy seeing a John Guest horse and this year we have one in this race called Media Guest who cost 70,000 gns, Media Guest is actually a tracker for me who had an early entry for the Dewhurst Stakes, I will be interested to see how the Belardo colt runs here for G G Margarson and Tom Queally. 

15:55 Leicester 13th Oct 2020 

Tough one here but hopefully WALTZING can make his presence felt against a couple of other nice newcomers from the Balding and Morrison yards. Waltzing was purchased at the October yearling sales for a 120,000 gns by Phoenix Thoroughbreds interestingly enough. The Manton Park Racing owned Kodiac gelding is a full-brother to the William Haggas trained ON HER TOES who won a Listed race at two and finished third in the Sweet Solera Stakes at Newmarket in what was a nice career. I wouldn’t have thought the ground would be a problem looking at his pedigree. Hopefully the Martyn Meade runner shows some promise at least. 

17:45 Newcastle 13 Oct 2020 

Early forecasts suggest my next newcomer should be a decent price and that's probably because we have a couple of potential alright horses here. I do like the Varian trained BATRAAN who could be anything, but I might even have a small each way myself on the Karl Burke runner STONEGARTH. The Gutaifan gelding was a pretty cheap purchase at 26,000 gns and is owned by Hope Eden Racing Ltd & Mrs E Burke who have had a few past winners together. I would be looking for some support here and any negative would be a negative. 

Thanks for reading and stay safe.