With the main card just finished at Chantilly today.  One thing I noticed was a lot of the horses that either won or finished in the first three, raced vey prominently.  The last winner Alpine Star made all the running in the 3.02.  She set the fractions, and never looked like getting beat.  I have noticed since the return of the racing from France, that Pierre Charles Boudot is riding with great confidence, and he seems to be the go to man for Andre Fabre.  He still uses Mickael Barzalona a lot on the Godolphin horses, I believe Barzalona is still retained by my old firm.

I put a few in the tracker today, who were given far too much to do, Galawi, who started second favorite for the 12.07- a 10f maiden, was one horse that in my opinion, should of won.  He was sat too far back, and it was a poorly judged ride by Maxime Guyon. The winner Bois D’argent was heavily backed into favoritism, and well ridden by Boudot, he got his mount up right near the line to win by a neck.

Not far off the first race at Marseille-Borelly, I did think the opening race would go the way of Moonlightpainter, who at around 3/1, is one I am going to back.

More tomorrow.

A decent card at Auteuil today in France.  Nimes 1.05 will try to follow up from a recent win at Compiegne in March.  He is trading around evens with most firms, and should follow up, stable mate Yes Indeed is his likely main threat.  Probably the best race is at 12.05.  Gooaaal carries top weight in this 2m 6f event over fences.  He is around 10/1, and would be my pick each way.  Nanosecond won well recently, but does lack experience over the larger obstacles, she jumped well on her only try over fences when winning. Trading around 2/1 she is the one to beat, despite her inexperience.

It looks very likely that racing in the UK will resume in June. How soon crowd’s may be allowed to watch remains to be seen.  The 6th of June is when the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket is hoped to be ran. It looks likely that the majority of runners will not of had a prep run, which will be unusual for this race.  I mentioned Arizona as my each way bet a while ago, he is still around 10/1, with my other choice for the race, french trained Earthlight, who is not yet a certain runner, as it will very likely depend on if the current short priced favourite – Pinatubo runs, although I believe Andre Fabre, who trains Earthlight, would like to run his horse at Newmarket, rather than go to France for their 2,000 guineas the weekend before.

More later.

Today’s main meeting in France is from Chantilly.  Already a few races gone, with a decent performance by Simeem in the 10.30 race.  She looks a useful filly, as she came from a long way back, and is value for a bit more than her winning distance.  Wooded is interesting at 1.12.  He drops back in trip today, which should not be a major issue.  The group 3 event should be ran at a decent pace, with the ground at Chantilly riding good to soft, Wooded should be doing his best work at the finish.  Acosia at 11/2 could be his biggest threat.  A few others I like at Chantilly, I hope I may be able to find a winner, on a fairly decent card.  It is just good to see some racing, on grass !

Having been watching the racing in USA of late, i find it is very inconsistent, I think a large number of the jockeys, make numerous errors, punters know their fate before halfway normally ! It is really hard for horses to come from a fair way back, as the bends are normally tight, and the length of the home straight is normally much shorter than in Europe, which makes it very difficult.

More tomorrow.

Reflecting on the return of the racing in France yesterday.  Two really hot favourites were beaten in Victor Ludorum and Sottsass.  The former raced wide, and was keen under Barzalona, who failed to get his horse relaxed.  I would think connections would of expected him to win well, prior to the race.  It was interesting to note that the winner dictated the pace of the race,and stole a bit of leeway- as the horses entered the last two furlongs. I thought  Barzalona should of gone against the pre-race tactics, on Victor Ludorum, which were to ride his mount from off the pace, sometimes when you are riding, you have to do that, simply ride the race to suit your horse, not the opposite. Basically for me it was a very average ride on a very useful horse !

Sottsass was another who was ridden from off the pace, the eventual winner Shaman,  who made all the running in this Group 3- over 10f,  dictated the fractions and stayed on strongly to win, Shaman was well ridden.  What surprised me,  was after seeing the previous race, why did Sottsass’s rider not sit a lot closer to his main threat Shaman, who had the run of the race at the front end.  Sottsass was given a hard task to win from his rider.

I would not write off either Victor Ludorum or Sottsass, both are much better than what they showed yesterday.

The fillies Group 3 event was won by Tropbeau, who was given a good ride by jockey Mikael Barzalona.  Khayzaraan, who prior to the race,  I thought was the biggest danger to Tropbeau, ran too freely in front, she stopped very quickly when asked to quicken passing the two furlong from home marker, and eventually finished last.  It was though a game effort by Tropbeau, who stayed the trip well, she will have a solid chance of winning the French 1,000 guineas in about 3 weeks time.

Racing again today in France at Saint Cloud, Cherbourg, Marseille and Vincennes.  So hopefully I can find a winner.  It was announced yesterday that racing in the UK will not return before the 1st of June, hopefully the government will be satisfied that all the boxes will be ticked regarding safety and social distancing.  It will resume behind closed doors, hopefully that will not be for too long, but the return of racegoers will depend on the current pandemic. And nobody has any clear idea on how long that will last.

More later.

The latest from France, is that racing goes ahead tomorrow.  4 meetings are scheduled. Toulouse, Longchamp , Vichy and  Compiegne, with some really useful prospects set to line up at Longchamp.  Victor Ludorum will head the market in the 11.55, the Prix de Fontainebleau, which is a group 3 event, is ran over 7f and 209 yards.  Victor Ludorum won his last race, a group 1 back in October 2019.  He had two of his rivals, Ecrivan and Helter Skelter back in 4th and 5th that day.  If the favorite is ready, he should win again, as I thought he had a little bit in hand that day. Although Helter Skelter was a strong finisher, and was given a bit to do.  He might be the main threat.

At 12.25 the fillies line up.  Tropbeau and Khayzaraan looked really good fillies last year, it is difficult to split them.  The 7f and 209 yard event, carries the same status as the colts race, it will be a good race between the two, I have a slight preference for Tropbeau, although very marginal.  Hopefully we can see some good racing on Sky racing.  And should learn a bit for the big group 1 events later in the season.

The BHA seem optimistic that racing has a fair chance of resuming later this month.  I did mention a couple of horses yesterday, Arizona and Earthlight- both worth looking at in the first colts classic, hoped to be ran in the early part of June.  Having spoken to great friend of mine yesterday former jockey, Declan Murphy, who lives in Madrid now.  Declan raised the question of travel, and he has a valid point, hopefully both horses will be allowed to travel.  I did ask Declan how it has been over the last number of weeks, with the lockdown in Spain- only over the last day or so have people been allowed to exercise outside.  The Spanish seem to be winning the battle in reducing the spread, let’s hope many other countries are also starting to get things back to some kind of normality.

So as I mentioned, small stakes bets on the two I have mentioned-  at 10/1 and around 20/1 for Earthlight, who if he turns up on the day, could well be a quarter of those odds !

Resumption of Racing

Reading in the latest newspapers, regarding when racing will resume in the UK and Ireland- although  it is not totally clear, as it depends on the government. I am assuming  it will be behind closed doors for a good while, with the Irish government having already ruled that all sports events with  crowds of over 5000 being suspended for a number of months.

Having spoken to a number of connections who are based mainly in Newmarket.  The horses are being prepared as normal, with races in mind.  The two main ”classics” for three year old colts and fillies, the 1,000 and 2,000 guineas will  hopefully take place in early June.

Pinatubo is still short odds to win the colts race, currently around 10/11 generally. Not great value for me, so I have backed Arizona each way at 12/1.  The vibes I hear from the Ballydoyle camp, are that this colt is training well, and is well forward.  I do think he is a bit of value, currently priced around 10/1 with most firms.  Another colt I like in the race is Earthlight, who I have also backed on the exchanges at 22/1.  I am not certain this horse will line up, as he is in the same ownership as the favourite.

If Pinatubo, is not fully tuned and ready to go, Earthlight could well take his chance.  I hear Pinatubo is going ok, but is a horse that does not show everything at home, hence the reason he started his career at Wolverhampton on the all weather !

So for anyone who likes a bit of ante-post, my two selections are ‘value’ as I see it.

More in a few days.

News today for jump race fans- Racing resumes on July 1st.  Hopefully the current pandemic will be under a bit more control in the next month or so.

Flat racing is pencilled in to return on May 1st.  Possibly behind “closed doors” – with only essential staff and racecourse officials, Jockeys and Trainers, with the most important medical staff also.  Let’s face it, without them, racing stops.  The rule is- two ambulances, have to be on course, before a race can start.

With the NHS staff under extreme pressure of late, it will be interesting.

The government will not want horse racing to stop for too long.  As a massive amount of cash- which goes into the government coffers !

Is currently costing them a lot of money at the moment in lost revenue, so they will want racing to start, as soon as possible- safety permitting.

Racing in America and a few other places are still going ahead.  Randwick in Australia has some good racing tomorrow.  Tom Marquand, has been riding in Oz, over the last few weeks, possibly with the Covid 19 problem, he could be there for a while.

He is a very good young jockey.  A large number of good judges, believe he is a future champion jockey in the next few years.   Having followed his progress over the last two or three seasons, I would tend to agree.

More in the next day or so.

With all Irish and English racing suspended, as from last night. And with no real following myself of the racing from Hong Kong, where I believe racing today goes ahead just after 11 am UK time. I will not be advising something there.

Time to reflect on March, it is nice to have managed to find 5 winners in a row during the month, which ends in profit.

Moving forward, no real definite idea on when racing will resume. But under the current issues all over the world, racing is of no real consequence.  The corona virus seems horrific, hopefully a vaccine can be found, sooner rather than later.

I will try and write something for my followers most days from now, I’ve been in hospital with a bad leg fracture.

But a follow up appointment yesterday, revealed my slight stumble the other day, had caused no harm.

More later.

A really good couple of days for my subscribers.  Two horses advised over the weekend.  Mossy Gill on Saturday at Wolverhampton, was advised in the morning at 6/4.  He won easily.

And yesterday at Carlisle 2.00- The Ferry Master, another winner.  I advised backing him at 6/4 in the morning.  Managing to get the race in the stewards room, after finishing a nose behind, in the live finish.  Hampered, he was always going to get the race, having seen the head on.

All racing today is behind closed doors. Loughan 2.20 Hereford, looked very inexperienced last time, he ran well to be third.  With that run under his belt, I would expect him to get favourite backers off to a good start today.

More tomorrow.