Newbury 28th November
I made the journey
to Newbury racecourse for the second day of their three day Hennessy
festival but not as my usual self...this time I was joining the team
of Racemakers lead by John who help out at the big race days around
the country. The aim is to create a team similar to the ganesmakers
that made the 2012 Olympic games so successful and I was really
excited to become part of the squad. Getting to chat racing all day and help out fellow racegoers sounded right up my street so when John offered me the chance to be part of his team I jumped at it, thanks must go to Kate from the London Racing Club for urging me to apply as I absolutely loved every minute of it (apart from some awful punting on my behalf!)
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| Meeting Sam TD, a more friendly man you could not meet! |
Raceday
The racing on the
day was decent enough, I had a few fancies on the card which I
mentioned in the midweek blog slightly. However in was shocked to see
Micheal Nolan jocked off my main fancy for a jockey who could claim
slightly more off little boy boru and I started doubting if I wanted
to trust the new partnership. More on that race later however.
The Opener
The opener was a
nice hurled race for which the Alan King trained Karezak was a hot
favorite having impressed on debut. Odds on everywhere you looked
and after King struck three times they day before confidence was
high. However this went to the Paul Nicholls horse Old Guard, Andy
Stewart was here to see this one win and we managed to catch him post
race where he was very positive on his Hennessy chances with Rocky
Creek.A pipeopener in a grade 1 was what he effectively described his
run first time up as and confirmed he was absolutely spot on for
tomorrow. A very friendly man, great to chat too with my fellow
racemakers! However we should have taken his presence as heed to back Old Guard here, perhaps it would be foolish to ignore him twice!
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| Top owner Mr Stewart after taking the opener |
Conditional Jockeys on show
We then had a nice
conditional jockeys race, where I always end up backing the jockey
not the horse! This time I went for quick decision under Micheal
Nolan, however I had to play 2nd best to the impressive winner Wilton
Milan, a double for Nicholls on the day and a nice ride by young Jack
Sherwood.
Handicap ahoy
The 1:30 was the
race in which I ended up deserting Little Boy Boru in favor of
Balley Legend e/w at big odds in the hope that the step back up in
trip and a nice drop in the weights after running over too short a
trip at Sandown would bring about some improvement. When you are
playing against the McCoy/Pipe duo in a handicap you should always
take e/w insurance in case what they have is absolutely thrown in. In
this case they had Unique De Cotte coming into the race off a decent
win lto and the market support was there for it, going off heavily
odds on.however the horse never looked like winning, sadly my
selection was even worse though! Classic Pipe 2nd string winner
struck here under a great ride from Tom Scudamore who currently wears
the top rider of the meeting armband as he lead all the way from the
start to score in impressive fashion. The favorite looked like he
suffered from the classic bounce factor as he really never was a
factor in the race, JP had made the trip over to Newbury so I doubt
he was too impressed! However fair play to Mr McManus as when I asked
him where I should put my money in the next he said 'buy a pint
instead!'
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| JP McManus encouraged sensible drinking! |
My betting gets in even deeper trouble
I couldn't
understand why Deep Trouble was such a big price in the 2:05. Well I
could as the Paul Nicholls horse had some great hurtling form and the trainer had just had a double on the card but
Deep Trouble had very decent form himself and also had the benefit of
a run over fences already this season which can prove vital in these
kind of races so I took a punt on him. Dell Arca, another with
impressive hurdling form (Greatwood winner) as well as chasing
experience lead to the price on my selection tempting men in! Oh dear
again! Deep Trouble didn't finish the race, pulled up before the
finish, getting further than Saphir Du Rheu though who unseated Sam
TD. This went to Coneygree who defied a huge 671 day absence to jump
beautifully all the way round and saw off Del Arca at the business
end. nico gave it an absolute beaut of a ride and the money was
landed as Coneygree was well punted into 2/1 before the off. The had
attempted a gamble on this one a week or so ago but he had to be
taken out at the start that time due to vet advice. Cue trainer and connection anger as the had no idea what the vet thought was
wrong, however he was allowed to take his chance this time and thanks
to a great training performance from Mark Bradstock it was a case of
job done!
Bottom Weight romps home
The 2:40 was a hot
handicap with a lot of big stables involved. Ruby was over riding the
paparazzi kid, we had McCoy on Pendra and Geraghty on Cantlow in the
JP colours and a host of other potential fancies so it was really
difficult for me to take a bold stance in this one. Half the time you
don't know if this race is the target or the one later down the line,
especially with McManus! However this went to bottom weight No Buts
ridden by man of the meeting Tom Scudamore again as all the big names
disappointed really. I wonder if JP would have been quite as jolly as
he had been with me earlier after this double defeat!
Starting to get worried where a winner would come from...
Onto the penultimate
race on the card where I really liked Teafortwo under jockey of the
moment Lizzy Kelly. I was nervous about Thomas Brown whom Fehily had
given a positive mention to on Racingfm earlier this week but was
confident my selection was a seriously good horse. However the lack
of pace in the race didn't play to my selections strengths and
neither did the small field as he was pulling hard in the early
stages. Out Sam won but I'd take Thomas Brown out of the race who
carried top weight here by some distance, made a hash of the last but still ran on well into 2nd place. With a cleaner round of
jumping next time out I wouldn't put anyone off him especially as he won't always be giving weight away in more decent races.
The Getting Out Stakes
In the concluding
race I took heed of the advice given by Declan Rix at the London
Racing Club season preview and had a look at Different Gravey, whom
Declan flagged up as a pointer who could make his mark this season. I
didn't know what Declan thought of his chances here, especially with
the form of the yard, but lacking knowledge of any of the rest of the
field I had a dabble. I was more keen when Henderson took the
preceding race on the card and happily I got my winner on the day as
Nico De Boinville scored a double to see off the Geraghty ridden
stable number 1 Days of heaven. The favorite made a right hash of
the start though, giving away several lengths and long term will
probably be the best horse in this race. Still I wasn't complaining!
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| Newbury Grandstand |
Apart from the
little Hennessy preview post racing that was the end of a fantastic
day at Newbury racecourse, the track and staff made us racemakers
ever so welcome so thanks guys! I can't wait to get back tomorrow for
the big day where hopefully I can get a few more winners! However it
was great getting on board with the Racemakers team and I'm really
happy to be a part of it, it really is fantastic fun and a great way
to meet other people with the same passion for racing. It really is important to have people at the races who can offer help and advice to racegoers in need of a little experience at it was really fun being able to do this and send people off with a smile on their face! Hopefully we can help more race goers tomorrow on the big day and get more and more people trying their hand at a day out at the races, or coming back for a 2nd or 3rd go!
Thanks for reading!
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