If you read this blog regularly you will discover that there are times when I am wrong. Yesterday was a prime example when I said in that the days racing was not up to much. How wrong could I have been?
Fakenham, Folkestone and Wolverhampton produce some excellent competition, incidents and a grand day for punters. Two trainers who had contrasting fortunes were Nicky Henderson and Gary Moore. Henderson and his jockey Barry Geraghty enjoyed a 22/1 four-timer at Fakenham whilst over at Folkestone Moore’s runner Ballygowan Star was a fatality in the 2 o’clock and in the final bumper his well backed horse Poppy Come Running ,ridden by son Josh, ran out when well out in front close to home.
In my opinion the executives at Folkestone have some serious questions to answer regarding the bumper race. Presumably because of the ground conditions they totally changed the layout for the race and made it more of slalom than a racing course. This was not fair to horses, riders and punters. Race horses are not trained make right, then left turns in quick succession especially inexperienced horses. If the only guides are sign arrows and men waving flags this is bound to lead to problems and confusion. Before the race Matt Chapman on ATR highlighted the possibility of problems and if he could see that why couldn’t the stewards? At least for Moore his horse Prince Charlemagne’s win in the amateur rider’s event in Wolverhampton’s first race must have been some consolation.
For punters generally it should have been a good day. At Fakenham after the first winner at 12/1 all the other races were won by the first or second favourites. At Folkestone the first 5 favourites all won and the biggest priced winner at the meeting was 11/2. Over at Wolverhampton there was a massive gamble on Miss Perfectionist in the 4.10 Try Betdaq For An Exchange Handicap . The horse opened at 20/1 and was backed down to 3/1 favourite despite having an outside draw in stall 12. At no stage did it look like featuring in the finish and finally finished 10th of 13. I have to admit that there do seem to be some strange market moves at Wolverhampton and I have noticed some big price swings in the past. From my experience they are best not followed. However, with only one clear favourite producing the goods at the meeting and some bigger priced winners this probably helps the bookies to cover some of their losses from the other two meetings.
Hereford has passed its morning inspection and goes ahead as does racing at Southall (NH) and Lingfield (AW).
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