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Ouch. They went much to slow for him.

Al Aasy would be odds on today if I was pricing up the race (Leop 15.50). A horse that has delivered on plenty of occasions up against a field of unproven types whose connections are hoping to get lucky.

Yes. Will you be there yourself?

I detect nothing sincere in your apology. The Earl of Pembroke

Sorry, that title has been reserved for edgt.

This is a table matching penetrometer readings with going descriptions [t

From the France-galop.com site. After 46 mm of rain in the last 7 days it will remain dry until Sunday, when temperatures will reach 27 degrees. They therefore expect the going to correspond to a reading of 3.4, which they term Bon Souple, which to me suggests decent ground with no jar in it...

Back in the 1980s, the old Phoenix Park track was using a thing called a penetrometer and certainly Longchamp was using something similar at the time.

I reckon that French officials are as capable of providing a going description as anyone else. The thing to be distrustful off is literal translations of the terms they use. Yesterday’s going at Longchamp was Très Souple, which can be translated literally as Very Soft. I see that the...

Same here, but I make an exception for ice cream cones. The O’Brien vans at some of the Irish tracks provide an especially good one. I’m looking to go to Laytown on Thursday. The forecast for Ireland’s east coast is pretty hairy for tomorrow with heavy rain and spot flooding forecast. And it...

Of course, only too delighted to help. And surely it isn’t only Porta Fortuna you have your eye on. Without wishing to get personal.

Thanks for the detailed reply, QC. This has been a fascinating thread. Enjoy your break.

There’s something I’m not getting here. You ex bookies are showing no respect to Pricewise and Hugh Taylor yet also saying that you made sure no one could get a decent bet on their selections. You even closed the accounts of their followers. Why would you bother doing that unless they were...

Well done, Slim

Q.R. handicaps are curious beasts. They are more akin to bumpers than to ordinary flat races because of the weights to be carried, but the runners are rated on their flat form. The fact Light Up The Dark has won two bumpers is potentially significant in my opinion.

I think an ever greater portion of betting on races is being done in the final minutes before the off. Ante Post and overnight betting is greatly restricted, so prices before the day itself are increasingly irrelevant. And even morning prices are no great guide. I would have thought that for a...

The normal race has entries five days out and then decs two days beforehand. But for the bigger races entries are made earlier and at the five day stage you can either take your horse out of the race or leave it in.

There is no doubt that the County Hurdle is one of the major handicap hurdles of the season but I don't think it would be worth waiting seven months with a horse as good as Ethical Diamond to run in it. There are one or two very valuable staying races in the Middle East during the winter months...

There is a forfeit stage tomorrow and declarations to run have to be made by 10 am on Thursday morning.

Ethical Diamond is flat bred, by a miler out of a miler. He shouldn’t be winning staying races but he does. Even so, I don’t see him as a candidate to go over fences, generally speaking you need at least a spoonful of old fashioned NH genes to make a success of chasing. Regarding the County...