Royal Ascot 2021

I suppose you’ve got to do rather more than wag your finger at the jockey if you’ve just given the race to the other one (rightly IMO).
 
One of Matt's movers is Aberama Gold.

He's hardly ever ran a poor race on the soft or heavy.

He must go close unless he's lost leg.

(Someone knows...)
 
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Two lovely colts there. Very taken with the winner when they showed him cantering down.
 
Good watch that. You would have hoped he would do that.

Tough choice for jocks sometimes.
 
King George shaping up to be a hot one

Adayer
Wonderful Tonight
Pyledriver
Al Aasy

Be great if Snowfall turned up as well
 
Great racing so far today but my own decision-making has been as poor as it's been in a long time.

2.30 First thought, leave alone, decided to back one for the sake of it. Lost
3.05 Ditto
3.40 First thought, Wonderful Tonight and Albaflora against the field. Allowed the talk about WT's fitness to sway me off her.
4.10 First thought, Dream Of Dreams, allowed its age to sway me off it on to Nahaarr.

What should have been a profitable day is not unfolding at all well.

By the way, three brilliant rides in the DJ there, I thought, from Moore, Doyle and de Sousa.
 
Desert Orchid said:
Great racing so far today but my own decision-making has been as poor as it's been in a long time.

2.30 First thought, leave alone, decided to back one for the sake of it. Lost
3.05 Ditto
3.40 First thought, Wonderful Tonight and Albaflora against the field. Allowed the talk about WT's fitness to sway me off her.
4.10 First thought, Dream Of Dreams, allowed its age to sway me off it on to Nahaarr.

What should have been a profitable day is not unfolding at all well.

By the way, three brilliant rides in the DJ there, I thought, from Moore, Doyle and de Sousa.
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Similar.

If Aberama Gold doesn't place at a minimum I'm going in exile until the Breeders Cup!
 
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Moore answered a lot of critics today, looks like maybe Mr O'Brien and WP Mullins might actually know what they are doing amazingly!
 
Better day for me today ending with placed efforts in last in The Grand Visir and Green Book as well as two winners.
But overall not the best meeting for me betting wise.
 
Never backed a winner and can't say I enjoyed the racing bar the obvious good ones. 35 races of mostly impossible handicaps on extreme going with track biases is overrated.
 
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Was a little up on the week, but Rohaan provided the cherry on the cake. So much classy racing, including the major handicaps. The extra races were a little Cheltenhamesque, and may portend an extra day in the near future.
 
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I’ve loved it. I just get so tired of seeing the same trainers and jockeys winning everything so this week has been great. I guess the fact that I only have bets to break even rather than actually winning anything helped.
 
Really enjoyed the racing. Had a decent week as well, mainly because I restricted myself to five bets, plus a couple of mini (very mini) bets in the Noted in Running pair that placed at 66/1 which I only did to “put my money where my mouth is” rather than thinking there was any real chance.
 
Struggled mainly. Only had one proper heave all week with Hukum in the Hardwicke and him placing and a winner at Newmarket today meant I was only a little down overall, plenty of placed horses. I enjoyed it overall though, especially with the Euros being on at the same time and ultimately this is a great time of year. Footie, Racing, TdF soon, Wimbledon and then the Open. Good times.
 
Slim said:
Never backed a winner and can't say I enjoyed the racing bar the obvious good ones. 35 races of mostly impossible handicaps on extreme going with track biases is overrated.
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Doesn't matter whether handicaps or pattern races, it provides a plethora of quality form going forward, much of it useful till the end of the season, and beyond.
 
The change of going spoiled things a bit in terms of introducing new unknowns regarding which horses would act in the soft/heavy.

The racing was competitive but was there really a 'superstar' performance in the G1s?

I have no doubt the handicap form will be franked right left and centre going forward (if that doesn't sound too confusing) and I'll be on to the BHA site at 8am on Tuesday to see what he's done with the ratings.

I'm still marvelling at the Sandringham winner too. That was one of the most impressive winners of a major meeting handicap you'll ever see. They were strung out like 3-mile chasers and the near side finished 25 lengths ahead of the far side, far more than in any other straight-course handicap. A G2 performance at worst and who knows where her progression might take her.
 
reet hard said:
Doesn't matter whether handicaps or pattern races, it provides a plethora of quality form going forward, much of it useful till the end of the season, and beyond.
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Ascot this year reminded me of every day being a Thursday at Cheltenham if you lost the first two days. Low on confidence and trying to solve wicked races.
 
I normally have a sizeable AP book going into Ascot every year. Alcohol Free was my only AP bet this year and that was to a far smaller stake than I would normally have at the meeting on my main fancy.
Questions as to which race she would be in and whether she could turn around from a not impressive run in the Guineas against against a decent field curtailed my enthusiasm. I missed the race live as was travelling to Oxford on the motorway in an horrendous storm which prevented any signal getting through.
In the race she put a pretty good performance showing both speed and stamina with Murphy seemingly quite confident. She is to be considered for the July Cup and the Sussex Stakes and i have no clue where her best chance would be.

Overall I feel Slim's comment above is an apt description. One horse I would take from the meeting is Berkshire Shadow.

POSTED IN APRIL.
I have kept an eye open for Jeff Smith's horses since the early 80"s when whilst putting together a financing package that helped his business win a significant export order I was recommended to follow his then untried 2yo, Chief Singer. The horse became the first flat horse that I followed throughout his career, travelling to see the beautiful beast run whenever possible. The same with the admirable Persian Punch.
Last September I put up his Foxtrot Lady as one to back when he put Dettori on the horse which duly won at 18/1.
Using part of the proceeds I added Alcohol Free for the 1000 gns to my core Cheltenham AP multiples at 33/1. Unfortunately with NR's and Abacadabra's fall I have only one small stake double left with Minella Indo.
At the same time I began backing Alcohol Free singly and have numerous small stakes bets at prices ranging from 44's to 10/1, several as the remainder of failed multiples.

Realistically I am guessing as to whether she has developed over the winter and it will depend on her performance on Sunday in the Dubai Duty Free ( awful name for a race). Hoping not expecting though Balding's recent comments provide some encouragement.



 
I felt Alcohol Free was disappointing in the Guineas but was not downhearted. My feeling was she (and Saffron Beach for that matter) were always doing catch-up as what pace there was was on the far side. If Santa Barbara had been on the stands side it might have been a different race. I'd hope Alcohol Free will take in the Falmouth before taking in the mile race at Ascot.

The enlargement of Ascot has not been a success to my eyes. Please go back to 6 races a day (I'd prefer 4 days and 7 really, but that's unlikely) and let's get rid of the Commonwealth Stakes. One used to know who was likely to be the best sprinter by the end of Ascot, not any more.

Ascot is becoming like Cheltenham where the horses have choices so that they can dodge each other. Both meetings used to be championships, now they are often the crowning of mediocrity.
 
I dismissed Alcohol Free from my considerations on the basis of the trainer claiming before the Guineas that he didn't think she would get the trip (but had to try). I did wonder when they persevered with her at what would be a stiffer test but stuck with my original decision to dismiss her chances.

She was a good winner of a modest race and congrats to all her backers. As I've said elsewhere I really like Balding as a trainer and will never begrudge him a good win.
 
Commonwealth Stakes an important race for three year old sprinters, whether it has to be Group 1 is another matter.
Enlargement of Festivals :
We live in an overkill society where nothing exceeds like excess.( Baffert/ Cheltenham / Godolphin/Ballydoyle/McManus/Gigginstown/WPM/Elliot etc)
I do wish we come to our senses before racing becomes extinct by "necessity".
 
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