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Your Favourite Uncle Smart Arse's Unofficial Blog

It's borderline "Scorchio!" here in Hampshire today - the French window has never been so open.

The two Parks - Kempton and Hamilton - along with a bit of (Up The) Junction this balmy evening.
 
I'm 26 miles from Ascot racecourse and it's currently a pleasant evening.

Things could definitely be worse - I could be at Chelmsford City racecourse for a kick off.

Or trapped in a lift with Walsworth.

Though glad I'm not actually in deepest Essex, events there are of some interest.

Think I'll have a coffee and observe.
 
Place money alone won't maintain the "Luxury communism now!" (to paraphrase Ash Sarkar) lifestyle to which I've become accustomed over the years 😂 - it's better than losing, though.
 
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There are ways of winning on the: day, week, month, year.

The preferred way, to paraphrase the late Peter O'Sullevan, is to "jump off in front and keep improving your position."

I think he said this after some Daniel Wildenstein filly had won the Cheshire Oaks, thus leaving Julian Wilson, who did the replays, with little to say,

The other way is to claw it back, either suddenly and dramatically, or excruciatingly slowly, hugely vulnerable and under constant pressure.

The latter is like a No 10 and No 11 batsman needing to put on 100 to win the match and taking all day to get them in singles, not one boundary.

That's me, lately, that is. 😂
 
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Ian_Davies said:
There are ways of winning on the: day, week, month, year.

The preferred way, to paraphrase the late Peter O'Sullevan, is to "jump off in front and keep improving your position."

I think he said this after some Daniel Wildenstein filly had won the Cheshire Oaks, thus leaving Julian Wilson, who did the replays, with little to say,

The other way is to claw it back, either suddenly and dramatically, or excruciatingly slowly, hugely vulnerable and under constant pressure.

The latter is like a No 10 and No 11 batsman needing to put on 100 to win the match and taking all day to get them in singles, not one boundary.

That's me, lately, that is. 😂
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Me too.
 
So it's just gone noon, I'm chilling out, having an ice-cold drink, with the French window open, it's sunny intervals here in Hampshire and a pleasant breeze.

"Leafy's" got a runner at Bath, so he's off there, clutching his O&T badge and no doubt determined to ponce as much free food as he can.

I could have gone with him on a freebie and I do like Bath, but I cba.

It's an absolute Johannesburg card - geek: "this looks a good bet on the data" pragmatist: "that's not much use if it's not trying in this Class 6 integrity desert and it doubles in price a minute before the Off" - and it will be rammed with coach trippers.

The rest of the racing looks interesting in patches, though and Friday's six-yards for Ascot should be online soon.
 
I have always prided myself on having a not "good" but "exceptional" memory.

Few of my friends down the years would dispute this either - "No, I don't have a 'good memory,' I have 'instant and total F-ing recall'," I remember once saying to a bemused (and amused) would-be critic.

A bitter pill for me to swallow, therefore, to realise that I don't always remember exactly everything.

I always thought I'd only ever been to Royal Ascot once - I only realised last night when reminiscing that I've been twice.

Same day (the Saturday) within a year or two of each other, but twice.

This leads me to wondering what else I might have forgotten.

Beating Garry Kasparov at chess, perhaps?

Or dating Charlotte Church?

The possibilities are endless.

Anyway, I've got a busy day today, with non-racing stuff on the agenda this afternoon.

I'm gonna have a butchers at the Royal Ascot Tuesday decs, update the relevant thread, then crack on with my day.
 
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Tis the eve of Royal Ascot and here in Hampshire it's a lovely evening, sunny, still warm, a pleasant light breeze blowing through the open French Window.

I'm really looking forward to the meeting - though that's standard tbh.
 
Most racing/betting sayings are, at best, cliched statements of the bleedin' obvious and, at worst, simply wrong,

But one saying I like is: "Be a good judge and be a good judge of good judges."

I won at Royal Ascot today - I had Docklands in my backer's book partly because I'd bet him at Epsom and thought he got a lousy ride, I dutched Field Of Gold and Ruling Court to nick a bit more, I was on Haatem at double-digit odds (backer's book again, though).

But what really made the day was Gstaad.

I'm not devoid of contacts and this contact told me the colt was a cracking bet.

And he wasn't wrong.

I can only take credit for cultivating my connection over time, listening to him and getting the bet on. 😂

It's a lovely evening, the French Window is once again open and I'm buried in review work from today, looking ahead and keeping an eye on Beverley and Southwell.

I had to laugh when I just rechecked my pre-race numbers - I had Field Of Gold 7lb ahead of Henri Matisse - that's 3.5 lengths (though tbf it could have been further) at a mile.

Kingman is an interesting sire - I saw him win the Greenham on an easy surface, it was deeper still when he won the Irish Guineas, and at Newmarket the quick ground might have been his downfall.

But he did win on a resilient surface (as did Field Of Gold's dam) and more importantly Kingman is doing alright with his progeny on quick ground.

Plus at 7.0 I don't think it was THAT quick on the round course anyway today.

I'll be interested to see tomorrow morning's stick reading - it'll tell me the true extent of any watering after racing this evening.
 
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The first thing to say about today is that it was less successful than yesterday - by some margin.

As stated, I couldn't take much credit for Gstaad.

But one thing I did do, after having my card marked, was to not only back the Coventry winner but separately combine him in a related-contingency double with True Love at 7/2 and 6/1 for overall double odds of 30.5/1.

It wasn't exactly my biggest bet of the year, and I used the strong position it put me in to have a backer's book with a few others in the Queen Mary (in other words I gave a chunk of it back! 😂) but it mitigated an otherwise less-than-successful second day, though I did nick a bit doing other things elsewhere.

Anyway, possibly not the strongest Queen's Vase there's ever been, I thought the Duke Of Cambridge form was fair, I did get a thieving each-way place double up on the two handicaps amid some losing bets and the Windsor Castle was no use to me.

Right, cutting to the chase....

That wasn't a bad card I went to at Sandown Park the other night.

Ombudsman, today's impressive Prince Of Wales's Stakes winner, was runner up in the Brigadier Gerard and the National Stakes form looks alright now.

Third-placed Eskimo Pie was only beaten three lengths in the Queen Mary and fifth-placed Kamakameleon was only beaten two and a quarter lengths in the Windsor Castle.

If he handles the seemingly ever-quickening ground - something the jolly Charles Darwin also had to do - Sandown runner up First Legion might run a race in the Norfolk tomorrow.

I think that'll do for now.
 
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Well, the good news today was I won a slither (ROI 8.8% on the day) at Royal Ascot.

The bad news is I barely got involved, so actually won next to F all in the greater scheme of things. 😂

Got behind by taking on Charles Darwin in the Norfolk, nicked a bit back with Merchant but wasn't my only bet in the race, nicked a bit more back with Trawlerman and the best bit was backing Tiberius Thunder win and four places in the King Edward VII - I got paid on the place (by a neck! 😂)

That was a decent Brigadier Gerard meeting I actually got off my backside and attended this year - both Ombudsman and Trawlerman ran at it.

Yet another lovely balmy (still 27C! 😂) evening here in Hampshire and, for numerous reasons, I'm enjoying a Royal Ascot being allowed to be conducted on proper summer Flat racing ground.
 
Funny old planet we live on - summer has barely started and the nights are already starting to draw in.

Shouldn't be happening until August Bank Holiday Monday earliest - someone have a word.

Anyway, it's been a splendid week and, although a tad more humid the last two days, the weather here in Hampshire remains lovely.

I just realised that technically I've attended this day at Ascot three times because I once went to the old Heath meeting on the Saturday.

There's case for running the final day of the meeting at Pontefract tbh.

The closing Queen Alexandra Stakes used to be officially 2m6f34yds - since that changed there's a race distance at Pontefract that exceeds it.

The Newmarket Town Plate tops both, of course, but that doesn't count in my book.
 
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In 1968, when my family was living in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Stoke-On-Trent, my Dad took me in a little local corner shop.

A can of drink, white with vertical blue and red stripes, caught my five-year-old eye.

It's name was Vimto.

"They called it the victory drink just after the War," my Dad informed me.

Anyway, he bought it for me and, as I sit here 57 years later, surveying yet another pleasant evening, near the open French Window, I'm having a bottle of the "victory drink" to celebrate a successful Royal Ascot.

What a final day.

No bet in the first, I bet Rebels Romance in the second at 9/4 (with spineless savers on Al Riffa and Al Aasy), I had backed Lazzat ante-post at 7/1, but had given up all hope because of the ground and today had savers on Topgear, Insherin, and the runner up, but Lazzat is a machine and delivered, then I lost on the Jersey (California Dreamer).

In the Wokingham I had an absurdly lengthy backers' book portfolio and they all got beat.

BUT, deploying another of my strategies (of which I have numerous running concurrently) I bet Get It on the extended places each-way and in an each-way double, with a win bet, at much better odds, on the machine for good measure.

That copped and going into the Golden Gates I wanted the second leg of the ew double Ernst Blofeld (it all went a bit end of Spectre for Ernst) for the absolute dollars, the fav for a decent win and Murphy's mount to scrape a profit on the race.

And that's how it turned out.

I've loved the meeting - great to see quick ground enjoying a renaissance because it increases edges when it's allowed to happen and I think the straight course bias can be followed when it's pronounced on a given day (like Wednesday), but it's important to possess a bit of empathy, put yourself in the CoC's shoes and realise when you get one side dominating the way it did on Thursday, he can't just sit there and do nothing, so he's likely to try to water the bias away overnight.

As always, avoid dogma and pedantry and be prepared to be flexible, counter intuitive even, and turn on a sixpence at times.

Those are my thoughts, anyway, as I eternally endeavour to keep my head above water and keep the wolf from the door.

Right, where's that second bottle of Vimto? 😂
 
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On the plus side, another (modest) winning day, on the downside the pollen count is through the roof and I shouldn't have eaten that entire Tesco Finest Summer Berry Roulade in one go! 😂
 
Lovely weather weather - sunny, warm, pleasant breeze.

Pollen count down.

Kept the wolf from the door (again).

Looking forward, in no particular order, to Newcastle, The Curragh and Churchill Downs this weekend.

Time for a coffee.
 
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As oft stated in the past, if planning to visit me at my Hampshire Fastness, please give me advance notice, Walsworth.

So I can arrange to be out at the time.
 
6.42pm and it's still 22 degrees here - a most pleasant evening.

The pollen count has dropped too.

Other than that, it's been a good day and I'm keeping an eye on Kempton Park and Bath.
 
I had a prawn and lobster bisque lasagne for supper this evening.

It did a job - inasmuch as it filled me up - but I won't be having it again.
 


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