Forums

Four weeks removed from a disappointing effort in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) at Del Mar, Rigney Racing's Jonathan's Way is back home and ready to run in the $400,000 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes (G2) at Churchill Downs Nov. 30.View the full article

Well said.

Not sure why its been so hard for some to understand that Guy is employed to run a TV presentation, not provide analysis.  That's why you rarely (if ever) see him on course.  No different to a news show who hire specialist presenters, and specialist reporters.  There are not many in the Trackside staff ranks who can do both roles effectively.  Guerin might be the closest thing to a hybrid presenter/analyst and even he cops it from the industry folk, so they can't win really

I'll split the review of the weekend just gone into two and cover the two days of the Punchestown meeting in my next. This one will cover Saturday's action in the UK and with the onset of some serious autumn rain and snow the ground softened appreciably at Ascot though less so at Ascot. By the time the field gathered for the Grade 1 Betfair Chase over 5050m, the rain had been falling for hours and the ground was Soft - both HEWICK and THE REAL WHACKER, my two fancies, were late withdrawals. The money came for the 2023 winner ROYALE PAGAILLE, all of whose form is on Soft ground but he hadn't run since taking a heavy fall at Cheltenham in January. He faced the up and coming novice GREY DAWNING, the Turners winner, who had always promised to be better at 4800m and beyond.  An attritional slog, especially over the last three fences, with ROYALE PAGAILLE and GREY DAWNING both having the initiative. At the last, I thought the latter was getting the upper hand but ROYALE PAGAILLE has won at up to 5600m and in the final 300m just had too much stamina and in the end won by a couple of lengths. ROYALE PAGAILLE isn't the most exuberant jumper of a fence you'll ever see but that's no bad thing in those conditions and "popping away" (as it is known up here) is a more efficient use of energy than strying to stand off every obstacle. You'd always want to be on ROYALE PAGAILLE in a slog in the mid but on quicker ground he doesn't have the tactical speed and he was found out in both the 2022 and 2023 Gold Cups though he ran creditably in both. GREY DAWNING went down all guns blazing - I'm sure better ground would help - he won the 4200m Graduation Chase on this card last year but this was a very different test in open company. I suspect the King George at Kempton, where he's likely to get much better ground, would be the target and he's widely regarded as Britain's beat hope against the Irish battallions (of which more in my next). BRAVEMANSGAME had the blinkers on but he's not the horse he was and was well held in third. GOLDEN TWEET, the French raider, ran well but he's been well held by the likes of IL EST FRANCAIS and the current top of the French tree, GRAN DIOSE, who won the Grand Steeplechase de Paris in the summer. AHOY SENOR and CAPODANNO both pulled up. Earlier in the afternoon, the Grade 2 Newton Novices Hurdle saw ROADLESSTRAVELLED make every yard and hold off COUNTRY MILE, who raced in second, came to challenge at the second last but just ran out of energy. The winner is unbeaten in three and could be anything but obviously you'd be inclined to think the winners of the big novice hurdles at Cheltenham are ptrobably trained in Ireland. At Ascot, the weather was much kinder and the gorund just on the slow side of Good. PIC D'ORHY went off 4/9 to follow up in the 1965 Chase and duly obliged though not without an anxious moment at the second last as DASHEL DRASHER looked a real threat but this is PIC D'ORHY's optimum trip, track and ground and he doesn't often lose going right handed. I imagine he'll be seen over Christmas at Kempton and Paul Nicholls has suggested he might try the King George over 4800m which would be interesting. The Grade 2 Ascot Hurdle saw LUCKY PLACE turn over BLUEKING D'OROUX, the Irish raider COLONEL MUSTARD and GOLDEN ACE in as race where all four had a chance at the last and were split by just two lengths at the post. Given COLONEL MUSTARD was eleven lengths behind STATE MAN at Cheltenham and twenty two lengths behind at Punchestown, I suspect we're a couple of notches at least below Grade 1 with these but all are decent types who will find race sover 4000m if not perhaps further.  

Those increasingly small fields in Southland must be a bit of a worry. Do they have too many dates?

Having won three of the six Kentucky Oaks (G1) prep races so far, trainer Brad Cox brings a pair of undefeated fillies, Good Cheer and Eclatant, to the $400,000 Golden Rod Stakes (G2) at Churchill Downs Nov. 30.View the full article

Lol the bloke (and I use that term loosely - would be weird calling him a guy) is a fake and a myth. How many months has he been in the job? I still havnt heard a sentence of real racing knowledge from him. Now we have to endure him strutting around in his plus 4's.  Jayne props up the whole channel. And yes great racing at Wanganui. Had the pleasure of watching it in the Bond St bar (formerly Lovelocks) on Saturday. Was refreshing to sit around real old style punters who enjoy an ale and listen to their "knowledge". Colourful language and sage advice for jockeys lol. I even heard why a prominent jockey is currently off the scene. Trackside could employ a couple of them to improve their product!  

The Wyoming Gaming Commission has approved Wyoming's first mile-long horse racing track for 16 live race dates in 2025, as well as simulcasting and related activities.View the full article

Especially in a multiple-horse photo-finish like the one in question. Doubly so when every person on-course with a microphone had called it wrong. 

There appears to be a conscious decision on Trackside to move on with the next race rather than presenting the result - I have even heard Guy recommend the viewers look up the result elsewhere. I have to agree that laboriously reading through the full dividends was getting tedious, but where there is such a close and uncertain result you would think the least would be to confirm final runner numbers of the first 4 home for the viewers with something riding on the result. So I think the policy change is positive but has gone too far.

I referenced this on a previous contribution. This was the first on the card as it happened - for inexperienced riders over 3200m of the synthetic circuit. It was a Class 6 handicap - the lowest grade over here - with the horses rated from 64 down to the winner who was running off 46. The winner had previously run 15 times and been placed second once (at 33s) and third once (at 66s). The conditions of the race were the jockeys had to have ridden fewer than 10 winners - Tyrese Cameron, who rode the winner, had ridden six and was the most experienced. The rider of the second, Kyle McHugh, had never ridden a winner. The others possibly five between them. It's a condition all the apprentices in the series have jockey coaches to guide and mentor them. Within that context, it wasn't pretty - those who backed CERTAIN STYLE at 28s could form an orderly queue from a long way out but, to be honest, anyone who plays in a race like that gets no sympathy from me. I am sorry for the connections of the beaten horses who didn't get a run but that's a risk when you put such an inexperienced rider up. I'm sure the coaches of the other riders will take plenty of time explaining to their students what they did wrong and kudos to Tyrese for an enterprising ride. CERTAIN STYLE had placed fourth over 2800m at Chelmsford running on which was a step up in form over a new trip so you could see why Tyrese thought stamina wouldn't be an issue. This kind of thing does happen - call it enterprising from the winning rider, call it bad riding from the others, it's up to you 

It obviously is just that little bit too hard. For the crew on track that day at least. 

Beyond Cringe , Have a look takes about 20 mins .  

Same thing happened to me, mine was from ANZ. Contacted the TAB and they said there was an outage from ANZ and that my deposit would be processed after 8pm, it ended up in my account at about 5.45pm. I went to ANZ and they had a scheduled outage for Sunday but not Saturday. Not sure what was going on. I ended up using the credit card which went straight though. I don't usually have a problem with the bank transfers but they have been delayed on the odd occasion.

Average field size, less than 8, first 3 months; 8/8  Invercargill     F/S 7.9     Funding $98k           GBR $48k 9/8  ATC                         7.3                    $133k                  $111k 13/8   Cambridge         6.4                     $76k                   $51k 16/8  ATC                       7.8                     $146k                $60k 20/8  Cambridge           7.1                     $77k                  $56k 23/8   ATC                      7.2                     $165k               -$32k 13/9   ATC                      7.5                     $214k                $92k 17/9  Cambridge          7.2                      $69k                  $64k 27/9   ATC                     7.6                      $193k                $89k 1/10   Cambridge        7.5                      $93k                   $66k 4/10  Wyndham           7.9                      $134k                $167k 8/10  Cambridge         7.5                     $84k                    $62k 10/10 Northern Sld      7.6                    $136k                 $153k 11/10  ATC                    7.6                    $150k                 $109k Wyndham and Northern Southland did still manage a positive result with small fields, and Cambridge did get close on the 17th September, Cambridge did have positive results on three of their 13  Tuesday meetings, when they had field sizes of  8 - 8.6 & 9. Loss's were inevitable, with the HRNZ/Entain  North Island plan, which created these small fields and lack of punter engagement. On the first of November 2023 the North Island GBR/Funding was 91.2%, on the 5th November 2024 it was 64.2%  

Any comment on this Stodge?    

Same 

Watch out for those fillies in the bars too Alf 🤣