2024 Royal Ascot – Day Five (Sat 22nd June)
A dreadful day yesterday, with not even a hint of potential success. Chesham Stakes (Listed) – 2:30pm Karl Burke’s two-year-olds have been a wonder this week 5R-2W-1P, and he runs MOTWAHIJ here. He ran an encouraging race at Hamilton and should progress with this step up in distance. Since it was purchased in the Craven […]
2024 Royal Ascot – Day Four (Fri 21st June)
21st June DRAW BIAS The first ten home in the Britannia yesterday (ov er 8f on the straight course) were 15, 16, 31, 33, 23, 29, 19, 20, 17 . It is thus reasonable to assume that high draws might have a bias today in some of the big handicaps, notably the Palace Of Holyrood […]
2024 Royal Ascot – Day Three (Thurs 20th June)
Norfolk Stakes (G2) – 2:30 pm My first shortlist was cut to two with the final decs, ARIZONA BLAZE – WHISTLEJACKET and I think both are good for a podium. I just can’t see Wes Ward going home empty-handed, and SATURDAY FLIRT has been bought by Mrs Fitri Hay since winning on her debut at […]
2024 Royal Ascot – Day Two (Weds 19th June)
Queen Mary Stakes (G2) – 2:30 pm 17th June: I’m sticking Andrew Balding’s KASSAYA, a ½ sister to 200 Gns winner Chaldean. she has some terrific form lines developed from her Salisbury debut, including 3rd Megalithic running-up in the Woodcote at Epsom and the fifth winning since. Her Nottingham LTO victory looked very impressive, and […]
Royal Ascot 2024 – At A Glance
Selections from the trends shortlist based on five-day entries Final Selections TUESDAY JUNE 18 Queen Anne Stakes (G1) – 2:30 pm AUDIENCE 3 pts Win – MALJOOM 2 pts e/w – DOLAYLI 2 pts e/w Sort List of Three: BIG ROCK 6/1 – AUDIENCE 10/1 – INSPIRAL 9/4 Away from the trends: POKER FACE 33/1 […]
2024 Royal Ascot – Day One (Tues 18th June)
16th June : The going at Ascot was described as good to firm, good in places at 11.02 am on Sunday. Sunday has been generally dry with a few isolated showers, and Monday is forecast to be largely dry with sunny spells. Tuesday and Wednesday are also now forecast to be generally dry, with the […]
Valentine’s Day and Ascot’s Common Dress Sense
This relentless outpouring of love and affection is doing my head in! My world is divided into 300 days of relative calm, sunny uplands where the green shoots etc etc… It is often a time of relative prosperity, if not in fact, then certainly in the impressions surrounding one. A day at Ascot, a trip […]
ROYAL ASCOT 2023 DAY 5
Another delicious lunch, another day of near misses, this time followed by a dinner with a brace of Norwegian Colonels. The attrition rate on my liver must stop soon. After today, I think I might take a week off and will maybe post a few tips by email if so inspired.
ROYAL ASCOT 2023 DAY 4
A lunch party in Lambourn for a dozen or so; a TV on the blink thanks to the WiFi failing to connect correctly to the Sky Mini. This small box is theoretically attached to the Sky Q. This is attached in every sense, to my wallet on a permanent, albeit only half-working, but always charging […]
ROYAL ASCOT 2023 DAY 3
We had another 20/1 winner on Wednesday and got chinned on the line with Random Harvest who I could not believe remained stubbornly available at 20/1+ despite being at level weights with the third-placed favourite. I simply lumped more on – but stupidly did not think to back it with the field in an Exacta. […]
ROYAL ASCOT 2023 DAY 2
The Golf was a bit disappointing – and especially for Rory McIlroy who lost by one stroke to Wyndham Clark who was also investigated for an alleged infraction of Rule 14.7a. You know the one surely… it forbids a ball from being played from the wrong spot. Sitting in the rough off the back nine, […]
ROYAL ASCOT 2023 DAY 1
Loins girded, Titfer polished, socks found, and monocular hung, I am ready. I think I am on top of everything including the wretched ticketing system. Do they really think the Duchess of Fotheringay aged 80 knows whether her phone is Android or Google Pay or even on? Then the email advertising I swear has doubled! […]
As promised John Reid MBE’s tips for Royal Ascot Saturday
These were John Reid’s tips for Ascot today, as given to the customers at The Royal Foresters. It looks like a very sensible placepot list! The Royal Foresters’ motto for Royal Ascot week has been A Friend to Racing. With John’s tips record over the first four days, I think the Royal Foresters has more […]
Too Hot for fun
Apart from drinking tea, when the temperature heads this far north, we deploy the electric fan, my last punkah wallah having disappeared back to Wolverhampton to join a train strike. With the tea and the fan, I recommend a trawl through any collection of Rudyard Kipling’s poems, which will remind you instantly of the miserable […]
The Aga Can’t.
For a brief and glorious moment, I truly thought I was home free. Arriving back last night to Camp Tamarkan, the temperature was slightly north of melted engine block territory but I brushed it aside knowing that I had less than a week to go before The Aga was switched off and removed. The financial […]
I might have taken too many steps – Ascot Day 3
A CORRECTION: The Cousin of Capt Smyly isn’t. She’s his Niece! Nice. He’ll be able to invite her to The Derby Dinner. I must admit I did think she looked more like young Beaujolais and less vintage Claret. The Hon. took me around the No 1 car park yesterday, on what she described as a […]
Smiles for Day 1 and onto Royal Ascot Day 2
What a marvellous day. I spent the morning in the company of one of the best jockeys of the last quarter of the 20th century John Reid, and his brother Noel, having breakfast and chatting about the day’s racing and various mutual chums in the Vale of the White Horse. Then running slightly late, onto […]
Bad Manners, The US Open and Royal Ascot Day 1.
In the midst of all the Ascot preparations, the thinking, the calculations, the decisiveness and confidence, sadly coupled with the loss of all value perceptions and risk management, I managed to scramble home from The Derby crash, by dint of good fortune and the bond of friendship. I cannot recall a more topsy-turvy year when […]
Ascot Day Sank
How went your day at the bio-secure experiment that was Ascot’s Day 4? I hear you ask. Well, my dears, there was horrendous traffic thanks to a collapsed road which cut off the M4 J14. The road closure resulted in our late arrival at a very delicious breakfast at The Royal Foresters, a highly recommended […]
Ascot Day 4
It was a day when the Shortlist produced 3 winners and the final selections looked like after-thoughts. Mark you, much of the day was lost to trying to decipher a set of NHS instructions in order to take two tests, in order to gain access to Ascot. What is it about all Government communications that […]
Ascot Day 3
Work raises its ugly head and delays matters, while winking at me from the sideboard are the 227 tests I have to take before Friday’s big adventure. But first, we must continue our labours against the bookies and, as labours go, yesterday went pretty well. We’re showing a 30pt profit for the meeting so far, […]
Ascot Day 2
Sometimes you have days when God leaps out of bed and says “Here I am – and because you have recently been less of an arse than normal, I have decided you shall have a good day.” So you go for lunch with old friends and see a chum you haven’t seen for five years […]
For a brief moment we all became Christians
Thanks to the Welsh, the first score draw arrived on Saturday, while I travelled back from Newmarket, having spent the morning with William Knight and the boys from Kennet Valley Thoroughbreds. We were taking pictures of their new branded racing kit, KVT having secured a decent sponsorship deal with the fast-growing pub company, Oakman Group […]