Trainspotters heading for annual convention
All the so-called shrewdies, mind you there are plenty of them, have been watching racing, hawk-like, for the last six weeks or so with just one thing in mind - Ballybrit.
Trainers lay out horses for this meeting like no other and the trick is to spot the train coming down the tracks, prior to it flying past.
So, have you spotted any trains thundering into sight?
Well, we all think we have, but whether that’s the case or not only time can reveal.
Anyway, I fancy a couple of horses for both the Plate and the Hurdle, which is a real rarity. These races are, usually, best given the Brian O’Driscoll swerve.
Have had Francis Flood’s The Culdee in mind for the Plate ever since he scored over fences at Killarney back in May. Thought he won very stylishly that evening and pencilled him as a Galway possible immediately.
The canny Flood then gave his horse a decent break and two spins on the level of late should have him spot-on.
He is currently set to carry 10-3, having gone up 8lbs for his Killarney success.
Callow Lake is a horse I have always liked and is current favourite to be burdened with the selection for the Hurdle a week today.
He is a tough, resolute four-year-old who gives the impression the hill will hold no fears for him.
Callow Lake is now a seasoned campaigner, who has got into plenty of battles, both over flights and on the level.
I thought it was clever, and timely of trainer, David Wachman, to give him his first spin in a handicap hurdle at Killarney last week. Third to Blue Away and Portant Fella was a promising effort.
Of course, if you manage to get any handicap right at Galway then that’s just a bonus. For a small investment, you can enjoy a healthy return.
But the punter who behaves professionally won’t be trucking with handicaps. No, it will be maidens and conditions races on the flat and maiden and novice hurdles which will present the best opportunities. Let’s get it on.
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“IS it my imagination, or is racing getting worse?”, muttered a press-room colleague at the Curragh on Sunday, as he glanced at the fare on offer at Ballinrobe the following day.
It’s not his imagination. This has been a dreadful summer, for the most part, for racing in this country and all the HRI attendances and betting figures in the world cannot mask that dross rules and rules big-time.
Killarney more than paid its way to the game with some very low-grade racing. But that’s the way it has been on most tracks for week after week now.
No matter how many of those dreadful 33-60 flat handicaps are put on, the appetite for them never seems to be satisfied.
Recently, I cannot remember exactly where, one of those type of contests attracted an entry of 100. No less than 67 had to be balloted out.
This weekend we have two meetings on Friday night, Cork and Fairyhouse, and two on Saturday night, Leopardstown and Wexford.
By a mile, what race has had the most entries? Yes, you’ve guessed it, the 33-60 Derrinstown Stud Apprentice Handicap at Cork. It has an entry numbering 69 little beauties.
Of course, we must accept that the vast majority of flat horses in Ireland are in this category, the bordering on useless category. Most of them wouldn’t get to half way in a maiden hurdle?
The sooner, however, the HRI gets the finger out and makes a decision on building an all-weather the better.
Racing through the summer has to be upgraded, because the public won’t be taken for fools for ever.
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LIKE the way flat handicapper, Garry O’Gorman, thinks. Certainly, he seems more than willing to drop horses down the weights, when he believes they are too high, which is surely the proper way to do business.
One recent example is Hidden Cave, who did us a tasty 6-1 favour at Ballinrobe on Monday night.
At one stage last season she was rated 80. This season Hidden Cave started off on 61. By Monday, she was racing off 50 and won by a length and a half.
Bocaccio, who landed that massive gamble at Leopardstown last week, is another example. Fifth of 19 off 66 at Leopardstown previously, he was dropped 3lbs for that effort.
He runs off 75 at Limerick tonight, 12lbs higher, but that will hardly worry those who are still counting the Leopardstown winnings.
