Friday, June 22, 2007

Royal Ascot - Saturday


I'd been doing reasonably well at this meeting until today when the wheels just came off...

It has been said many times before, and I'll say it again, many treat this occasion as a big garden party with a few races going on over in the distance somewhere, which really is a shame as the racing is first rate.

The final selection runs in the Hardwicke Stakes tomorrow which is due off at 3.05. Only eight go to post, and on paper it looks a close call between Scorpion and Maraahel. Maraahel won this last year and has a 5lb pull for a one and three quarter length defeat by Scorpion in the Coronation Cup at Epsom last time out. In theory that should be enough to reverse placings. However Scorpion looked to have a little in hand, while, going through Maraahel's form, most of his wins have come on good fast ground, so you could take a view that the rain will not have helped his cause. Scorpion is likely to be sent off a short price favourite; Maraahel is the value bet and gets the vote.

1 comment:

GeeDee said...

This was an exciting race to watch, with a fine ride by Richard Hills seeing Maraahel beat Scorpion (4/5 favourite) by half a length at odds of 100/30, although 7/2 looked freely available just before the off.
I don't like betting odds on shots primarily because, to this day, one of the worst feelings in racing is watching your money go down the pan on an odds on shot. The Sporting Life web site records an even money bet of £50,000 on Scorpion; spare a thought for that punter this evening.