Carlton House was sent off 5/4 favourite for the Irish Derby earlier today but The Queen's colt could only finish fourth, Aidan O'Brien training the first three home - Treasure Beach (7/2) beat stablemates Seville (5/1) and Memphis Tennessee (10/1) to give the Irish handler his ninth victory in the race. This evening Paddy Power bet on the Ladbrokes St Leger as follows: 3/1 Nathaniel, 5/1 Treasure Beach, 6/1 Brown Panther, 8/1 Sea Moon, 10/1 Memphis Tennessee, 12/1 Seville.
I was out and about Saturday lunchtime when I received a phone call from a fellow racegoer I see at the races once or twice a year. He'd had a word from one of the owners of Misty Conquest who was due to run in the listed Empress Stakes at Newmarket. 14 had been declared but at the time of the call one had been withdrawn; Tom Dascombe's filly had been priced up 5/1 second favourite in a couple of the morning papers. Six furlong sprints aren't my cup of tea and a few in the field looked well fancied, including Queen's Revenge and My Propeller, owned by Newcastle footballer Joey Barton; last time out this one had won a six furlong Pontefract madien by an astonishing 17 lengths. After some consideration I decided not to play. When Channel 4 showed the race preliminaries, another two had fallen by the wayside (including My Propeller) and Misty Conquest was priced at 10/1. In the event, she knew her job, broke well, led to half way, eventually coming home third; she had no answer to the strong challenge of Lily's Angel (6/1) who won a shade more cosily than the distances might suggest and looks a smart prospect.
The Jamie Snowden trained 11-year-old Knighton Combe took this afternoon renewal of Uttoxeter's English Summer National at odds of 16/1.
Martin Waller (Tempus) penned an interesting piece in Saturday's Times under the headline 'No such thing as a dead cert for investors in online gaming'. Betfair is shortly set to release its first set of annual figures since the company's flotation; shares issued at £13 last autumn were worth just £7.43 at close of business on Friday evening.
Finally Will Hayler's blog in Saturday's Guardian highlighted Channel 4 presenter Lesley Graham's attempt to generate more interest in her nine bedroom Newmarket mansion which she is looking to sell following the collapse of her marriage to Neil; a piece appeared in the property section of Wednesday's London Evening Standard. Back in March A.P. McCoy's house was on the market for £2.5 million but unfortunately the property was sold before I could arrange a meeting with my mortgage adviser. By comparison Ms Graham's pad looks a snip at just £1.4 million but I won't bother trying to contact my adviser as I happen to know he's on holdiay for a fortnight...
Showing posts with label guardian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label guardian. Show all posts
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Sunday, November 07, 2010
Ups and downs
It's all in a day's work for a jockey... While Paul Hannigan was collecting his first Flat jockeys' title at Doncaster on Saturday following a titanic struggle with Richard Hughes (final score: Hannigan 191 - Hughes 189), Ruby Walsh was riding Kauto Star and The Nightingale to victory in the two big races at Down Royal. Then disaster struck - Walsh suffered a double leg fracture when his mount Corrick Bridge fell in the Rainbow Telecom Handicap Chase. Walsh faces a protracted period on the sidelines and that enforced absence leaves champion trainer Paul Nicholls with something of a headache. A poll on the Racing Post website indicates 39% of their readers think Sam Thomas should get the leg up on Nicholls' best horses. The big Cheltenham Open meeting starts on Friday - watch this space as they say.
The failure of racing and the bookmakers to come to an agreement on the levy is likely to have serious implications for the future funding of the sport. The government's Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, is now charged with making the decision. Journalist Greg Wood wrote a bitingly critical piece in Tuesday's Guardian in which he argued that Paul Roy's position as chairman of the British Horseracing Authority was no longer tenable - watch this space as they say.
Viewers of BBC1's business reality show The Apprentice will know that Lord Sugar's prize for this week's winning team was a day out at 'Royal Windsor' races; I did note Lord Sugar failed to point out to winning contestants that it was a Monday afternoon meeting in mid October... Anyway, Synergy members enjoyed a slap-up meal and a glass of champagne before the serious business of finding winners began. Overseas property developer Jamie Lester, who incidentally had set up his own company by the age of 24, was shown striking a £2 wager (in what one could only describe as a rather extravagant manner) with well-known layer Barry Dennis. 'Two pounds on the nose Green Earth!' cried Mr Lester about his selection in the first. Now, given that the winner of The Apprentice is likely to pull a job that will pay in the region of £100,000, Mr Dennis might have expected to have taken a slightly larger wager from Mr Lester but the layer was politeness itself, merely commenting on the fact that this particualry punter 'liked it on the nose'. I harboured further concerns regarding Mr Lester's business nous. At the pre-race meal he stated it was a 5/1 chance any of the five at the table would make the final and 10/1 any of them would win the competition outright. 'Nice' said Stella but consider this - at the time of filming, it would have been known that there were ten contestants left in the competition. Assuming for the sake of argument each of those contestants had an equal chance, it looked to me as though Mr Lester was selling 9/1 chances at 10/1. And we all know that's the road to rack and ruin...
For those who simply have to know - Green Earth finished ninth of fourteen in the Windsor, Ascot & Eton Express Nursery Handicap (div 1) run at Windsor on Monday 12 October 2009; the race went to the rather appropriately named Agony And Ecstasy.
The failure of racing and the bookmakers to come to an agreement on the levy is likely to have serious implications for the future funding of the sport. The government's Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, is now charged with making the decision. Journalist Greg Wood wrote a bitingly critical piece in Tuesday's Guardian in which he argued that Paul Roy's position as chairman of the British Horseracing Authority was no longer tenable - watch this space as they say.
Viewers of BBC1's business reality show The Apprentice will know that Lord Sugar's prize for this week's winning team was a day out at 'Royal Windsor' races; I did note Lord Sugar failed to point out to winning contestants that it was a Monday afternoon meeting in mid October... Anyway, Synergy members enjoyed a slap-up meal and a glass of champagne before the serious business of finding winners began. Overseas property developer Jamie Lester, who incidentally had set up his own company by the age of 24, was shown striking a £2 wager (in what one could only describe as a rather extravagant manner) with well-known layer Barry Dennis. 'Two pounds on the nose Green Earth!' cried Mr Lester about his selection in the first. Now, given that the winner of The Apprentice is likely to pull a job that will pay in the region of £100,000, Mr Dennis might have expected to have taken a slightly larger wager from Mr Lester but the layer was politeness itself, merely commenting on the fact that this particualry punter 'liked it on the nose'. I harboured further concerns regarding Mr Lester's business nous. At the pre-race meal he stated it was a 5/1 chance any of the five at the table would make the final and 10/1 any of them would win the competition outright. 'Nice' said Stella but consider this - at the time of filming, it would have been known that there were ten contestants left in the competition. Assuming for the sake of argument each of those contestants had an equal chance, it looked to me as though Mr Lester was selling 9/1 chances at 10/1. And we all know that's the road to rack and ruin...
For those who simply have to know - Green Earth finished ninth of fourteen in the Windsor, Ascot & Eton Express Nursery Handicap (div 1) run at Windsor on Monday 12 October 2009; the race went to the rather appropriately named Agony And Ecstasy.
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