Review of the day

Just 2 days into the new season – and TVB is already giving you stories you can tell your grandchildren !

‘I remember once backing a horse at 12/1 in the morning – and it went off 9/4 favourite. More than that, it went to 140 in-running, before coming home unchallenged by 16 lengths’

Ofcourse, they wouldn’t believe you – and who in their right mind would ?! – but it happened…

Unfortunately, I didn’t see any post races interviews – but my guess is that my theory this morning was pretty close to the mark. The horse had been acquired and primed to win a race that meant a lot to the Gifford family.

Well done to them for executing so effectively – and well done to us for being on board !

Ofcourse, I’ve no idea what it will do to any of your bookmaker accounts – hopefully they will just think it a fluke !

Mind you, that theory won’t really hold water if you happened to back Grove Pride with the same bookmaker (as I did !).

An easy to back 10/1 shot this morning – it was hammered into 4/1 favourite at the off.

Unfortunately, that was as good as it got, as either the ground – or a physical problem – saw it weakening before the home straight, and it was soon pulled up.

What was even more baffling, was that the winner, Ballyoliver, had a piece of form with Grove Pride from a couple of season ago, that made them virtually the same horse.

With Venetia banging in the winners again, it is reasonable to think that Ballyoliver would have been backed in a similar way to Grove Pride.
But no – Ballyoliver drifted out to 14/1 – before storming home.

All very puzzling…

I’m just glad that I committed last week to trying to avoid steamers – ahem…

One horse that didn’t steam this afternoon – in fact it drifted like a barge – was top pick, Obistar.

In fact the negative market movement was so severe, I fully expected it to run a shocker.

But again, expectations were contradicted by reality, as it ran a really sound race to finish second to Spanish Fleet, with the rest of the field strung out behind.

Don’t ask me to explain all of that – as I honestly can’t…

So far as the mentions were concerned, it was very much a day to forget.

Eduard and Morning Reggie ran with some promise for the future – but my decision to demote Protaras, More Madness and Hit the Top, proved a shrewd one.

Let’s hope I’ve not used up all my good judgement calls in one day !

TVB.