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Captain's Blog - Thursday 23rd August

It is very unusual for me to tip the offspring of Hawk Wing here on the blog, but yesterday I broke the habit of a lifetime in tipping Kalk Bay in the last race at York.

He ran well and rewarded each-way support by finishing second at 12/1. He actually got to the front for a few strides and then he remembered who is daddy was and second place had to suffice. Nonetheless we turned over a small profit and the race served to remind me about Hawk Wing's legacy to this great game of ours.

Of course all of this is irrelevant really on a day that belonged to Frankel. I believe that even the great wordsmiths out there struggled to convey what they saw this great horse do yesterday and thus I am not going to try and wax lyrical about his performance. The word that came into my mind as he crossed the line was ‘unbelievable.’ I am happy to stick with that as a description of something that was very real, yet out of this world.

I have a day off at home today and am looking forward to watching York this afternoon. The feature event is the Yorkshire Oaks in which the Fugue will go off favourite. This filly got a brilliant ride from Richard Hughes last time out in the Nassau Stakes and over a mile and a half today will need an equally good ride from William Buick.

Essentially this horse has plenty of speed and will need to be produced late. She has previous at York as she won the Musidora earlier in the season in a fast time. She will go well, but I will not be backing her as I have a niggle at the back of my mind telling me that she has so much speed that she will always be better at distances short of 12 furlongs.

Today I am keen on Switzerland in the 3.05 at York. Horses with good all-weather form go well at this track ever since the new drainage was put in and I like the fact that Switzerland won at Kempton last time on Polytrack.

I also believe he is well-treated on old form. Some people will say that his trainer, Mark Johnston, does not have a decent record at York. That may be true, but it does not mean that he is not going to start building a better record starting today! Switzerland is about 12/1 at the time of writing and should be backed each way.

Have a good day folks.

Today's Selection

3.05pm York: Switzerland