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Captain's Blog - 8th July 2010

I gave a shocking selection here on the blog yesterday and quite rightly did my money and deserved to do so! Special Duty was the name and she ran no sort of race in the Falmouth pulling too hard for half of the journey and then folding like a cheap suit through the final quarter mile. I fancied her because of her big speed figure over 6 furlongs last year at Newmarket, but she had not run a decent figure over a mile, a fact I decided to ignore! She certainly behaved like a sprinter yesterday and the figures told us she was. The best speed figure in the race over a mile belonged to the winner – Music Show and like a mug I ignored it. Dumb ass tipping I am afraid, many apologies. At least my other selection yesterday was a non runner, which probably did us all a favour.

Day two of the July Meeting today and hope springs eternal for some more cogent analysis from yours truly. The Princess of Wales’s Stakes is the big race of the day and eight runners go to post. It looks to be a decent renewal and I have burnt the midnight oil to produce some all important speed figures.

Crowded House 97 (time to question his temperament)
Holberg 108
Man Of Iron 74
Nanton 93
Redwood 111
Sans Frontieres 109
Spanish Moon 104 ( no recent figure as he has been racing abroad)
Tazeez 118 ( Wow ! but does he stay 12 Furlongs?)

If Tazeez stays he will surely go very close given his big figure in the Brigadier Gerard Stakes at Sandown and the winner Stotsfold has gone on to further success. Redwood is the other figure horse and he ran well behind Harbinger at Ascot last time. Holberg and Sans Frontieres look like thorough stayers who could do with further. Spanish moon could be the one as he has been running well abroad, recently at Meydan. He is probably capable of running faster than the figure of 104 suggests, but on balance I am going to take a chance that Tazeez will stay 10 furlongs, it is a worry but to small stakes it is worth a go. At the time of writing the best price available is 11/2 with Victor Chandler.

I am in the studio today on what is a very busy day on Racing UK. I cycled to work yesterday, but will be driving today given that we will not be finishing until 9.30pm. I do enjoy my bike rides to work but last night on my way home a Taxi driver decided to give me a massive amount of abuse as he drove past. I had done nothing wrong, but he seemed determined to shout abuse at me and launch a variety of hand signals my way. He did all of this whilst he had a customer in the back! I was astounded at his anger and I really do not know what I had done wrong. Maybe he reads this blog and had crashed on Special Duty yesterday, alternatively he was simply looking for a row after a long hard day in his cab, either way the abuse I received from this half wit was not what I needed at the end of the day. Hopefully he will get no customers today.

I am off to work now folks. Enjoy your day.

Today’s Selections

3.10 Newmarket – Tazeez (each way 11/2 Victor Chandler)

4.55 Newmarket – Crimea (each way 7/1 various)