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Captain's Blog - 23rd August 2010

I am struggling a bit this morning having been awake for a good part of the night listening to the rain hammer down. It was torrential and the going on my lawn must have changed from good/firm firm in places to good/soft all over, not to forget the faster strip under the trees up the left hand side. If I am going up the garden this morning it will surely quicken my passage if I make my way up the left hand side and avoid the softer patches out in the middle. In truth we needed the rain and it means that I will not have to go and water my holiday making next door neighbours pot plants. I do not mind undertaking this task, but given that they are gardeners of some repute I do feel that there is some pressure connected to this job. The heavy rain has at least lifted the pressure for a day at least.

There was much talk last week about the faster strip of ground towards the stands side at York last week. Some people thought the stands rail was the place to be others pointed out that horses managed to win when a few horse widths away from the rail. My take on the whole thing was that the rail was the best place to be, even those horses that won away from it would have liked to have been near it if they could have been, but it was clearly not necessary to be on it to win. What I would say is that horses that raced up the middle or to the far side of the track had absolutely no chance and if they ran well their performances should be marked up. These sort of track biases are in my opinion punter friendly, to try and eradicate them would be to simply create a bias somewhere else on the track which would effectively be keeping punters in the dark. In the States there is a huge rail favouring bias at Hawthorne, punters do not complain about it or endlessly analyse whether you can win when racing just wide of the strip, they realise that the rail is golden and that it is the place to be and they bet accordingly. As punters we should adopt the same approach and get on with it, not complain or try to effect a change. punting is hard enough on any level playing field and when we have an advantage we should embrace it.

Talking of Racing in America Santa Anita is going to rip up its synthetic surface and return to the traditional dirt. Horsemen throughout California and beyond have been clamouring for this turnaround ever since the track started having maintenance problems with the pro-ride surface. I welcome this change as it has always been my belief that a well maintained dirt track is as safe as a synthetic track, a belief incidentally that is held by legendary trainer Bob Baffert as well. Racing on dirt is the purist form of horseracing you can get. It is about speed where the fastest horses win races where judgement of pace is the only tactical nuance for everybody to struggle with. There is none of this crawl and sprint style racing where trouble in running and track position can prevent the fastest horse winning. In the shadows of the magnificent San Gabriel mountains fast horses will once again be winning races where their superiority over their rivals is not hidden by the rubber and sand of a synthetic surface that has threatened to change the face of Racing in America. Yes the traditionalists are getting their way, but sometimes the old ways are the best ways and I cannot wait to see dirt racing return to one of the best tracks in America.

A day off for me today and I am planning an assault on the garden. I have not had a good sort out for a while and having mowed the lawn yesterday I am ready to keep the momentum up and tidy the borders today.

will bring you action from three meetings today, namely Kempton, Carlisle and Hamilton and we look forward to your company.

Have a good one.

Today’s Selections

3:45 Kempton – Night Affair (each way 9/2 Bet365 )

8:00 Carlisle – Commando Scott (each way SP)