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Tanya's Blog - 4th October 2010

After early morning inspections all three meetings, Pontefract, Warwick and Windsor are on. However through no fault of their own I doubt the attendance at the respective courses will be bursting as they all have to tackle the allure of the Ryder Cup singles starting at 9.05am at Celtic Manor. Europe up 9½ 6½ USA and needing 5 more to reclaim the Trophy, it’s going to be compulsive viewing. Lee Westwood seems to be playing with a magnetic ball with shot after shot either finding the fairway, green or hole. Ian Poulter has brought Martin Kaymer out of his shell but sadly it’s singles today so Kaymer has to go it alone. And Colin Montgomerie has left two major winners at the bottom end of his draw, a just in case move.

I have been really disappointed with Dustin Johnson, he has played appallingly, and my bet for him to be top points scorer was lost soon after he teed off on Friday. To me he is one of the best players I’ve ever seen hit a golf shot yet it soon became apparent that he is not a natural matchplay player. He’ll find it tough against Martin Kaymer so I can see why Jeremy Chapman picks Kaymer.

At the start of the tournament I thought it would be a penalty kick for Europe to the extent of a 20-8 victory but the team took a while to warm up. Consistently looking at the singles draw and now I see why the experts had the favourite result as a draw. Still, I think Lee Westwood will trounce Stricker, and maybe the momentum will build from there.

I digress back to racing, how good was the action at Longchamp yesterday, well what I was allowed to watch, as the better half had charge of the remote control and was annoyingly flicking between golf, football and racing to the extent I just was allowed to watch the race itself, no build-up. Luckily I had strategically taped it and today will be viewing it all again. It is such a shame the Abbaye is so unwatchable a bit like Sandown’s sprint course you feel so detached from the action. My favourite win was Wooten Bassett as after a season like theirs, Richard Fahey and Paul Hanagan didn’t deserve to go through it without a Group One win.

Goldikova was just at her supreme, majestical best etching her name in the record book, as if we were going to forget her, she would be at the entrance of any Hall of Fame. Workforce, what can we say about the emphatic Derby and now Arc winner except for just what did go wrong at Ascot?

It will be foolhardy pitching in too often if at all with selections today especially with the ground bordering on the extremes of soft. Pontefract’s 2.40 I like Jack Smudge, Strike A Deal at 4.10. Icelandic loves the conditions so he would be the choice in Warwick’s 2.20 and at Windsor Foxhaven at 6.00.

POINTERS

According to page 22 in the Racing Post, Signposts, Jamie Osborne is currently enjoying a 33% strike rate, five from 15.

Clive Cox and Luke Morris have teamed up for five winners from their last 12 runners including the Abbaye at Longchamp yesterday

Michael Jarvis has had four winners from his last 15 runners and at Pontefract he has had seven winners from his last 20

Pontefract hasn’t been the luckiest course for Frankie Dettori so far this season so do we really want to be backing Darley Sun at odds-on