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Captain's Blog - 17th October 2011

It certainly was an interesting weekend in this great game of ours and I have received a number of requests to eat humble pie as regards my previous thoughts on Frankel.

Well first things first, he was hugely impressive on Saturday, as he was in the 2000 Guineas, and having checked my previous blogs I have stated on more than one occasion that he is an outstanding racehorse but I stick to my genuine belief that his win in the Sussex Stakes was massively overplayed as he got an easy lead and his main rival suffered a career ending injury. This has always been my stance and always will be, but it does not mean he is not a champion, it just means that I believed he could not be acclaimed a champion for what he did at Goodwood. I have been persistently misunderstood over my views on this one and will not eat humble pie, instead I will continue to analyse races on their merits without misplaced hype. My analysis of his performance on Saturday is a positive one as he is clearly learning to settle and become more tractable and as such he will be an awesome sight next season and I for one cannot wait to see him again.

Qipco Champion Stakes - Cirrus Des Aigles (C Soumillon, grey) wins from So You Think (R Moore)

Having had a week of dealing with the new whip rules and writing about them extensively I am not planning to go over them again here on the blog today, but I am prepared to say that what happened to Christophe Soumillon on Saturday after his win in the Champion Stakes was a disgrace. Lets leave it at that and see what happens today when leading jockeys meet the BHA. I would like a return to the old rules but the BHA are unlikely to back down to that extent.

I enjoyed working on our coverage of the Racing from Woodbine last night and I hope you tuned in to see Christophe Soumillon win the Canadian International for John Hammond on Sarah Lynx. Soumillon gave the winner a magnificent rail skimmimg ride and was strong in the finish and even though he hit the horse eight times in the final furlong did not get a ban! They know how to do it in Canada.

I am at home today and then will be heading to the Studio tomorrow to bring some French racing to you with Claude Charlet as my guest. Please tune in for that and for Pontefract today.

Our each way selection on Saturday was Colour Vision who finished third at 16/1 and was a tad unlucky.

All the best.

Today's Selection

3.40 Pontefract - Al Saham (4/1 MansionBet )