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Captain's Blog - Monday 11th June 2012

When is this rain going to stop thereby enabling the best horses, who can run fastest, win races? Fast horses do not win in deep ground, and there must be many trainers out there who are frustrated with current ground conditions. If we do get some sort of summer soon then there will be plenty of good horses ready to run who have been stood idle waiting for this wet drought to come to an end.

The cameras will be at Pontefract this evening, which given the conditions, will probably unfold towards the stands’ side rail. My selection is at this Yorkshire venue and comes in the form of Gabriel’s Star in the 8.20 at Pontefract.

This horse looked to be a useful prospect when winning his maiden last year. On his return this season at Beverley he ran in snatches and was a little disappointing but I am happy to give this son of Hernando another chance to build on the promise of that run last season. A number of firms are going 6/1 this morning and that seems like fair each way value.

We enjoyed our brief trip to Wales at the weekend. It was just nice to have a break and do something different. The gig itself was in a hotel near Cardiff Bay and they had the foresight to make sure that the football was on in the bar.

This meant that I was a willing runner for anybody who wanted a drink throughout the evening. As the evening festivities moved onto the dance floor I managed to avoid wowing everybody with my own version of Dad dancing as I had to retire to our room to look after our little girl at 9.00pm.

This disco avoidance also served to ensure that I did not have a hangover in the morning, which was good news given that I was doing the driving home the next day. Our journey home took us to the Twickenham Stoop to watch Harlequins narrowly defeat the Widnes Vikings, which was a nice way to end a relaxing couple of days.

I have a busy week ahead for and I hope I will be watching action taking place on decent ground, but I doubt it!

All the best.

Todays Selection

8.20 Pontefract – Gabrial’s Star (each way 6/1 SkyBet )