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Captain's Blog - Monday 3rd December

The HWPA awards ceremony takes place at the Lancaster House Hotel in London today and I am pleased to say that I will be there. The ceremony effectively rewards writers, photographers and broadcasters fort their outstanding work. Our very own, or perhaps I should say Channel 4's Nick Luck will once again go very close to putting another award on his already bulging mantlepiece. He has dominated the broadcasters category for a number of years now, and although his domination was rather rudely interrupted by Matt Chapman two years ago, normal service was resumed last year. He faces stiff opposition this year, but I suspect he will be hard to beat once again. I wish him luck and think he should win, but awards ceremonies have never been an exact science.

What is certain is that there will be frivolity all round from those in attendance, who like many jockeys seem to regularly make their effort far too early and pay for that later in proceedings. If only some of them had embraced the concept of sectional times much earlier in their careers they may understand that to get through a day like this you need to set steady early fractions.

Talking of sectional times and how they would open up the world of racing and project it onto a higher plain I was watching American Racing last night and heard the following from a local pundit at Aqueduct. Talking of one particular horse's chance he said that last time out the jockey went too soon and made too much of a move too far from home and he was sure the same jockey would not make the same mistake this time around. He clearly recognized that kicking for home too soon was a cardinal sin. He could have said that under an enterprising ride the horse got caught close home, but NO he realized that kicking on is not all that it is cracked up to be. Getting there too late is far less of a sin than kicking too soon and we need to embrace that concept as they do in the States if we are going to continue to take this sport forward in terms of analysis.

My selection today is Emulating in the 4.50 at Kempton. This horse got a terrible trip or a terrible ride, take it as you will last time and should have gone close to winning. With more improvement to come from this lightly trained individual he should be backed each way here. I will be watching eagerly on my phone whilst waiting for Mr Luck to pick up another gong.

Today's selection:

4.50 Kempton - Emulating (each way)