Review of the day

I felt like we needed that one…

Obviously it’s a bit silly to look at numbers purely on a month-by-month basis.

The start and ends of months are completely arbitrary – there is no pattern to how they fall.

However, when you account on a monthly basis – and produce a monthly report, it is probably inevitable that performance during a month, will be in focus…

And performance this month hasn’t been great – so far…

I think there are a variety of reasons for this – though a lot of them boil down to the weather…

Periods of heavy rain mean that we are often in the dark with regard to exactly how the ground will be riding – whilst the abandonments make it difficult for me to get into my ‘groove’.

Anyway, whatever the reasons, it was something of a relief to watch Big Society come home in front this afternoon…

And boy did he come home in front.

His hurdling was shocking - and yet he was still far too good for his opponents.

With hindsight, the market plunge that saw his price crash from an early 10/1 to 7/2 at the off, seemed completely justified.

He is clearly a good deal better then his current handicap mark…

Whether he will remain ahead of his revised handicap mark, is likely to depend to a large extent on whether his jumping improves.

If it doesn’t I suspect he will struggle – though I wouldn’t be surprised if, with this confidence booster under his belt, his attentions are now turned back to fences…

Unfortunately, the other tip of the day, Handy Andy, didn’t do quite so well…

He actually ran a strange race, in so much as starting off down the back straight on the second circuit, I wouldn’t have swapped him for anything.

However, in the space of a couple of fences he went from travelling smoothly, to being under pressure.

That is often a sign that a horse is having breathing problems (and he does wear a tongue tie).

Whatever, I wouldn’t want to be with him again, until he has demonstrated that he retains his form…

His race was ultimately won, in very impressive style, by Restless Harry.

He was always going to be a big danger, if he managed to put everything together –and he did that in no uncertain terms…

It was a long way back to runner up Bendant, who ran a decent race and went some way to justifying me having tipped him on New Years day (even if I deserted him today !).

Tomorrow looks like it could be a busy day, with 4 meetings scheduled - and a few familiar faces due to line up.

I’ll send out an advanced tip notification around 8:00, to give you an idea of what I plan for the day – but I expect some tips !!

TVB.