Review of the day

Well, we’ve had them before – and I dare say we will have them again – but I think today just has to go down as one of those days…

A combination of a bit of mis-fortune – and a few poor decisions – resulted in an afternoon that will be quickly forgotten…

The closest we got to a positive result, was Smoking Aces in the Eider chase…

How Maurice Linehan kept him in the race, I will never know – but having got so close, it is almost as big a mystery how he didn’t win !

He made mistakes, ballooned fences and ran lazily – and yet still looked likely to collect, approaching the third last.

But as was the case when we were on him last time, he just couldn’t find sufficient to get his head in front.

He’s clearly got masses of talent – and an attitude to go match.

In fairness, I did know what I was getting in to when I tipped him !

The two other races at Newcastle in which I tipped, both ended in much less dramatic defeats…

I was extremely disappointed by the run of Kudu Country in the handicap hurdle.

I couldn’t see why he wouldn’t go close but, having lead early, he faded up the home straight to finishing well beaten….

The other tip in the race, Angelot Du Berlais, was much riskier – and unfortunately he performed little better…

Sustainability was almost as disappointing as Kudu Country…

I can accept that he wasn’t good enough – but he was beaten before the home straight, which is not what I expected to happen.

It was misfortune, that befell the biggest tip of the day, Enchanted Smile.

She made a mistake at the second fence and lost her jockey. How much the error was caused by her being distracted by mistakes made by the horses in front of her, is difficult to say – but the end result was the same…

In truth, I take some consolation from the fact that Sablazo finished a well beaten second in the race.

By my reckoning, Enchanted Smile would have finished a few lengths in front of that one (all things being equal !) – but that would probably still have put her behind easy winner, Jeanry (who only the lucky pin could have found !).

Niceonefrankie ran a strange ran in the big race of the day at Kempton.

He chased the pace early, but then lost his position, before finishing with a rattle…

I’m not sure where it all went wrong – but I was left with the impression that he could have gone closer…

What was a little frustrating is that the winner, Bally Legend, had form from Kempton last season, that tied him in very closely with Niceonefrankie.

However, of the pair, I much preferred the chances of Niceonefrankie staying todays additional distance…

The mentions generally ran with credit, with a win, three seconds and a third, between them…

Present View won the opening race at Kempton very easily – having been backed to do so; whist both Grey Gold and Big Society looked a tad unfortunate to collect at Chepstow.

Minella on Line could only finish third to Full Shift at Kempton, which was kind of what I expected…

What I didn’t expect however, was that they would be sent off 5/2 joint second favourites, having been 6/1 and 13/8 respectively this morning !!

Finally, Top Pick Swynmor, finished well beaten at Chepstow.

He moved stylishly into the race at the third last – but found little for pressure.

It had been a similar story on his 2 other completed runs this season – though I felt there were reasons on the previous occasions.
There were no reasons today and you have to feel that he is maybe a bit of a bridle horse…

Hopefully tomorrow will be better…

TVB.