Getting ready for a working winter

Goodness me, it has been a while since I’ve blogged, hasn’t it?  I said there might be longish gaps between musings, but I didn’t expect to go through virtually the entire flat season without writing.  The problem, as so often, is women.  Well, one woman.  I may not be out-manned, but by crikey I’m outgunned.  So, I’m sorry if the absence of my thoughts has bothered anyone, but it is for happy reasons.

Although this blog will have a strong flat racing bias, I’m likely to do more writing through the winter, simply because I have more time.  I try to get to the course as much as I can over the summer, and that is a time-consuming hobby.  There are just two meetings left for me this year – Newbury tomorrow, and Newmarket on the 2^nd November.  Over the winter, I’ll be digesting a long season’s work and preparing my mind and my notebook for 2014. 

Today’s blog is about what I plan to do with my off-season, and why I think you should do the same.

A miscellany of thoughts

So, this blog comes with a health warning; I am deliberately setting myself against mainstream opinion.  For most races and most horses, I agree with the consensus, but if I acted on those opinions I’d produce a boring blog and would back a lot of favourites.  I’ve little doubt that in what follows, I’ll be wrong more than I’m right, but at the sort of prices I’m betting, that isn’t a problem.  With that caveat out there, today’s blog is a miscellany of horses I have opinions about following a busy period of early-season paddock watching.  Before that, though, an extension of my health warning, and a few thoughts on the big races coming up.

Don't forget about Fencing

Life (the stupid thing) has been rather taking my attention away from blogging for a couple of weeks.  I have a few things I’d like to write this week, and I’ll do my best to get out some thoughts on some of the horses I’ve seen recently in due course.  This blog is different, though.  I’m writing about the Guineas horses (fillies and colts) of this season, and about how I expect them to develop, but I’m doing it in a different way.  I’m going to talk about the key form horse for understanding the 2013 2,000 and 1,000 Guineas.

Fencing.

Yeah, the four year old, Fencing.  That one.

Inconclusive thoughts on the 1,000 Guineas

So, my review of the 1,000 Guineas has taken a little longer to prepare than I expected.  Blame my second cold of the last six weeks.  Thinking positively, the delay has served to allow the entries to be slimmed, first by scandal (Certify a non-runner, and also Great Timing, a filly for whom I entertained high hopes, particularly for the Oaks – with Lovely Pass a less significant removal) and then by another declaration round.  So, unlike the 2,000 preview, I won’t be wasting time assessing horses whose connections have no intention of running them.  Even with a smaller field (18 remain entered) this looks a very, very tough race to crack.  Let’s see what we can do to narrow the field.

Thoughts on the 2,000 Guineas

The trials are done, the betting markets are pretty mature, and we’re just a few days away from the first two classics of the season.  For me, Guineas weekend is one of the highlights of the season – the “final exam” for my work on the 2yos that takes up so much of each summer, and a weekend that throws up plenty of clues for the seasons ahead.  The Guineas are the best trials around for the Derby and Oaks, and there are plenty of pointers for later races. 

I’m particularly proud of my notes by Rip Van Winkle’s name back in 2009: “miler, needs to grow, compact, pwful. Cld be Gdwd type”.  Backing him at 6/4 in the Sussex was hardly rocket science, but avoiding him in three runs before then (and against Sea The Stars) was valuable indeed.  Nuggets like that get me to Newmarket with my notebook set to stun.  Anyway, with my excitement well established, let’s look at the field for the 2,000.  The 1,000 will follow as soon as I can get around to it.

A few thoughts on my favourite race courses

Comments on the course that top my rankings, and a few thoughts on some other courses:

Sandown (58):

I know how expensive Sandown is, and yes, that upsets me.  However, it has some of the best racing under both codes – there are few better days on the calendar than the Eclipse, but the Tingle Creek is one of them – and it is just about the perfect course.   The course views are unparalleled. The racing is fair (by which I mean, the best horse usually wins, not a universal truth) and the chase course is the best challenge of a jumper anywhere on earth.

My will calls for my ashes to be scattered at the pond fence.  Did you really think any other course might be higher up the rankings?

Eddie's first ever course rankings!

Something I enjoyed putting together for my old blog was reviews of the courses I visited.  Although they were a lot of fun, I never really pulled them together in one place.  So I’ve taken on a hefty project to start things off on my new site.  There are 29 courses I’ve visited, and below, I’ve marked them all out of 70, and ranked them.  This is a lengthy post, but hopefully it’ll be a useful reference point to anyone thinking about heading to a new course.  Dip in and out, or search by course name, that's my advice.  I love the variety of courses and I'm always happy to chat to anyone searching for the right course for them!