Saturday 9th August 2014

Thursday was a shameful day for racing in the UK, another Barney Curley coup that looked like going down was nothing more than a bookies get together to raise funds for their Christmas parties.

The whole episode didn’t look right from the start as highlighted on here, the only two horses that looked correct were the Johnny Murtagh runners and I very much doubt those two had anything to do with Mr Curley.

Take out the Murtagh horses the other 4 drifted alarmingly not long before the off:

Bang In Trouble – 6-4 / 22-1

Champagne Charlie – 5-4 / 12-1

Hejaz – 11-4 / 9-1

The Drunken Dr – 7-4 / 12-1

Bookmakers should be forced to show the money taken on each of the above, I’m confident this was a clear case of market manipulation in my opinion, bookies knew a get together price crash on each runner would suck in the average punter into thinking it was another coup going down when it couldn’t have been anything further from the truth.

Each horse drifted out to its correct price before the off, I wonder why each and every firm refused to speak on the Attheraces daily market movers feature?

Rant Over!

Shergar cup day at Ascot, a fixture where jockeys from around the world are placed in teams, it’s a bit of fun and something different however I can’t bet at the meeting as team tactics come into play.

Haydock has some great racing on offer, The Betfred Rose of Lancaster Stakes looks more like a Group 2 race than Group 3 race. I thought True Story was going to be a world beater at start of the season but he’s not gone on from his seasonal win and become disappointing.

Hillstar looks the safest selection, ran consistently well this season whist the form of his recent second behind Cavalryman has worked out well. The worry would be the trip as the Sir Michael Stoute runner would prefer an extra two furlongs, however with the race likely to be run at a good clip and Hillstar having fewer questions to answer than the rest the price of 3-1 looks ok.

Over at Redcar in the 4:25 based on ratings and recent RPR efforts it would suggest this is a two horse race between Lilly Junior & Rough Courte.

Rough Courte looks a bit exposed with one win in 22 starts, dropped into a seller this is an easier task of late but the filly is beatable.

The William Haggas trained Lilly Junior is open to more improvement after just 5 runs, she was well backed last time out when unseating on the bend and had been running ok against better horses than she meets here.

Lilly Junior is clearly not a stable star but it’s a long old way from Newmarket to Redcar, Mr Haggas won’t have sent her on this journey for just a run around.

The going is good soft at Redcar, note Lilly Junior was pulled out of a run when the going turned soft so she doesn’t want any more rain to fall, I’m hopeful though back against her own age and sex Lilly Junior should go well if the if the recent unseat haven’t affected her. The price of 6-4 looks fine.