Daily Racing Thread Thursday 17th. June 2021

oh dear I have this horse in the comp, but with your endorsement that is a sure fire loser

i also like Perotto, Quintillius and Legal Attack at the big prices

 

In the last at Ascot, the cavalry charge "Buckingham Palace" (18:10), I'll take a chance with Persuasion. Has the highest-number draw on the stands-side which is usually good on this ground, but who knows after the far-side winners yesterday? James Doyle in the saddle for Charlie Hills. The SP will do for me!

 

The Britannia almost the same as the Royal Hunt Cup yesterday: they went too fast in the first half of the race. The stands’ side runners ran the last couple of furlongs a second slower than the early sectionals.

Well done to anyone that had Perotto, Liffey River, Quintillus or Dubai Honour (or anything that paid out depending on your bookie’s place terms!).

Most of the fancied runners never got a blow in.

 

1st and 3rd for me

 

I am amazed that there was no stewards’ enquiry into Surefire winning the King George V handicap.

For the first half mile I thought they were after some world record with the sectionals but then it slowed up in the middle of the race. With all the scrimmaging in the last two furlongs there, much of it caused by the winner hanging right impeding at least two other horses, how did the stewards decide to not even look at it?

 

Once it has rained, this will surely stop happening...

The first three/four furlongs of the Buckingham Palace Stakes were ridiculously fast going by the sectionals. The difference was that, although the times slowed in the last two furlongs, bottom weight Highland Princess kept going for Jason Hart and won unopposed.

 

The weather forecast does not look great for Ascot on Friday. If the rain arrives – and it depends on when – my financial interest in Royal Ascot 2021 might be over as I do not bet on soft ground. The only winners I have picked have been short-priced favourites like Love.

However, I have come up with a ploy for Friday. Just follow @PNkt as she seems to be the only one getting any winners.

 

Surefire fixes the day but not the week.

 

Fantastic Fox runs off 94 on Saturday lads, dont miss it. Bet of the meeting at 15/2.

 

Pure fluke I am sure, but my strategy of following the Frankel and Ardad runners has worked so far! Frankel has 4 runners and Ardad 1 - a filly who was withdrawn from the Queen Mary yesterday on account of the ground, suggesting they think she needs a bit of cut.

I’m most intrigued by Frankel’s Fivethousandtoone taking his seasonal bow in the Commonwealth Cup, he’s not renowned for getting sprinters but the horse has good 2yo form having been second in the Mill Reef but failed to stay in the Dewhurst.

 

I had started looking over the Saturday races this afternoon and I didn't see anything in this one that particularly caught my eye, so I'm following you without hesitation. I hope you are right.

 

Will you be using your (Crypto) Bitcoin account for the stake, Pilgrim?

 

Hahahah, I don't have Bitcoins, nor if I had the money to buy them would I buy them, I think that bubble will burst sooner rather than later. I'm too old for such modern things.

 

That's just about the least interested I have been in a day's racing at Royal Ascot.

Pretty much impossible Handicaps and the field sizes make it unappealing to bet. The only one I really fancied was withdrawn and looking at Noon Star at 2/1 today, I just turned away in disgust and kept my money in my pocket. The Stoute filly was 5/1 earlier in the ante-post betting and even those odds didn't really appeal. In the end the first four fillies home came in with official ratings less than 100 and it typifies a season where the Oaks winner was 16 lengths clear of her field. The assessors will no doubt get creative with their ratings but for me it is hard to ignore that this looked like a sticky turd of a Group 2.

The madness was in evidence in the closing race of the day, with a 28 runner handicap having a 10/3 Favourite. Such a race should have double figures the field and how anyone could possibly be thinking of taking just a shade over 3/1 in such circumstances.

Disappointing to see Stradivarius out of the picture today but I felt they campaigned him stupidly last season. Trying to reinvent him as a 12F horse seemed madness to me given his age and clear status as a Cup horse. I doubt he has anything else to prove and he's earned a retirement in my opinion. I've never been a Cup race fan on the flat but Stradivarius has been as tough as teak and I feel connections were ripping the piss out of him asking him to go and win an Arc. Talk about being greedy, how much can you ask of a horse who put his heart into it so many times?

Tomorrow's card looks to hold more feasible options, so it will be a change from today's suicidal fare.

 

I have been punting in ****coin so far this week

 

Very wise. The CEO of the Crypto currency Bitcoin is a guy called Roger Ver. He served 10-months in prison before moving to Japan, where he now lives, I believe.