Archive for December, 2009
Henderson novice packs a punch
Dec 31st
Nicky Henderson has saddled nine winners since Boxing Day – at a strike-rate of nearly 35% – and can keep that run ticking over with Punchestowns in the Grade Two Dipper Novices´ Chase at Cheltenham. It is a measure of the strength in depth that Henderson can call upon that he was able to win [...]
Star gazers taken to another galaxy
Dec 31st
In Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong they were celebrating the Year of the Ox but racing had something extra; another consonant and a horse who would take the sport to another dimension. John Oxx has the appearance of a scholar allied to an IQ that probably reads like your Lottery numbers and he hit the [...]
Can anyone buck the Nicholls trend?
Dec 29th
There may be no truth in the rumour that the Office of Fair Trading have received a letter from a batch of trainers, citing the stranglehold that Paul Nicholls has exerted on so many of the feature races of late, but he is again the man they all have to beat. Big Buck’s will be [...]
Halcon Genelardais a National treasure
Dec 28th
Local knowledge is always useful and when it comes to the Coral Welsh National, no-one knows the race or Chepstow better than Halcon Genelardais. He will be making his fourth successive appearance in the race having won in 2006 and then finishing win second and a third under 11st 12lb in the last two years [...]
Grey legacy still casts giant shadow
Dec 24th
As colours go, grey gets a pretty raw deal. Try as it might, in most people’s eyes it only conjures up a drab component of the spectrum somewhere between black and white. It is very hard to set the pulses racing or stir the emotions when your dictionary definition includes words such as “dull” and [...]
Backtrack puts Belmont back on track
Dec 23rd
One of the first rules of politics is to always have an exit strategy. By all means promise the voters anything you want, just have some manoeuvring room that allows for a little backtracking if the circumstances alter the way you perceive the facts. Twenty-four hours ago American racing was facing the worst-case scenario of [...]
Go Native faces latest bonus hurdle
Dec 22nd
Having had another day to think about matters nine horses have been left in for the williamhill.com Christmas Hurdle at Kempton Park on Boxing Day. Noel Meade, who has landed three of the last five runnings of the Grade One race, plans to run Go Native (he also has Donnas Palm in the field) who [...]
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