There is no doubt about the racing world. Almost every day there is something of interest or controversy to occupy the mind and I guess it is this volatility that keeps us horse racing fans coming back.On Saturday the highlight of the day must surely have been the scintillating return of Court Command in the Group 3 BTC Sprint, after a season at the stud, when he beat the highly rated El Cambio. I have my doubts about El Cambio's ability at the absolute top level hence I am reluctant to rate the
There is no doubt about the racing world. Almost every day there is something of interest or controversy to occupy the mind and I guess it is this volatility that keeps us horse racing fans coming back.
On Saturday the highlight of the day must surely have been the scintillating return of Court Command in the Group 3 BTC Sprint, after a season at the stud, when he beat the highly rated El Cambio. I have my doubts about El Cambio's ability at the absolute top level hence I am reluctant to rate the win as a serious "back me in the Doomben 10000" effort. If Court Command can win the 10000 he will emulate the effort of Daybreak Lover, in 1986, who won a Group 1 event (the Stradbroke) after time off at the stud.
On Sunday night all serious racing fans tuned in to watch the efforts of Takeover Target, Douro Valley, Sarrera and Pompeii Ruler in their respective races in Singapore at the Kranji racetrack. On face value Takeover Target was disappointing however Joe Janiak, the trainer, has reported the old warrior simply jarred up on the rock hard track and the trip to the UK is definitely going to happen. The winner, Sacred Kingdom, clocked an amazing course record 1.07.08: yes, the track was certainly rock hard!
One race later we witnessed the most gallant effort of Pompeii Ruler when he fought like a caged lion ALL the way down the straight to run fourth in his event. Although Douro Valley dropped off the effort by Sarrerra was quite good and all in all I thought the Australian contingency did us proud. It can never be easy to travel overseas, acclimatize and then win as well and their efforts were certainly of the high standard we expected.
Back on the home front the jumps issue was again to the fore with a reprieve being granted to the "up and overs" until the end of the jumping season. This was always going to happen as I have no doubt a massive class action would have been launched by the jumps fraternity based on assurances they had been given by the Racing Minister, Rob Hulls, earlier this year which would have been successful without any shadow of doubt.
The drug related problems facing trainers Ron Maund and Kelvin Bourke are another matter and both look to be in trouble based on the newspaper reports.
Yesterday I had to go for some testing of my right shoulder and while waiting I thought I would just scan through the fields for today. I rarely look at the fields mid week due to the lower class events being run but the Welter at Rosehill (Race 5) today, Wednesday May 20, caught my eye as former handy horse Malcolm was engaged. After some intital perusing of the form I decided this race was worth delving into a fraction further which I have since done. Sometimes you wonder if you are doing the form correctly as both the first and second pre post favourites in "The Sportsman" (Without Compromise, Shagerz) I found difficult to have them in my first two, especially Shagerz first up). I have Testimonial (very unlucky in the run last start yet still won) on top from Century Serb so let us see what happens at around 3.23 pm this afternoon. At least from my perspective there is value attached to this race.