Review of the day

Watching Vino Griego power home at Ascot, early this afternoon, I thought that we were maybe going to have a decent Saturday (which would be a welcome change !).

However, it gradually became apparent that wasn’t going to be the case – and ultimately, we had to settle for a small loss on the day…

As was the case last weekend, when I look at the days results, I can see why we struggled…

6 out of 7 favourites winning at Ascot – and a 33/1 rag – is unlikely to ever signal a good TVB day…

Things weren’t quite as bad at Haydock – but they weren’t massively better either…

3 out of 7 winning favourites – with 2 of the other winners returning at 7/2 and 4/1 respectively…

All this said, we did get one winner – and if I’d not baulked at the price, we could well have had another in Well Refreshed – but I wasn’t prepared  to take 6/1 (even though he was returned at 9/2 !).

In terms of how today’s runners ran:

Then obviously, Vino Griego ran very well ! He wasn’t quite as impressive as he had been at Cheltenham – but today’s was a stronger race and he was 10lb higher in the handicap.

I think things will be a tougher for him next time. He is likely to take a further 6 or 7lb rise in the weights – and he may not get soft ground.

I’ll certainly be thinking twice about taking a short price on him…

Tatenen ran OK to a point in the same race – but made a few jumping mistakes and wasn’t good enough to go with the leaders from the home turn.

A drop off a few pounds - and a return to a slightly shorter trip, will probably suit him…

Next up it was Triggerman at Haydock.

However he never travelled as well as he had done at Chepstow last time – and he was soon beaten.

As I mentioned above, the race was won by Well Refreshed – and the next time you read me writing:

‘If you asked me to pick the most likely winner, I’d go for Well Refreshed.’

I suggest that you just stop reading at that point and back the horse in question !!

The final 2 tips of the day, were by far the biggest disappointments…

I knew that Yurok was no certainty – but I expected him to run a lot better than he did…

Whether it was the heavy ground, I don’t know – but he ran very disappointingly…

Exactly the same can be said for Florafern.

I thought her my best bet of the day – and when she was a strong 6/1 shot around lunchtime, I was very optimistic.

However, she was double that price on BF at the off – and ran no sort of a race…

Again ,the ground might have been to blame – but it was still a disappointing effort…

Maybe tomorrow will bring better…

TVB.