GALWAY FESTIVAL 2018 [JULY 30th -- AUG 5th] -- DAY TWO TUESDAY

DAY TWO

This year's Galway festival is off with a bang, and although we failed to find ourselves a winner on the opening day it is still early days.

The second day is another evening meeting and will begin at 5:20pm with a 2m Novice Hurdle. The feature race tonight being the Colm Quinn BMW sponsored Handicap over a mile and that gets underway at 7.40pm.

As mentioned on day one our recent years have focused on the horses from trainer Dermot Weld and we will continue to track his progress this week though we might also offer one or two other selections in particular the feature races if no Weld runner is declared.

Going -- Yielding (NH) and Soft (Flat).


Weather Forecast -- A high of 17C with a chance of a few showers during the course of the evening.

DAY TWO SELECTIONS;

6:25 - 7f Fillies Maiden.
TARNAWA  [3rd 7/1].

7:05 - 7f Maiden. 
DABIYR  [2nd 9/4F].

7:40 - Colm Quinn BMW 1m Handicap.
No entries for Dermot Weld in today's feature race so we will have a look at this in addition to the other selections. An 18 runner handicap will be tricky, top weight RIVEN LIGHT [WON 11/1] won this last year and a few raiders from England with BARAWEEZ a previous winner here for Brian Ellison and still in good order plus Keith Dalgleish sending WHATS THE STORY. 

8:10 - 1m 123y Handicap.
ACE OF DIAMONDS [7th 6/1].

Day Two figures -- Results will be updated tonight. then it's  onwards to Wednesday and Grade A Tote Galway Plate. 

D Weld p/l for week       -7.00 after Day 2
Overall week p/l to date     +2.00 after Day 2

Results to update later tonight, and Day Three featuring the Galway Plate should be ready by then, along with some info from Goodwood this week. Have a great week.

"GLORIOUS" GOODWOOD FESTIVAL 2018 [TUES 31st JULY - SAT 4th AUG] -- DAY ONE

TUESDAY

Though it's now sponsored by Qatar it may not be officially called 'Glorious Goodwood' now, it still is for me and it's still one of the places to visit this summer. While I am also focused on Galway this week there are plenty of good races here in Sussex to enjoy.

Since I am busy covering the meeting over in Ireland at Galway I shall only be looking at the major races here each day not the whole card, we shall look at all the Group Races and Heritage Handicaps. The meeting runs to Saturday and we'll keep running totals of profit / loss throughout the week. 

So let us have a good look at day one, Tuesday's highlight is their newest Group 1, the Qatar Goodwood Cup has a prize fund of around £500,000. Stradivarius narrowly denied Big Orange his third straight win in the race in 2017 and will be back to defend his title again today.

Going -- Good to firm.
Weather -- Generally sunny, not as hot as the past month and a little bit breezy max temperature 21C

2:25 Qatar Vintage Stakes 7f (Group 2) 
11 runners declared for this Group 2 stakes, a strong field of 2yo's chasing the first prize of over £110k and all of then bar Richard Hannon's Mordred have had a win of some description here. 

And while anything that Aiden O'Brien sends over should be taken seriously his Van Beethoven looks beatable and we side with a pair against the field BLONDE WARRIOR has won a couple of smaller races and was only beaten an head on debut so has taken to racing really well and should still have some improvement available on ground known to suit. We also go with DARK VISION [WON 10/3F] who both both his starts comfortably and worth a shot in this company too.

Selection -- BLONDE WARRIOR  /  DARK VISION. 

3:00 Qatar Lennox Stakes 7f (Group 2)
Another competitive Group 2 event, this time open to older horses but again over 7f. 12 declared and sure to be run at a decent pace throughout, which will suit top weight BRETON ROCK though this 8yo might be vulnerable to one of the younger types such as D'BAI who won in Dubai, and then took the Group 3 John O'Gaunt stakes at Haydock before finishing midfield in the Group 1 Diamond Jubilee stakes at Royal Ascot.

Runner up in the 2000 Guineas TIP TWO WIN can gain consolation down in grade here having also run 4th in the Group 1 St James Palace at the Royal Meeting as the only 3yo in this field gets plenty of weight concessions too.

Selections -- D'BAI  /  TIP TWO WIN. 

3:35 GOODWOOD CUP 2m (Group 1).
Our feature race for day one is the Goodwood Cup a Group One contest for older horses over two miles. Only the seven runners declared but does include last years winner Stradivarius who returns to defend his title and comes here in good form with wins at York and Royal Ascot so will be hard to beat and a short price to do so too. 

Shame there's only seven here, but CALL TO MIND is worth putting in the forecast and a place bet.

Selection -- STRADIVARIUS [WON 4/5F].

That's all for Tuesday, we'll have a pair of Group races tomorrow including the Group 1 Sussex Stakes to tackle on Wednesday. 

Staked 5.00 points
Returns 6.13 points (to SP)
+1.13 to SP 

GALWAY FESTIVAL 2018 [JULY 30th -- AUG 5th] -- DAY ONE MONDAY

DAY ONE - MONDAY

The 2018 Galway festival is a week long feast of racing, across both codes and a good excuse to visit one of the great Irish venues and surrounding area. 

The opening day actually doesn't start till the evening with the first race (Novice Hurdle) of the meeting due off at 5:20pm. The feature race tonight being the Connacht Hotel Handicap at 7:40pm. 

Once again this season we will continue to focus on the horses from trainer Dermot Weld and we will continue to track his progress this week though we might also offer one or two other selections in particular the feature races if no Weld runner is declared.

Going -- NH - Good             Flat - Yielding.

Weather Forecast -- A high of 16C with a chance of a few showers later. Suggest you take a mac ... or stay in the bars.

DAY ONE SELECTIONS;

6:25 - 7f Maiden (2yo).
THIRD WORLD  [6th 11/4].

7:05 - 7f Handicap
TASHMAN  [13th 11/2]. 

7:40 - 2m 179y Handicap. 
This is today's feature contest worth 59k euro and Dermot Weld doesn't have a runner here so will look around the 20 runners (excluding the reserves). Top weight CHELKAR [19th 9/2] is the best one of Willie Mullins trio here but will do well to concede weight all round in a decent field. Gordon Elliott runs the paid BRUTAL [20th 40/1] / BATTS ROCK [Non Runner] and the latter comes here looking for the hat-trick so is our win bet in this contest.

At a big price I think LE VAGABOND [18th 25/1] can go well again, is a regular place finisher including around here.  Well that was awful, finding the rear three finishers !! 

8.10 - 1m 4f 84y Handicap (3yo).
IMRANA  [7th 7/2].

8:40 - 2m 130y NH Flat Race.  

NEPTUNE  [3rd 11/2].

Racing, Guinness, Women, Great Craic ... Life is good.

Day One figures -- a bit of a blow out on the opening day, we have plenty more to see and do yet before the week is out. 

D Weld p/l for week       -4.00 pts
Overall week p/l to date  -7.00 pts


Results will appear here on Monday evening along with 'Day Two' to be published shortly, we are also racing at 'Glorious' Goodwood too this week starting on Tuesday, so two top class meetings to enjoy all week long.

PONTEFRACT HORSE RACING SYSTEM -- 2018 TURF SEASON -- PART TEN

PONTEFRACT SEASON 2018.

Sunday 29th July.
Welcome to this our 10th meeting of the year. 

1st race 2.00pm, gates open 11.30am

Sunday racedays have always been extra special for Pontefract Racegoers. Our renowned Sunday fixtures not only feature the best racing of the year at Pontefract with over £100,000 worth of Prize Money available at each meeting, but they are also the 3 fixtures each season dedicated to families. 

As well as special events on each Sunday raceday, there will also be a funfair, facepainting, circus, free sweets, activity packs and racecards for kids, pony rides, trips to the starts of races and a ‘Hunt The Golden Horseshoe’ competition on every Family Day!

There’s some stunning action on the track as well with the Listed Pomfret Stakes (3:30 race) the feature contest. Trainer David O’Meara has farmed the race in recent years with stunning winners such as Mondialiste and Custom Cut. Custom Cut was, however, foiled in his attempt to win the race for a second time in 2017 when Richard Fahey’s Another Touch collared him in the shadows of the post, he reappears again this year to try and defend his crown. Who’ll take the honours in 2018?

A few winners last time out but still find ourselves in the red coming into this fixture to the tune of -0.36 to Starting Prices so we can hopefully get that back starting today. We will continue throughout this season to record ALL results for these fixtures which are returned to a level stake at Starting Price (SP), and will also show any forecast results too in the daily results but these do not count for the profit / loss figures.

The forecast going is now currently reported as 'Good to firm' the weather for Sunday afternoon is for a partly cloudy and a humid day with a chance of showers with a forecast maximum temperature around the 24C mark as we continue to enjoy a wonderful summer though the rain will be welcome down here too.

Here are our selections for the 7 races on Sunday afternoon, remember it's a very simple selection process using stalls 1 and 2 in every race;

14:00 5f 3yds Novice Stakes (2yo).
(1) -- JUSTICE SHALLOW  [2nd 100/1].
(2) -- FLAWLESS JEWEL  [WON 1/4F].

14:30 1m 4f 5yds Handicap.
(1) -- MULTELLIE  [WON 6/4F].
(2) -- PENTLAND HILLS  [Non Runner].

15:00 1m 2f 5yds Handicap.
(1) -- MAJROOH  [2nd 8/1].
(2) -- MOLTOIR  [6th 15/2].

15:35 1m 6yds Pomfret Listed Stakes.
(1) -- SECRET ART  [6th 25/1].
(2) -- ANOTHER TOUCH  [5th 7/2].

16:05 6f Handicap.
(1) -- HIGHLY SPRUNG  [4th 7/2].

(2) -- PRIVATE MATTER  [5th 10/1].

16:35 1m 6yds Novice Stakes.
(1) -- JOIE DE VIVRE  [6th 8/1].
(2) -- LITTLE POEM  [7th 100/1].

17:10 5f 3yds Handicap.
(1) -- ONE BOY  [7th 10/1].
(2) -- ROCK HILL  [9th 10/1].

Staked -- 14 points.

Returns -- 4.75 points.

We come into this meeting with a small loss figure of -0.36 points to SP. Results from today will be updated later on at the end of the meeting. Alas with only couple of short priced winners and the non runner we suffered a loss of -9.25 points this afternoon so we behind -9.61 going on to the next meeting.

Our next meeting will be on Wednesday 8th August. Hope you will be following us throughout the season.

MISS YOU DAD Xx LOVE YOU EVERY DAY Xx

Mr Geoffrey Tyler
07-02-1934   --   23-07-2012

Miss you loads Dad. 
RIP

Another year has passed already it still feels like yesterday. Always  love and remember my Dad, never a day passes when I don't think of you xXx 

Still hurts, I still feel totally lost without you Dad, you mean everything to me, all I can do is keep your memories strong. Will probably another day at the garden of remembrance, it's a peaceful place of rest and quiet contemplation, and I've got a nice bottle of wine for later on and will raise a glass to your memory. 

Always in my heart xx

I know Dad is now at peace and reunited with Mum, it probably won't be too long before I join them if I'm honest, though I'd give everything to have them back here for just another day. 

Love to all M Xx

PONTEFRACT HORSE RACING SYSTEM -- 2018 TURF SEASON -- PART NINE

PONTEFRACT SEASON 2018.

Friday 20th July.
Welcome to this our 9th meeting of the year. 

Tonight's meeting is in aid of Jack Berry's Red Shirt Night, which raises money for the Injured Jockeys Fund plus a beer festival too. 1st race 6.30pm, gates open from 4.30pm. 

For the second part of our Friday Night Music Night series we welcome The Bootleg Beatles!  The Bootleg Beatles are one of the world’s most famous Tribute Bands and they’ll be performing their stunning recreation of the greatest songbook of all time at Pontefract on Friday Eve 20th July. Tracing the Fab Four’s journey through the sixties, every tiny detail is meticulously covered from costumes to authentic period instruments. 

Attracting critical acclaim wherever they perform, The Bootleg Beatles will perform their singalong set straight after the last race. We also have Pennine Brewery, Revolutions Brewing Co, Ossett Brewery and Bier Huis joining us for our annual Beer Festival.

There are 6 fantastic races to keep you entertained throughout the evening too, and if all that wasn’t enough, we’ll be raising money for the incredible Injured Jockeys Fund through Jack Berry’s historic ‘Red Shirt Night’. The Red Shirt is purely optional – just bring yourself, your friends and your party spirit, and you’ll have a night to remember.

A few winners last time out but still drop a small amount and find ourselves in the red coming into this fixture to the tune of -1.61 to Starting Prices so we can hopefully get that back starting today. We will continue throughout this season to record ALL results for these fixtures which are returned to a level stake at Starting Price (SP), and will also show any forecast results too in the daily results but these do not count for the profit / loss figures.

The forecast going is now currently reported as 'Good to firm' the weather for Friday evening is for a partly cloudy day with some showers due and a forecast maximum temperature around the 23C mark.

Here are our selections for the 6 races on Friday evening, remember it's a very simple selection process using stalls 1 and 2 in every race;

18:30 6f Novice Stakes (2yo).
(1) -- HOT TEAM  [4th 8/13F].
(2) -- METALLIC BLACK  [WON 9/2].

19:00 1m 4f 5yds Novice Stakes (3yo).
(1) -- REACTIVE  [2nd 25/1].
(2) -- CHARLIE D  [4th 7/1].

19:35 5f 3yds Handicap.
(1) -- MOVE IN TIME  [2nd 3/1].
(2) -- WATCHABLE  [WON 9/4F].

20:05 1m 6yds Claiming Handicap.
(1) -- QASSEM  [4th 9/2].
(2) -- SUMNER BEACH  [3rd 20/1].

20:35 1m 2f 5yds Maiden Handicap.
(1) -- BITTERSWEET  [3rd 16/1].

(2) -- ALMUNTHER  [WON 7/2].

21:10 6f Handicap.
(1) -- NINJAGO  [3rd 5/2].
(2) -- RANTAN  [6th 10/1].

Staked -- 12 points.

Returns -- 13.25 points.

We come into this meeting with a small loss figure of -1.61 points to SP. Results from today will be updated later on at the end of the meeting. All being well we can move back into the black tonight and kick on from there. Busy evening and winning three races meant we covered our days work plus a small profit too +1.25, though still carrying forward a small loss of -0.36 to next weeks' meeting. 

Our next meeting will be on Sunday 29th July. Keep following us throughout the season.

ENGLAND WORLD CUP CAMPAIGN 2018 -- SEMI FINALS VS CROATIA

WORLD CUP SEMI FINAL
WEDNESDAY 11th JULY 2018
CROATIA vs ENGLAND
[KICK OFF 7PM (BST)]
-- Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow

England are into their first World Cup semi final since Italia 1990 and will face Croatia for a place in Sunday's Final. It was a comfortable win over Sweden 2-0 on Saturday with the clean sheet down to an outstanding performance by Jordan Pickford who kept us in the game in the second half before Deli Alli secured the win on the hour mark. They will face a quality Croatian side who survived a late equaliser against the host nation Russia to go through on penalties.

England and Croatia have met seven times before, with the Three Lions winning four times, losing twice and sharing a draw. The two nations drew their opening encounter 0-0 in 1996 before England won the next friendly 3-1 in 2003.

England then won their first competitive clash, a 4-2 victory at Euro 2004 in which Wayne Rooney scored two goals. But Croatia got their own back over the Euro 2008 qualifiers, beating England 2-0 in Zagreb - with Paul Robinson's infamous air kick a sore spot for England fans way back in October 2006. Worse was to come as Croatia beat the Three Lions 3-2 at Wembley in November 2007 to ensure that England would not qualify for Euro 2008.

England gained some revenge as they crushed Croatia in their next two games, winning World Cup 2010 qualifying games in September 2008 (4-1) and September 2009 (5-1). The nation is ready, the stakes are high, it's time to believe and get behind the boys and bring it home.

Starting XI's confirmed;

CROATIA 
Subasic (GK),  Vrsaljko,  Lovren,  Vida,  Strinic,  Modric (capt),  Rakitic,  Rebic,  Brozovic,  Perisic,  Mandzukic,  

Subs -- Livakovic (Gk),  L Kalinic (Gk),  Corluka,  Kovacic,  Kramaric,  Jedvaj,  Bradaric,  Caleta-Car,  Badelj,  Pjaca,  Pivaric

ENGLAND

Pickford (Gk), Maguire, Stones, Walker, Henderson, Trippier, Lingard, Alli, Young, Sterling, Kane (capt)

Subs -- Butland (Gk),  Pope (Gk),  Dier,  Alexander-Arnold,  Loftus-Cheek,  Rose,  Vardy,  Cahill,  Jones,  Welbeck,  Delph,  Rashford

Referee -- CÜNEYT ÇAKIR (TUR).

Our referee for this crucial World Cup Semi Final is Mr Cakir from Istanbul, Turkey, very experienced official for someone only 41 and has had to deal with the Galatasaray vs Fenerbahce derbies so this should be a breeze by comparison. 

HT Score -- 0 - 1  (Trippier 5').

FT Result -- 1 - 1  (Perisic 68')   (Trippier 5').
Extra Time Being Played

Comment -- It's Coming Home. I got a good feeling. A feeling that takes us higher and higher on only FIVE minutes a thumping free kicking into the top corner by Kieran Trippier and England lead 1-0. Cracking game and England causing plenty of problems for the Croatian defence and set pieces look like giving us more chances to extend the lead. Pickford only being bothered by long range efforts so far but we've survived the opening half hour. 

A nervous second half, with Croatia coming more and more into the game. Inevitably they equalise on 68 mins when Ivan Perisic gets ahead of Kyle Walker and turns the ball in for 1-1. It's been coming and England need to calm their nerves for the last 20 mins of this match with extra time and penalties looming again. FT 1-1 into another 30 mins we go, the third game in succession for the Croatians, at least we don't fear the penalties now should it come to that. 

2nd half of extra time and England are behind, Mario Mandzukic scores to make it 2-1 and there's not long left ... it's starting to hurt again. :(

2018 KEMPTON PARK RACES -- WEDNESDAY NIGHTS #14 11th JULY

And as we continue to bask in the July sunshine the heat is still causing me uncomfortable sleepless nights. 😢

The 2018 World Cup is now into it's Semi Final stages and surprisingly England are still there with a good chance and will be taking on Croatia tonight for a place in the Final on Sunday (Still believe that it's coming home folks). In the meantime this blog will continue to follow the progress of handicap races on the Wednesday night races here at Kempton Park racecourse in Surrey. We've not had the greatest first half of the year and are a bit behind now although it's a bit up and down this is half way and meeting fourteen. There are usually 4-5 handicap races covered and some Lay bets too with separate totals recorded to SP throughout the year. 

We are ready for week number fourteen, and as we head past the half way stage of the year we managed to have a good week last time and take a dent out of the losses to date although we still find ourselves down -20.175 points to SP, would be nice to continue turning this around and there is still a long way to go we need some more winners soon and alas we record to starting prices.

As we continue to focus on the handicap contests for each Wednesday evening meeting we will also occasionally include a feature listed or conditions event too if one is available. Keeping records of our endeavours to a 1 point level stake at SP, naturally we will personally be looking to get better odds than this but for the purpose of these results here we simply record SP returns only.

We will keep up with our occasional lay opportunities of short priced favourites too. Naturally we will keep these results separately from the handicap figures, off to a disappointing start this season though but a successful lay last week means we are currently 9/15 going forwards with these for 2018. 

This Wednesday is meeting number fourteen for the 2018 season and we are expecting an eight race card tonight with seven handicaps to enjoy the action will commence at 17:55 with an Apprentice Handicap over seven furlongs.

Here's a link to this Wednesday's race card; RACECARD

The going on the polytrack surface is described as 'standard' and the current weather forecast for this Wednesday is for a warmer day so have a good night without the threat of rain for a change a top temperature will be about 28C by the time the meeting gets underway.

Here are our handicap selections for tonight, we will be watching the football so updates when available;

17:20 -- 7f Apprentice Handicap.
NEZAR  [5th 16/1]  //  KINGSTON KURRAJONG  [8th 8/1]. 

17:55 -- 1m Handicap (Div One).
DIVINE MESSENGER  [2nd 5/2F]   //  BOOKMAKER  [8th 14/1].

18:25 -- 1m Handicap (Div Two).
BAZ  [10th 33/1]  //  SICARIO  [8th 8/1].

18:55 -- 1m Handicap (3yo).
FACE LIKE THUNDER  [5th 9/2]  //  MARGIE'S CHOICE  [3rd 6/1].

19:55 -- 1m 7f 218yds Handicap.
COUSIN KHEE  [9th 33/1]  //  GRACEFUL LADY  [4th 9/1].

20:25 -- 1m 2f 219yds Handicap.
LONG JOHN SILVER  [6th 9/1]  //  MAGELLAN  [WON 11/8F].

20:55 -- 6f Handicap.
OPERATIVE  [5th 10/1] //  FANTASY KEEPER  [WON 5/1].

Staked -- 14 points.
Returns -- 8.375 points.

Results will appear here later on Wednesday night. We seek to recover from our current deficit of -20.175 points. Couple of late winners and alas a small loss tonight of -5.625. Means we have to take a loss value of -25.8 over to the next meeting.

LAYS -- 9/15 if we have one or two Lays tonight they will be updated here also.

Tonight's Lays;
CLIFFS OF DOVER [19:55] LOST 8th 5/4F. 10/16

Our next meeting here at Kempton Park will be next month on Wednesday 8th August so see you then.