KEMPTON PARK RACES 2019 -- WEDNESDAY NIGHTS #30 27th November

Little over a month left to go of this season, was hopeful of a more productive second half to the year but we struggling a little. Never mind at least we tried something as an experiment and saw it through to the end, maybe we'll just do the lay bets in 2020 they seem to have gone well.  End of November meeting now with December fast approaching and the Christmas adverts already annoying me. While Wimbledon where busy winning 1-0 against Gillingham to move us a couple more places above the drop zone we also witnessed the first few big races of the NH Season, Altior losing his unbeaten record to Cyrname at Ascot and Lostintranslation winning the Betfair Chase at Haydock beating dual winner Bristol De Mai.

Has been a very up and down year overall not just with the racing though the last month was encouraging so with the Autumn and Winter months to come we will continue to focus on the all weather horse racing now while the lights still shine brightly here at Kempton Park throughout this year. We are hopeful of better season than we experienced last year but it's just some fun and excitement to mix up the week we have found it hard and are more than a little behind to SP though it's something I will keep persevering with through to the end of the year. 

Let us move onward with this our thirtieth Wednesday night of 2019, and will continue to focus on the handicap contests for each Wednesday evening meeting though we will also occasionally include a feature listed or conditions event too if there is one 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. Following our last meeting the deficit is currently on -58.945 points to SP returns overall. We continue to battle hard to reduce this and thankfully there is still a few months to get this back. 

Throughout the year we will keep up with our occasional lay opportunities of anticipated short priced favourites too. Naturally we will keep these results separately from the handicap figures we have been fairly successful with our selections so far and last meeting we managed to get another two odds on favourites beat so we are now 37/50 (74%) we will continue with this through 2019.

This Wednesday will be meeting number thirty for the 2019 AW season and we are expecting a bumper eight race card tonight during which we expect to have six handicaps (which will include two 2yo nurseries). The action which will now commence at 16:10 with a 6f novice stakes, our first nursery handicap contest is at 16:40, tonight's card ends around about 19:40 with our final handicap contest over a shade under 1m 4f.

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

Going and Weather -- The going on the polytrack surface is described as 'standard to slow' and the current weather forecast for this Wednesday is for a lot of cloudy weather with a chill in the air so wrap up warm and a good chance of showers so keep dry and safe in the bars the best we expect the temperature to reach is around 12C by the time the meeting gets underway.

Here are our handicap selections for tonight, time is short and too many work meetings so selections today until I can update later;

16:40 -- 1m Nursery Handicap (2yo).

Our opening handicap event is a nursery for 2yo's over the mile trip, has attracted a field of 12 runners headed by Summeronsevenhills [Non Runner] trained by Richard Hughes a winner recently at Chelmsford and returns to the all weather under a penalty, likely to be the favourite so will aim to oppose for something at bigger odds tonight. Preference is for the pair of TIRITOMBA [3rd 5/1] (Richard Hannon) and MAGIC TWIST [11th 33/1] (Mark Johnston) both trainers are prolific with their youngsters and have already shown some place form.

17:10 -- 1m Handicap.
Another mile handicap up next, this time for older horses although it is prominently 3yo's here, a field of 14 declared. Selections are for a couple of the older horses OUD METHA BRIDGE [10th 16/1] / THE CHILDREN'STRUST [6th 10/1].

18:10 -- 7f Nursery Handicap (2yo).
Our second nursery handicap now and only the six runners to view, with FUWAYRIT [4th 2/1] (Mark Johnston) and LETHAL TALENT [3rd 5/1] (Jon Portman) our pair of selections against the rest of the field. The Johnston horse has been well supported for his last three races and winning two of them, didn't break well enough at Chester to get involved and faded but this track should be more to Fuwayrit's liking. The filly Lethal Talent has two all weather wins including around here and is most likely to bring the challenge tonight.

18:40 -- 7f Handicap.

SIX STRINGS  [5th 20/1].
SIR HAMILTON  [12th 12/1].

19:10 -- 1m 2f 219y Handicap.

TOROCHICA [3rd 3/1].
CONTRAST [7th 14/1].

19:40 -- 1m 3f 219y Handicap (3yo).

Only a field of five made it into the finale, looks a match between SASHENKA along with SWEET CELEBRATION [WON 2/1] where the latter is probably preferred with the 7lb claim from her rider very useful in this company. Of the other three I also like the look of CAPLA CRUSADER another course and distance winner so if Sweet Celebration proves to be too short a price to back today (if under 6/4f) then maybe we switch to that one.

Staked -- 12 points.

Returns -- 3 points.

Results will appear here later during Wednesday evening. This season we are sadly down by -58.945 points to SP returns. Now only another month of the season to go and we will end up with an additional meeting here for the King George Chase on Boxing Day. Just one winner, very disappointing end to the year now down by -67.945 points to SP. 

LAYS -- 37/50. Got our lay bets beat again last week and we will try to find another one or two successful lay bets this time around and these will show up here later on tonight. Mixed bag tonight, one beaten fav, one winner (odds on) and the other a non runner. Moves to 38/52

Tonight's Lays;

16:10 Thrilla In Manila [6f Novice 3yo] LOST 2nd 7/4f
16:40 Summeronsevenhills [1m Nursery 2yo] NR
17:40 Boccaccio [7f Novice 2yo]. WON 4/9f

Our thirty first meeting for this year will be held next week on Wednesday 4th December so hope to see you then and throughout the rest of 2019. Maybe we'll be back next year...

AFC WIMBLEDON v GILLINGHAM LEAGUE ONE SATURDAY 23rd NOVEMBER 2019

This weekend the Dons will play host to Gillingham in League One, coming on the back of a loss last weekend against Blackpool we are just above the drop zone on goal difference and some wins before Christmas are going to be essential. and our head to head record reads pretty good having played ten times in the leagues to date we have four wins, four draws and only two defeats. Although their most recent win came in the last match in March a 2-4 home loss for the Dons. We will have the FA Cup replay first on Tuesday against Doncaster (lost 2-0) and Gillingham will be replaying against Sunderland (won 1-0 in extra time) but regardless of those results it's league points we want while only in 20th place on just 13 points. 

FORM GUIDE

(Last 6 matches in league one, starting with the most recent)
AFC Wimbledon -- LDLWWW
Gillingham -- WLWDLD

LAST TIME OUT

Blackpool T 2  AFC Wimbledon 0 

Gillingham 1  Lincoln City 0

Updates will be published with team news and more news as and when it comes through. Dons recent form had been better recently despite off field activity and changing the manager getting us out of the drop zone for now, we need to win these sorts of games now with Bolton coming up after the FA Cup break (we have no game next weekend now). News that our captain Will Nightingale will be out for another 3-4 months with an operation on his hip injury is not great, but stand in captain Scott Wagstaff is an able replacement. Our opponents Gillingham are currently 14th in the league on 21 points and will be looking to follow up their win last weekend over Lincoln City where a Mikael Mandron goal was enough to secure the points. but just one point off the side above. Managed by the infamous Steve Evans who I am sure will be well received by the home crowd as usual.

Starting Line Ups (Confirmed);

AFC WIMBLEDON

Odds -- 13/8 (William Hill) 

Trott (Gk),  Kalambayi,  Delaney,  O'Neill,,  ⚽Wagstaff (c),  Reilly,  Sanders,  🟨Pinnock,  Osew,  🟨Pigott,  Forss

Subs – McDonnell (Gk),  Thomas,  🟨Appiah,  Rudoni,  Hartigan,  Guinness-Walker,  McLoughlin

GILLINGHAM

Odds -- 6/4 (William Hill) 

Bonham (Gk),  Fuller,  Ehmer (c),  Tucker,  🟨Ogilvie,  Jones,  Byrne,  O'Keefe,  Lee,  Mandron,  Hanlan

Subs –  Walsh (Gk),  O'Connor,  Ndjoli,  Charles-Cook,  Jakubiak,  🟥Pringle,  Marshall

Selected Bets on today's match;

Wimbledon to win and BOTH teams to score @5/1.

Marcus Forss or Brandon Hanlan to score 1st Goal @5/1.

Penalty Awards and Scored @9/2.

Red Card in the match @11/2. YES 🟥

⚽H/T Score – 1 - 0  [Wagstaff 19']

First Half Comment;

Wimbledon kick us off today and the early action is a couple of challenges that are immediately shown yellow cards for, one to Connor Ogilvie for Gillingham and the other shortly after to Mitch Pinnock for the Dons. Great news on 19 minutes as captain Scott Wagstaff shoots us into the lead and hopefully we can kick on with this now. Surprised by the lack of further action in the opening half, and no chances falling to our main striker Marcus Forss yet however some more strong tackles going in and Joe Pigott picks up a booking too but it remains 1-0 Dons at half time.

⚽F/T Score – 1 - 0

Match Summary;

A Dons win !! Yes. Taking us away from the drop zone with the scum losing (ha ha) even sweeter. Late red card drama too but we hang on to that first half goal and a much needed win plus the clean sheet. Next up is Bolton with a nice week off as no longer in the FA Cup, other results went our way too, nice.

My Man of the Match – Scott Wagstaff, captain performance topped with the winning goal, well done skipper.

Referee -- Our referee for this afternoon's big game will be Kevin Johnson from Western-Super-Mare, Somerset. Doesn't appear to have taken charge of a Dons game recently so we will see what he is like. 🟨 🟥Averages about four bookings a game this season but has been known to get the reds out too so we might have a look at that market later. His assistants will be Carl Fitch-Jackson and David Plowright.

Attendance – 4,554. 

Next league match:
Saturday 7th December vs Bolton Wanderers (Away)
League One Kick off 3:00pm

KEMPTON PARK RACES 2019 -- WEDNESDAY NIGHTS #29 20th November

Little over a month left to go of this season, was hopeful of a more productive second half to the year but we struggling a little. Never mind at least we tried something as an experiment and saw it through to the end, maybe we'll just do the lay bets in 2020 they seem to have gone well.  We've had the continuous fireworks going off in the past week still and also commemorated our war hero's with our remembrance services too. Now as December fast approaches we can enjoy the last few midweek meetings here at Kempton. Over the weekend we saw Barbarians lose narrowly to Fiji 31-33 and the football action saw AFC Wimbledon lose to Blackpool 2-0 but we just managing to stay out of the drop zone, we will also be following the FA Cup replay on Tuesday night up at Doncaster.

Has been a very up and down year overall not just with the racing though the last month was encouraging so with the Autumn and Winter months to come we will continue to focus on the all weather horse racing now while the lights still shine brightly here at Kempton Park throughout this year. We are hopeful of better season than we experienced last year but it's just some fun and excitement to mix up the week we have found it hard and are more than a little behind to SP though it's something I will keep persevering with through to the end of the year. 

Let us move onward with this our twenty ninth Wednesday night of 2019, and will continue to focus on the handicap contests for each Wednesday evening meeting though we will also occasionally include a feature listed or conditions event too if there is one 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. Following our last meeting the deficit is currently on -52.945 points to SP returns overall. We continue to battle hard to reduce this and thankfully there is still a few months to get this back. 

Throughout the year we will keep up with our occasional lay opportunities of anticipated short priced favourites too. Naturally we will keep these results separately from the handicap figures we have been fairly successful with our selections so far and last meeting we managed to get another two odds on favourites beat so we are now 35/48 (72.9%+) we will continue with this through 2019.

This Wednesday will be meeting number twenty nine for the 2019 AW season and we are expecting a bumper eight race card tonight during which we expect to have five handicaps (which will include two 2yo nurseries) and will also have the Hyde Stakes a Listed event over one mile off at 18:10 to enjoy which should keep us plenty busy enough. The action which will now commence at 16:10 with a 7f nursery handicap contest and tonight's card ends around about 19:40 with our final handicap contest over a shade under 1m 3f.

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

Going and Weather -- The going on the polytrack surface is described as 'standard to slow' and the current weather forecast for this Wednesday is for a lot of cloudy weather with a chill in the air so wrap up warm and more than a fair chance of showers so keep safe in the bars the best we expect the temperature to reach is around 9C by the time the meeting gets underway.

Here are our handicap selections for tonight, time is short and too many work meetings so selections only today until later;

16:10 -- 7f Nursery Handicap (2yo).

An earlier start today with a packed card and this begins with our first Nursery contest over seven furlongs. A maximum field of fourteen declared and Mark Johnston has our first selection with RULERS KINGDOM [5th 7/1] was 100/1 shot earlier in his career but a relatively low handicap mark and the record breaking trainer can be expected to have worked some magic in the past few weeks before sending him down south, only faded in the final 100yds and entitled to have learnt from that experience in Newcastle and James Doyle takes the ride from Joe Fanning. The filly MAGICAL FORCE [7th 9/1] only just lost by a neck last time out and while she has an extra furlong to contend with this time it could be to her advantage and worth a chance at the price in a reasonable open race.

16:40 -- 6f Nursery Handicap (2yo).

Another 2yo nursery now this time over six furlongs with a field of twelve declared, a couple that were runners up last time out might be able to find that little extra tonight with that experience under their belts, YOU DON'T OWN ME [WON 4/1] ridden by Charles Bishop, placed twice here before his runner up effort at Wolves, while COMEATCHOO [4th 16/1] was also beaten late on by 1/2L and has the assistance of a 7lb claimer so could be a few pounds ahead of things if they can get a similar effort out of them tonight.

18:10 -- 1m Hyde Stakes (Listed).
The feature event today over a mile is a listed event, not too many of these here on Wednesday nights so has been included as a nice change. Decent field declared too (14 runners) and £25k on offer to the winner, headed by Royal Ascot runner ACCIDENTAL AGENT [3rd 12/1] though still has a question mark against him because of a refusal to leave the stalls earlier in the campaign. I was on LUSH LIFE [8th 100/1] when she won at Sandown in May hasn't run up to that since, but at 33/1 is a win/place bet again here for trainer Jamie Osborne down below that winning mark for a change and gets plenty of weight too. The one to consider for the win bet is KHUZAAM who took a course handicap last month by 7L and could be a step ahead of the rest still, if he repeats that effort against this opposition could have the race won with a fair bit left to go will be interesting to see what price he opens up as in the betting and if it's smashed into (was odds on for that handicap win).

18:40 -- 1m 7f 218y Handicap.

A decent (class 2) stayers contest now, worth over £15k to the winner, and has attracted a field of nine. Only the one course and distance winner in the line up so we will consider BUSY STREET [2nd 14/1] his win here came in March this year and was also runner up repeatedly most notably at Ascot in July a neck behind Saroog there so that's not too bad. SOVEREIGN DUKE [Non Runner] is lightly raced for a stayer, won here over mile but has improved for the step up to this sort of trip a runner up at Newmarket before being outclassed in the Cesarawitch there too this is a massive step down in grade and is respected.

19:10 -- 1m 3f 219y Handicap.

A fairly ordinary handicap now where we will focus on a pair of previous course and distance winners in ILHABELA FACT [7th 16/1] (A Carroll) who won two races of this nature in February but hasn't been seen out since May along with SIR PRIZE [2nd 5/1] (D Ivory) has been much busier this year, ran six consecutive times here winning three of them going up in the weights as a result but is still running competitively and another big run is expected tonight.

19:40 -- 1m 2f 219y Handicap.

Our finale tonight, we will pick a couple of 3yo's against the field with PECKINPAH [12th 13/2] / SLADE KING [6th 7/2].

Staked -- 12 points.

Returns -- 6 points.

Results will appear here later during Wednesday evening. This season we are sadly down by -52.945 points to SP returns. Now only another month of the season to go and we will end up with an additional meeting here for the King George Chase on Boxing Day.

LAYS -- 35/48. Got our lay bets beat again last week and we will try to find another one or two successful lay bets this time around and these will show up here later on tonight. Got them both beat again at short prices moves us to 37/50 (74%) now.

Tonight's Lays;

17:10 - LAPSES LINGUAE (6f Novice 2yo) LOST 2nd 13/8.

17:40 - CRANBERRY (1m Novice 2yo) LOST 3rd 10/11F.

Our thirtieth meeting for this year will be held next week on Wednesday 27th November so hope to see you then and throughout the rest of 2019. Maybe we'll be back next year...

CHELTENHAM NH NOVEMBER MEETING - SUNDAY 17th NOVEMBER

This is the only Sunday where racing takes place at Cheltenham Racecourse throughout the year. This Sunday holds particular prevalence as we mark the anniversary of the Armistice with Gloucestershire and Racing Remember. In addition to the top quality racing, there will be a number of themed activities and commemorative events throughout the day, including the charity for the day Combat Stress. 

The meeting always provides glimpses of future stars and it was no different in the latest renewal of the Arkle Trophy Trial Novices Steeple Chase won last year by Lalor and it will be interesting to see if we have anything of that calibre in the line up today. The feature race is The Unibet Greatwood Hurdle Race won last year by Nietszche ridden by Danny McMenamin and trained by Brian Ellison.

Come along for a fantastic day of racing, we might have lost Friday but there is still plenty of action to enjoy today. Live music after racing from The D-Day Darlings in The Centaur, for Club/Tattersalls racegoers from 4.00pm - 5.15pm. They will be here to entertain us with wartime classics, as we step back in time to the 1940s

Surface:   Turf
Going:     Soft, Heavy in places 

12:45  Cheltenham Club Conditional Jockeys' Handicap Hurdle
(Class 3, 2m 5f, 20 runners)
Little bit pressed for time this weekend now but great that racing is going ahead, will update again later when I can but selections first, DON'T SHOUT and DUC DE BEAUCHENE (WON) represent our best chances in this twenty runner opener. Interesting that David Pipe has Jonjo O'Neill Jr booked for the latter as the jockey won this event last year.

Result - 1st  DUC DE BEAUCHENE 100/30F.

13:15  The Glenfarclas Cross Country Handicap Chase
(Class 3, 3m 6f, 10 runners)
FACT OF THE MATTER was runner up in this last year the a course winner in December so should be ready today. While KINGSWELL THEATRE (also a course and distance winner taking this contest in 2017) has had a season opener and expected to run well today too.

Result - 1st  DIESEL D'ALLIER 13/2.

13:50 Racing Post Arkle Trophy Trial Novices' Chase (Grade 2) (Registered As The November Novices' Chase)(Class 1, 1m 7f 199y, 4 runners)
A small field but with the last win under his belt this is all set for AL DANCER to win around here again (beat Getaway Trump into 3rd on that occasion). While PUT THE KETTLE ON gets a nice weight allowance and the 5yo mare from Ireland should also be at home on the heavy going. GETAWAY TRUMP was disappointing last time but Paul Nicholls must have worked some magic at home and entitled to be much closer today while the line up is completed by ROUGE VIF who battled on to win on his fences debut at Market Rasen and has beaten Getaway Trump over hurdles too so should be respected.

Result - 1st  PUT THE KETTLE ON 6/1.

14:25 Shloer Chase (Grade 2) (Registered As The Cheltenham Chase)(Class 1, 1m 7f 199y, 4 runners)
Another small field of four here, and looks like we set for a dual between Paul Nicholls POLITOLOGUE and Phillip Hobbs DEFI DU SEUIL. The former has regularly come up against the mighty Altior and was most recently beaten 20l by Min ! However there's little of that calibre here, while Defi Du Seuil won last years JLT Chase at the festival and will look to be a solid favourite for next years festival with a win here today. The field are completed by SAINT CALVADO who missed a big race yesterday for this, while the 12yo SIMPLY NED who makes up the quartet looks outclassed yet will still collect a nice prize even if he comes last and has run in this five times already.

Result - 1st  DEFI DU SEUIL 11/8F.

15:00 Unibet Greatwood Handicap Hurdle (Grade 3)
(Class 1, 2m 87y, 15 runners)
The feature race of the day with a field of fifteen declared, was won last year by a decent price horse and we headed by MOHAAYED who is 25/1 but can run a big race and is also a course winner which will help. Our selections would include QUEL DESTIN (course and distance winner) for Paul Nicholls along with the likes of BENNY'S BRIDGE both already winning this season and should be fit to run well.

Result - 1st  HARAMBE 16/1.

15:30 Sky Bet Supreme Trial Novices' Hurdle (Grade 2) (Registered As The Sharp Novices' Hurdle)(Class 1, 2m 87y, 5 runners)
Just the five and the all have a good even chance, ECCO as a 4yo and twice winner already probably the one to look most closely but I'll want to see a big run from David Pipe's EDEN DU HOUX too after his recent runner up performance after a long break. SCARDURA was a big price on debut at Galway but ran with promise to finish fifth of eighteen and then come over to win at Taunton by 16L in October and is very interesting too.

Result - 1st  HANG IN THERE 6/1.

16:00 High Sheriff Of Gloucestershire And Racing Remember Standard Open NH Flat Race (Listed)(Class 1, 2m 87y, 10 runners)
A bumper to conclude, probably best left alone but if you must play then the pair of HUGOS OTHER HORSE / TIME FLIES BY would be the ones to focus on.

Result - 1st  ISRAEL CHAMP 16/1.


Hope you enjoyed a good weekend too.