The 347th edition of the Wayward Lad blog.
We saw the arrival of a true champion filly in DANEDREAM yesterday at Longchamp when she massacred a quality opposition field in a race record time.
Some people were crying “foul” after the race and suggesting hard-luck stories. But, in my opinion, the race showed that jockeys should concentrate on winning the race in question and stop trying to be tactical and trying to out-wit the other jockeys.
For instance, although it was no surprise to me to see TREASURE BEACH go off into a good early lead, I was surprised the pace being set was one not able to be sustained by the Irish Derby winner. Given this was almost certainly a tactic that had been agreed before the race, I could not understand why race fav and stablemate SO YOU THINK was not brought thru’ the field to sit closer to the leaders between the 10f-6f poles. As such, when the leaders passed the 6f pole, SO YOU THINK was possibly 20+ lengths off the pace and – given the horses ahead of him being proven at the trip and with great powers of acceleration – had little or no chance of being involved at the finish. I’ve watched every running of the “Arc” live on tv since 1968 (when Vaguely Noble beat Sir Ivor) and it takes a truly exceptional horse to come from way-off the pace in the “Arc” and win; something like Dancing Brave in 1986. If you read my blog on the “Arc” you will know that I expected SO YOU THINK to be ridden much closer to the leaders and, had that been the case, he could well have been involved at the finish.
Whatever the fate of others, let nothing take anything away from the performance of DANEDREAM. The change of pace she showed at the furlong pole was devastating. Eventual 3rd SNOW FAIRY, who herself has a tremendous turn-of-foot, could not go with her and was made to look one-paced. It reminded me a lot of when All Along won the “Arc” with a similar display – and she was unbeatable afterwards. I rated the performance at 129 on a line thru’ Snow Fairy who I felt ran her best ever performance at 12-furlongs.
On Saturday, I put up two selections and both were beaten. They both ran at Ascot on the flat and, unless I spot something with a tremendous chance at the odds, they will be my final flat racing selections till after the 2012 Grand National.
GENKI missed the break and was never able to recover from that event in the race. As for RAINFALL, she ran a complete stinker and that’s the last of my money that she will be carrying. Personally, I doubt she’ll see a racecourse again, so it probably won’t matter.
I will update my results pages and will produce a review of my selections for the past 12 months.
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