6th December - Race reviews

After such a good run a fortnight ago, I somehow seem to have slipped back into a series of near misses !
It’s odd how these things seem to happen in clusters – there is no reason why that should be the case, but it often is.
I mentioned when I started the blog, that although my natural inclination is to bet win only (and I still do that myself), I would be putting up a fair few selections EW, in an attempt to smooth out the P&L.
Well, I have to acknowledge that the method has been paying dividends, over the last week in particular. It may be a case of 2 steps forward; 2 steps back – but that is a lot better than 2 steps back !!
Hopefully we can get back into the plain old ‘2 steps forward’ territory, sooner rather than later !!
Anyway, on to the performances of today’s selections:

Festival Dreams was ridden prominently by Richard Johnson, but not given an overly aggressive ride.
He travelled OK through the race, but right behind him throughout, was Forest Rhythm, who seemed to be pulling double ! In his first time blinkers, I was hoping that Forest Rhythm was maybe doing too much. But as he cantered past Festival Dreams on the run to the second last, I knew this hadn’t been the case !
To Festivals Dreams credit, he stuck gamely to his task and managed to finish a comfortable second.
The trouble with betting in these lower grade events is that there is always a possibility that a horse like Forest Rhythm, will produce a much improved run.
If you think about it, it’s a lot easier to run 20lb above your rating when you are rated 100, than it is when you are rated 150 !
Still, it was a small profit on the race, so I guess I can’t complain too much…

The handicap chase turned into a real war of attrition and although Billy Murphy ran well to finish fifth, he couldn’t quite muster up the extra effort required to get into the frame.
I think this was one of those races whose outcome was affected by the whip rule. All of the horses in with a chance rounding the home turn, were almost out on their feet and it was simply a case of which jockey had most strikes of the whip left – and could deploy them most effectively !!
The winner of the contest was Noel Fehily on Bring It on Home, though I suspect that Sir Winston might have been victorious if the same race had been run a few months earlier…
One positive I can take out of the race, is that Billy Murphy comfortable beat Hobb’s Dream despite being returned a longer price. The 24lb turnaround in the weights from their previous meeting evidently had the expected effect…