Today's Selections

The first thing to note today is that conditions are atrocious and with more rain forecast in the next few hours, things look certain to deteriorate further. With that in mind, there will only be limited selections from me today as it's extremely difficult to gauge how individual horses will perform.

2:30 Folkstone - Secretori (9/2) - 3pt win - following the withdrawal of Curl the field has been reduced to 5 runners and it looks like a close knit affair. Although Secretori's form doesn't look that inspiring, its actually pretty consistent and he has put in solid runs in recent weeks behind the likes of Ronaldinho, Jumeirah Moon, Secret Sign and Ashaadd. Until today, he has been campaigned over 6-7 furlongs in his last 3 races but he did make his debut over 5f, and he actually came in for a bit of support, at big prices, before the off. His ability to stay further than today's trip will obviously hold him in good stead given the current conditions and he has also exhibited an ability to handle soft ground. His jockey, Liam Keniry has a good strike rate at the track and due to the lack of pace in the race I wouldn't be surprised if he got this horse to the front early on. If this is the case then he will have to time the fractions to perfections, as an overly enthusiastic pace would no doubt set the race up for a closer such as Starlight Angel. Given Liam's record at the track and in general, I would say he's more than capable of winning this race from the front and although the horse appears to be tactically versatile, if I trained him, those would be my instructions to the Jock.


3:30 Folkstone - Schoolmaster (8/1) - 1pt e/w - It's looks like Folkstone is turning into the Keniry show as far as I'm concerned today but irrespective of the fact that he rides this horse, I think Schoolmaster has a real live wire chance in this race despite having a poor draw. The horse has only had 5 runs to date which makes him one of the less exposed horses in the line up, he has performed consistently but has tended to ruin his chances by pulling hard in the early stages of his races. My hope is that they will go off very fast in this race as the likes of Duster, Centrifugal and potentially Myboyalfie battle it out for the rail in the early stages. That should allow Schoolmaster to sit in behind the early pace and that will hopefully allow him to settle, get into his rhythm and exploit his stamina late on as the early pace setters begin to tire. The last point to note is that his Sire is Motivator and his progeny absolutely thrive under today's conditions. All thing's considered, I'm hopeful that he will at least run into a place.

4:40 Beverley - Oddysey (5/1) - 1pt e/w - Now this would have been a win bet if it wasn't for the significant gamble which seems to be taking shape on the 11 race maiden Only Orsenfoolies. Personally, I can't see OO suddenly breaking his maiden tag especially as the race is unlikely to unfold in the way that he will want but the money has to be respected in a weak contest such as this. For me though, Oddysey is massively overpriced here today. Up until her last run, she had the profile of an extremely progressive individual and had won twice and finished second twice in four runs since her seasonal return in June. As a resulted of those performance she found herself on a mark of 75 LTO and despite being very well backed before the off, she was held and could only finish 3rd. Conditions that day were far from ideal though and a few things went wrong during the race itself. With conditions looking slightly more favourable today and with her regular jockey back in the saddle claiming 3lb, I believe she still has room for further improvement from this mark.