Category Archives: sprinters

Lord Kanaloa

A small tribute to a devastating sprinter, recently retired, who saved his best till last.

Hong Kong Sprint – Dec 2013

Sprinters Stakes – Sep 2013

Takamatsunomiya Kinen – Mar 2013

Hong Kong Sprint – Dec 2012

Sprinters Stakes – Sep 2012

Wentworth Stakes

November 8, 2013betting diary, horse racing, sprintersdoncaster, horse racing, jack dexter, jimmy styles, wentworth stakesbacchy

The ground should be pretty testing at Doncaster tomorrow and it will take a good horse to beat Jack Dexter in the Listed sprint, even though he has to carry a 6lb penalty for his Group 3 win in the Chipchase earlier this year.

Orientor, his sire, won the Chipchase too, and also liked soft ground. Jack Dexter has emulated his sire admirably, and – unlike Orientor – has won twice at Donny already. He should go very close.

However, Jimmy Styles’ unlucky run at York seemed to go largely unnoticed at the time, and at 33/1 I’ll have a small bet on him. He’s an old boy now and would probably want the ground a bit quicker than this, but his odds are big enough to tempt me in.

Jimmy Styles – 0.5pt each-way at 33/1 (Boylesports).

European Pattern 2013: Group 1 Sprints

October 20, 2013european pattern, horse racing, sprintershorse racing, sprintersbacchy

Here they all are (see below). Today I learnt a little bit about HTML code FFS.

Some thoughts:

(1) We may now, as the cliche goes, breed for speed, but still the European Pattern fails to provide a Group 1 sprint for 3 year olds. The fastest of the Classic generation must try their luck over a trip too far in one of the Guineas, or else wait till June when they must take on their elders.

(2) This would have been an indifferent season had it not been for the 5 year old mare MOONLIGHT CLOUD, who was simply far too good for an indifferent bunch of sprinters. The pivotal race of the season was the Maurice de Gheest, in which the emerging Lethal Force was put firmly in his place. Moonlight Cloud really blossomed this year, unbeaten in four runs (so far – she may go to Hong Kong in December) and versatile enough to beat some good Group 1 horses in the Jacques Le Marois – her first win at the highest level over a straight mile.

(3) Over 5f Shea Shea looked the part in Dubai, and to my surprise failed to land one of the Group 1s over here. Mugged in the King’s Stand, the Nunthorpe looked tailor made – but some late rain (perhaps) sealed his fate. With hindsight they shouldn’t have run him in the July Cup (perhaps). In any case, this wasn’t the first time a star in the making had failed to kick-on from the desert.

King’s Stand (5f): SOLE POWER