Runners, declarations and entries w/c 30 March 2008

Desert Dreamer was our ninth winner of the year at Lingfield on Friday.

Tomorrow, Sunday, Hope Road runs in the maiden juvenile hurdle at Kempton at 2.00 pm. There are only eight runners and Timmy Murphy rides.

On Tuesday 1 April Naughty Thoughts is entered in a mile and a half race at Folkestone.

On Wednesday Rowan River is entered at Nottingham at 4.10 pm. and Desert Dreamer is entered in another claimer at Kempton Park at 6.50 pm.

Classic Blade is entered on Thursday at Leicester at 2.10pm. Hopefully he will be our first 2yo runner of the season.

There is a God

Having always suffered from vertigo (including feeling funny when standing on a chair to change a light bulb)I became hugely nervous as Friday afternoon approached. As I said to Rodney Masters on Good Friday afternoon, I was overwhelmed by relief when the organiser apologised to me that (bungee) jumping was cancelled due to high winds. I am sure nobody will ask for their sponsorship monies to be returned, will they?

Thank you to everyone who pledged their support.

The Lambourn Open Day was very successful for us, despite the weather, and we had a steady stream of visitors all morning. It was amazing how relaxed the horses were despite the attention they were receiving.

In the All-Weather Trainers Championship which ran from the end of the turf season in November 2007 to 20 March 2008 I had 10 winners from 34 runners a strike rate of 29%. This strike rate was bettered by only one other trainer, in the top 50, E.J O'Neill whose rate was 31%, with 11 winners out of 35 runners.

With the Open Day out of the way it is now down to the serious business of tackling my third turf season. It was disappointing that Old Father Zieten didn't make the Brocklesby at Doncaster today but there will be other races for him. I have my first turf runner on Monday at Yarmouth, Rowan River.

On Wednesday Savile's Delight is entered yet again at Southwell in a 5 furlong claimer having just failed to prevail on Thursday. On Friday Desert Dreamer is entered in a 7 furlong claimer at Lingfield.

Lambourn Open Day

It is the Lambourn Open Day tomorrow, Good Friday, and we are expecting quite a number of people to be visiting the yard. We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible. The admission price is £12 and this entitles people to visit as many of the yards in Lambourn as they wish as well as entrance to the field for the events in the afternoon.

Tom is captain of the trainers tug of war team and has also volunteered to do a bungee jump. He needs your support because the whole event is in aid of Lambourn Valley Housing Trust and the Air Ambulance Service and he has to have sponsorship for his moment of madness. All contributions, whatever the amounts, will be gratefully received

The Open Day is being sponsored by Betfair and with their help the majority of the operating costs will be covered so that more of the monies raised will go to the charities.

It looks as though Old Father Zieten has no hope of getting a run in the Brocklesby on Saturday at Doncaster. He needs 16 of the horses entered to come out if he is to make the cut.

On Easter Monday Rowan River is engaged at Yarmouth in a mile fillies handicap at 3.25 pm.

Declarations and entries w/c 17 March 2008

Gross Prophet is declared for tomorrow, Tuesday, at Kempton Park in a 7f handicap at 4.30 pm. There are just seven runners and he is drawn 5. Richard Kingscote rides.

On Thursday Savile’s Delight is entered at Southwell in a 5f claimer at 3.10 pm.

I have today entered Old Father Zieten for the first 2yo race of the turf season at Doncaster on Saturday. There may be lots of runners and we may not get a run. We will just have to see.

I’d like to wish all our friends from Ireland a happy St Patrick’s Day.

With best wishes,

Tom

Update

I understand there are lots of non-runners today, including Poquelin. As such I am going to put the 5 points on a little double at the suggestion of a good friend. So the new bet would be 2.5 EW double on Wingman (10/1) and County Zen (13/2) @ Betfred.

Who will win the Gold Cup?

Before reading this I just wanted to say that I had to ask Bill to write the entry and get the prices for me this morning as I have early meetings. He did everything correct apart from saying which bookmakers to take the price. As such I'm afraid you will have to believe me/him with regard to them!

I had a great day at Cheltenham yesterday being corporately entertained. It was fun to go by stretch limo, filled with beer and Champagne. It was also great to catch up with Tom in the bar and say "Hi" to lots of friends. I don't feel as bad today as I thought I would.

I managed to find one winner yesterday in Albertas Run but can’t believe I omitted Old Benny, my namesake.

I'm not going to go for broke today and blow every point I have left.....well maybe close to it.

My selections are:

2 pt win patent Chomba Womba (12.30 pm) at 3/1, Group Captain (1.05 pm) at 5/1 and Song of Songs (1.40 pm) at 8/1

10 pts win Group Captain (1.05 pm) at 5/1

20 pts lay Kauto Star in the Gold Cup (3.30 pm) at evens.

7.5 pts EW Mon Michel (5.20 pm) at 10/1

2.5 pts EW Poquelin (5.20 pm) at 33/1

I'm a big fan of Gaspara but I think Chomba Womba will win because I can’t believe Nicky Henderson and Mick FitzGerald won’t have a Festival winner this year.

I have been sweet on Group Captain all week and used to follow him when he was trained by Roger Charlton on the flat particularly when he was ridden by Richard Kingscote who was two from three.

Whilst I expect Kauto Star to 'run well' I think evens is too short. I think 'the field' maybe better than we all think.

Mon Michel has had nothing but bad luck so far being injured just before the Tote Trophy and then clipping the top of the first hurdle in the Sunderlands Imperial Cup and losing Jamie Moore. It is surely his turn to be lucky.

However, a little bit each way on Poquelin, Sam Thomas’s mount, may just help the bank balance. I’d like to think that Paul Nichols had found one winner for him at this year’s Festival. In actual fact i have toyed with the idea of perming his mounts today with winning the leading jockeys title for today and the whole festival....I'm sure it would be a long price!

Have a great day!

Oh Dear

Somehow I've managed to land 10 races and no clue! I'm going to be swift as I'm having to wake up before the crack of dawn to make the train from Paddington.

I'm going to back 4 horses, one with a special relationship to Tom.

Albertas Run - Each Way 5 points (5/1 Paddy Power)
Tamarinbleu - Win 10 points (5.2 Betfair)
My Way De Solzen - Each Way 5 points (11/1 Coral)
My Immortal - Win 10 points (8/1 Coral)

Good luck to everyone and have a great day.

10 races tomorrow and I'm going...yipee

Racing starts at 12.30 and 10 races. I think I better revise my staking plan!

Tuesdays hopeful punts

I'm going to put these up early as I have meetings all day tomorrow. Not that pleased as Queen Mother day is always a favourite. However, this years renewal looks rather weak even though Ruby Walsh thinks his mount is very very good and as such I can handle a day 'off'.

I'm going to be careful tomorrow as the card looks very difficult. I might save some money for my bet of the week on Friday. However, there is one runner that I'm quite sweet on.

My bets for tomorrow are

Group Captain (Win 15 points Ladbrokes 5/1 - However the price is on the drift and I can see it being 11/2 tomorrow)
Tamarinbleu (Win 5 points Paddy Power 4/1)
Song of Songs (Each Way 5 points Ladbrokes 9/1)

Up until about 2 hours before any race at the festival Betfair and bookmakers prices are quite similar (all the above are the same price on Betfair and slightly less if you include the % commission) but as you get closer to the off the differences appear. I can therefore recommend keeping an eye on the Betfair market as you get closer to the off to take advantage of the favourable differences.

Gutted

I thought both Osana and Ashkazar were going to win at the 2nd last. Tears today hopefully smiles tomorrow.

Captain Cee Bee returns 36.25 points so I now stand on 106.25. Not the end of the world.

Before the last installment of Vegas a Cheltenham test

I'm going to give myself 100 points for the Cheltenham Festival. The challenge is to make a profit!

Day 1

Captain Cee Bee - E/W 2.5 points (10/1 Paddy Power)
Osana - Win 5 points (11/2 Ladbrokes)
Ashkazar - Win 20 points (11/4 Betfred this morning but now 5/2 Betfred)

Total bets placed 30 points

No Hope becomes Some Hope

Hope Road owned by the ONEWAY National Hunt Partnership surprised us all be getting a run in the Handicap Hurdle at Stratford tomorrow, Monday 10 March, at 4.40 pm. He will be ridden by Noel Felihy who road him last time at Warwick. Hopefully the forecast gales will not be too severe and racing will take place.

Unfortunately it was unrealistic to think we would get a run in the Fred Winter at Cheltenham on Tuesday so the Stratford option was taken instead.

Naughty Thoughts wins under Ross Atkinson

Congratulations to Martin Stillwell who runs 123 Racing Partnership for deciding to buy Naughty Thoughts the winner of a seller at Lingfield. She rewarded him by winning her first handicap under a fine ride from Ross Atkinson who was having only his sixth winner.

The Racing Post commented as follows:

A moderate affair, run at a modest pace. NAUGHTY THOUGHTS, who had opened her account in a seller at Lingfield last time, probably did not need to improve any on that effort to see off Ermine Grey. She was more patiently ridden than when fourth in a handicap over course and distance a month ago, and the change of tactics seems to suit her.

This was the eighth winner of the year from only 15 runners.

Extract from Sporting Bet website

Following trainer form is an angle that all punters should try to exploit. Turning this into a profitable exercise is often fraught, though, as we all latch onto the more newsworthy yards of Paul Nicholls and David Pipe. However, there is a bright young training star delighting the more savvy punters out there and his name is Tom Dascombe.

In his second season of training Tom Dascombe had an impressive 26 wins from 134 runs (a strike rate of 19%). This put him sixth in the strike rate table behind only training leviathans like Sir Michael Stoute, Godolphin and Sir Mark Prescott. Backing all of his runners blindly would have resulted in a level stakes profit of £38.64. One could have turned over an even bigger profit by following his horses in handicaps where he had 15 winners from 68 runners, netting a return of £44 to £1 stakes.

And this is not just a two year peak: Mr. Dascombe has started 2008 as he means to go on. In January he had 3 winners from 7 runners (43%). My hope is that when the flat season starts some of the more influential owners dig deep into their pockets at the sales and send some really classy types to this young turk.

Keep this man on your side, whatever you do!

Runners, declarations and entries W/C 6 March 2008

A mixed week so far with Desert Dreamer winning on Monday and Savile's Delight being beaten a nose (about two inches!) on Tuesday. Savile's Delight was in front half a stride from the line and again half a stride after but sadly not where it counts. Richard Kingscote gave both horses great rides.

Naughty Thoughts has been declared for Saturday at Wolverhampton in the 7.30 pm. It is an Apprentice Handicap and Ross Atkinson rides. The race is restricted to apprentices who have won less than five races and Ross won his fifth race yesterday. Timing is everything! He is only 16 years old and is apprenticed to Gary Moore and already has earned a reputation for the way he rides.

Our hopes next week are pinned on Hope Road.

It does not look terribly hopeful though. On Monday he is entered in two races at Stratford, the 2.10 a juvenile hurdle and 4.40 a handicap hurdle. In both he has ballot marks requiring 16 horses to come out of the first and eight out of the second. It is even worse on Tuesday, the first day of the Festival. He is entered in the Fred Winter Juvenile Novices Handicap Hurdle at 5.20 but requires 23 horses above him in the list to come out before he gets a run. As they used to say 'There's Bob Hope and No Hope' and we have the latter. If he doesn't get a run either day I will just have to find something else for him.

Winner number seven (from only 13 runners)

Desert Dreamer gave us a dream start to March by winning his first race for us since we bought him out of a claimer in February. The Racing Post reports as follows:

The feature race on an otherwise quiet card, but a steady gallop made life difficult for those held up towards the back, most notably Count Ceprano who ran an excellent race in the circumstances.
Richard Kingscote seemed very aware tactically on DESERT DREAMER, who sat close to the pace up the inside, and when the leaders tended to swing mid-track turning for home he was gifted an opportunity to scoot up the inside and get first run on the closers from behind, which proved crucial.
This was Desert Dreamer's first start for trainer Tom Dascombe who decided to take away the cheek-pieces and put on the tongue-strap. Seven furlongs around here are his optimum conditions and he is pretty reliable when in the groove, but things did pan out ideally for him here.

Declarations and entries w/c 3 March 2008

Desert Dreamer runs today at Lingfield at 3.40 in a class 5 handicap over 7 furlongs and Richard Kingscote rides. We claimed the horse the last time he ran at Lingfield when he was a close second over the same distance.

Tomorrow Savile's Delight runs at Southwell at 2.10 in a class 5 handicap over 5 furlongs and Richard will be in the plate.

On Saturday Naughty Thoughts is entered at Wolverhampton's evening meeting at 7.10 in an apprentice handicap over 1 mile and an extended furlong. You will recall that the horse was entered last week but was not declared as her handicap rating did not go up after her win in the seller and she would have had to run under a 6lb penalty.

Run For Sarah

Thanks to those of you who asked for sponsorship forms. I still have some left if you need them.

Lambourn Open Day

Remember to put Good Friday, 21 March in your diaries.

Sam Paton

Sam joins us today as our new Racing Secretary. She will be working mornings only from 9.30 am to 1.30 pm.