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December 8th
Back in blighty after a long weekend away and today I’ll be taking a look at the Caspian Caviar Gold Cup with a view to tomorrow’s Big Race Focus article. I have also added Emma Lavelle and Tom George to Trainer Trends now taking us up to 25.
What have I missed whilst I was away? The Grand National being put back to 5.15 p.m. caused a bit of a rumpus. I was at Lord Gyllene’s Grand National which was run 5.00 p.m. on the Monday following a bomb scare having been put up at a friend’s aunts which meant that I was in the same clothes for three days running! It was the only race run that day so hard to say that it worked but the build up was fun. I like the way Punchestown host their Festival from mid-late afternoon to around a 7.30 p.m. finish with the principal event run at 5.30 p.m. so it’s not too different from that.
The Sports Personality of the Year nominations were released last week. Tyson Fury is not winning, that much we know (9/2 out to 22/1), and nice and pleasant woman that we know she is, Jessica Ennis Hill isn’t the most charismatic and Farah and Rutherford will take away some of the athletics vote so it looks like it will be a second title in three years for Andy Murray, though all the odds-against has now dried up. It terms of actual achievement over the last 12 months, I would have Lewis Hamilton and Chris Froome at the top as not only are there zillions and zillions of drivers and cyclists in the world compared to a handful of heptathletes and a few more tennis players, they were also so preposterously far clear of their rivals that the F1 Championship was basically all over at half-way and the Tour de France was won before the end of the first week. However, actual achievement is only a part of jigsaw puzzle.
With regards to Specials Markets, I see that Betfair are betting on the next US President in House Of Cards! I’m about halfway through series three.
As you could tell I was quite sweet on Djakadam in my Cheltenham Ante-Post copy last night and one of my members was kind enough to send on a podcast link of an interview with Willie Mullins from the HRI Awards yesterday where he discussed the Gold Cup runner-up, Pont Alexandre and there was also some talk of what could be his best bumper horse of the season. To check it out, listen between 4.33 to 10.38.
