Thursday review and Saturday selections

Drunken Sailor, who runs in the 2.00 at Newbury on Saturday

Thursday turned out to be a fantastic day for me, with St. Moritz winning and Judge n' Jury placing having been backed at 20/1. Those 2 results meant a profit of 12 points for the day.

Judge n' Jury ran a cracker to finish 4th, having been sent off at 14/1. It was up with the pace from the off, and I feared it was going to fade away in the final furlong or so but it plugged on gamely. I was very happy with its run.

St. Moritz has to be one of the gamest horses in training at the moment. Winning a decent handicap off such a high mark is impressive in anyone's books, and he showed a fantastic attitude to hold off all challengers after leading from about a furlong for home. 

Unfortunately, the whole Blogger system was down for ages last night/today, so I couldn't get today's selections online before the start of racing today. This brings me on to tomorrow's racing, where as always on a Saturday, there's a huge variety of racing to get my teeth into.

Newbury 2.00 - Drunken Sailor - 2pts win @ 11/4 (Paddy Power)
Drunken Sailor is one of my favourite horses in my short time following horse racing, having won me a nice few quid over the years. He was once trained nearby by Paul Flynn, and he was sold for a nice sum late in 2009. He's now trained by Luca Cumani, and has developed into a fantastic long distance runner. He ran in some decent races at Meydan during the winter months, always giving a good account of himself. The trip tomorrow won't be a problem, having won over a furlong further before. The ground will also be fine, as he handles all types of going. Kieran Fallon takes the ride tomorrow, and he has developed a fine relationship with this horse since it joined Cumani's yard. In total throughout his career, Drunken Sailor has raced 36 times, winning 9 times and coming second 9 times, which shows how consistent this animal is. With race fitness assured from it's winter excursions, conditions to suit and Fallon on board, I'm expecting another bold show from Drunken Sailor.

Newmarket 2.50 - Trovare - 1pt e/w @ 10/1 (Bet365)
Trovare is a previous selection of mine, having finished a decent 4th of 13 on his comeback run at Epsom. That day, Trovare was up with the pace but seemed to run out of steam fairly rapidly coming to the business end of the race, probably due to a lack of race fitness. That run will have brought him on a lot though and he should be fit and ready for a good crack at this race tomorrow. Trovare has 3 wins in his lightly raced career, with 2 of them coming at Newmarket, so the track holds no fears for him. He's yet to win over this 14 furlong trip but he has won over 13 furlongs, so this extra furlong shouldn't be a problem. Jimmy Quinn gets the leg up tomorrow, and while he has never ridden Trovare before, I'm sure he'll be well aware of what is required to get his head in front. Trovare is an extremely progressive animal, who is still unexposed and I expect a good run from him tomorrow. I would have a bigger e/w bet but it's a very competitive field where a case could be made for quite a few runners.