Mike's Horse Talk

13.55pm Handicap (Class 2) 5f 89y Kevin Ryan has won this cavalry charge handicap in the past two years and the Knavesmire lover Bogart who won this in 2013 goes for glory once again. He could be dangerous off a very reasonable mark but needs to find his form in my opinion. Instead, I'm looking at a slightly unusual selection you might think, this selection is  TANGERINE TREES. Much like a tangerine its at its best when ripe and I believe the rain has come in time for this 10 year old who showed he still has some of his old 'zest' when finishing 4th in a very similar contest to this. The handicapper has dropped him a pound for that performance and with the drop back in trip over a course he seemed to like I'm happy to put this horse up to run a big race. TANGERINE TREES in his pomp has won the Prix de L'Abbaye, Beverly Bullet and Newsells Park Stud so he is a quality sprinter although he's getting longer in the tooth. I believe his weight, draw and current fo...

THREE SELECTIONS FOR DAY TWO Yesterday's tips started the week off in terrific style and I'm hoping to continue the trend today. Once again we have some very interesting races to get our teeth into. 14.00pm - Goodwood Stakes Handicap (Class 2) 2m 5f 'As strong as a/an...' the blanks in this sentence can be filled with the words Ox, mustard, as the devil himself, wind, fire and even instinct. However, I'm starting todays blog with the simile, 'As strong as teak'. As this dower stayer trained by Ian Williams is nothing but tough and is my first selection today. TEAK has previous form at Goodwood and indeed won this very race last year from a 16lb lower mark, which may prevent a similar performance this year but with many of these lacking proven stamina and his excellent recent run over hurdles I'm willing to give TEAK a chance at an attractive each way price. As eighteen go to post here my second selection in this race has form which ties in very c...

THREE SELECTIONS. Goodwood (good to soft) 14.00pm Handicap (Class 2) 1m 1f 192y The opening race heralds the start of the annual Goodwood festival which always lights up the soul of any discerning racing fan. This race seems to be as competitive as ever with last years winner Sennockian Star turning up once again for a crack at Goodwood glory. As ever, the handicapper seems to have his grip on many of these but with the ground on the slower side I can see a solid run from COLLABORATION . This progressive Halling gelding must have been a little highly strung in the early part of his career as he really has gone from strength to strength this season. COLLABORATION ran in the Wolferton handicap at Royal Ascot but was done no favours in that race by the pedestrian pace set, consequently suiting the runners on the front end as it turned into a sprint with over two furlongs to go. On that day he failed to sparkle and I'm happy to draw a line through that run. This four year old ...

My little niece Genevieve. Her picture/selection is Gas line Boy and here's a picture of him. Grand National Selections The highlight of the year for the national hunt racing fraternity and as always this grabs the publics attention and is a part of the British psyche where 'everyone has a bet on the national'. Many trends for this race can be looked at and scrutinised but I do urge trend followers not to follow these to the letter and not to solely base your selections on trends. It's a minefield. Proven stamina - since the early 1990's the winner of the grand national had previously won a race over three miles plus. It maybe obvious but some in this field do not fit this criterion. Grand National meeting form - a more recent trend but a very interesting one. Horses don't necessarily need experience of jumping over the national spruce type fences but a solid run undoubtedly needs to be taken into consideration at Aintree - either on the Mildmay Chase...

Dubai World Cup Night 2013 The Dubai Festival comes to it's conclusion tomorrow night and the notebook has been scribbled in since the start of this terrific carnival. I was there back in 2013 at Meydan and can assure you it's a truly wonderful spectacle with many locals and international tourists alike sharing a common admiration and love for our equine friends. This year it's no different and tomorrow's supporting card before the main event looks to be superb and arguably a more intriguing set of races than the Dubai World Cup itself. However, I'm a huge 'Chromie' and will be cheering home the California bred dirt superstar California Chrome in the main event; more of that to come in this blog. This time of year more of my time switches to the flat looking for the classy maidens, perusing through handicap form from last season and seeing if we have potential pattern race quality from our two and three year olds who will be coming to the track th...

York Day 1 - Wednesday 20th August 13.55pm Symphony Group Handicap (3yo+, Class 2, 5f 89y) An intriguing start to proceedings as these sprint handicaps always are. The Knavesmire is a quick track and with my current focus on the sprints it seems that some trends may indeed be worth highlighting. A draw bias is hard to find on this very even/straight track. However, it seems that a very consistent trend is that horses down the centre of the track or a jockey steering his/her horse nearer the middle usually enhances the horses chances. However, as that lacks a real advantage it may pay the trainer/jockeys to look at the pace angle as Proform's analysis found that horses up with the pace or making the pace had a higher percentage of wins to their names since 2007 at this Yorkshire track. One final thing so far as trends are concerned may lie in the northern trainers themselves, this is their Royal Ascot and all roads have been leading to this meeting since the sta...