Author: Russ

Sometimes the complexities of Racing make it is easy to miss the obvious and that could be the case in a brilliant Queen Anne Stakes that opens the Royal meeting on Tuesday. The obvious is that Charlie Appleby has only trained 1 winner at this meeting in the last 3 years. Two of the defeats…

By far the best meeting on the Flat Racing Calendar starts on Tuesday. For Somerville Lodge followers it is a meeting that generally brings one or two winners and several near misses. Historic results clearly show that it is week when Each Way betting is the best policy. Here is a summary of the results…

The quiet start to the week went pretty much as planned at Windsor on Monday, where Bayaann duly landed the odds in workmanlike fashion. The race looked to me as though it was designed to find out how much natural speed Bayaann possesses; connections discovered that although he is by no means slow, it will be over 10f that…

The week started with a terrific race between Tenability and Hamish who gave William Haggas a 1-2 in the Listed Tapster stakes at Goodwood with the younger stablemate just prevailing in a thrilling contest. Hamish proved there are more races in him even at the age of 10. Tenability continues to go up the ranks…

Maltese Cross’s terrific run to be runner up in the Derby was a case of so near but so far – the 3yo ran a great race and went down on his shield. Given a great ride by Tom Marquand, for a brief few seconds he looked like he may catch Christmas Day but couldn’t…

Once the rain came, all looked perfect for our 3pt bet on Eternal Force on Thursday. A good pace was assured, as the small field contained two confirmed front-runners. Then, from out of left field, both were withdrawn, leaving Eternal Force required to come from behind off a slow pace. Despite the very steady fractions,…

In the current UK Flat Jockeys’ Championship—a title race whose controversial criteria runs from 2000 Guineas weekend to Champions Day in October—Cieren Fallon sits prominently in second place. With 24 winners, he stalks leader Oisin Murphy by just two. While a realistic title challenge might depend on the leader enduring an extended spell on the…

Opportunity + 8 Now 100 Realign + 6 Now 98 Albaydaa + 2 Now 86 Another Abbot +5 Now 87 Princling + 4 Now 91 (finished 4th) !!! Masked Warrior + 8 now 89 The handicapper continues to rate the yards horses based on the trainer not solely the performances. Princling up 4lbs for finishing…

I think it is fair to say that the rain gods have for some reason taken a dislike with the Somerville Lodge team. I cannot recall, in recent years, a week leading up to race meetings where key runners require a weather forecast to be as predicted and for it to be accurate. I remember…

Two maidens for Somerville Lodge on Monday when King of Earth attempts to break his maiden tag in the 8.00 at Wolverhampton. Things have not exactly gone to plan in his career so far for the half brother to the Queen Elizabeth Stakes Group 1 winner King Of Change. He was runner-up on his first start…