Wonder Fillies: Goldikova and Midday

Today’s post is one for the ladies, dear reader, with a  look back at a weekend where the girls again showed their superstar status on the top stage.

In winning the Prix Rothschild at Deauville over a mile, Goldikova became only the second European horse to win ten Group 1 races. And, in a strange quirk of fate, her trainer Freddy Head was also the regular jockey aboard the other ten-times winner, Miesque.

Moreover, both Miesque and Goldikova are dual Breeders Cup Mile winners.

Goldikova was never out of second gear to see off the very talented Music Show (herself a winner of a Group 1 last time) by a facile three lengths. In fact, she took her race so well that connections are already eying a record-breaking eleventh Group 1 in a fortnight’s time. That will likely be the Prix Jacques Le Marois, which is also the target for Canford Cliffs, the outstanding three year old miler. What a race that would be.

Then, it’s off to the Breeders Cup to attempt a third win in the Mile. She is a superstar, this one, and I’ve been lucky enough to see her win both her Breeders Cup Miles at Santa Anita. I was also there on Arc day last year, when she finished only third, albeit over an inadequate seven furlongs in what was unquestionably a prep race for the Arc.

And I’m already booked up for Churchill Downs at the start of November – I can’t wait. She will cause the roof to come off if she can win!

(By the way, there are no prizes for telling me that Goldikova is a mare, not a filly. I know! 😉 )

Another bound for Kentucky at the end of the season is ‘Sir’ Henry Cecil’s Midday, who won the Group 1 Nassau Stakes for the second year in a row. When pondering the card on Saturday morning, I remember thinking, “Sheesh, there’s only seven in the race and I can’t discount any of them confidently”.

It was of course a no bet race for me, and my placepot went down as I looked for ‘value’… doh!

Midday is a bit of a madam, it would appear. As they quickened up in the straight, Midday scampered clear and looked to be set for an impressive victory. But then she seemed to pull herself up thinking she’d done enough.

Stacelita, the French winner of three Group 1’s herself, bounded after her and – as she was about to go past – Midday suddenly realised she hadn’t quite finished the job yet. The manner in which she was able to quicken again with lightning reactions marks her out as a very, very talented filly despite her obvious foibles.

She ultimately heads to the Filly and Mare Turf at Kentucky herself, and it would be a(nother) truly incredible Euro lass double if these two could do the business Stateside.

If they both turn up fit and well, frankly who’s going to beat them? Go on the girls!!!

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Now if you cast your minds far enough back… Back to a time when neither Goldikova nor Midday had snaffled further Group 1’s; a time when the draw bias for the Stewards’ Cup was still causing minor consternation; a time when Saturday morning’s hangover was still Friday night’s frivolity…

Yes, way back to last Friday and yours truly was at Goodwood for the day. It was – and always is, so far as I can tell – Glorious, and the results were merely so many cherries on the top of a cake that was a wonderful day out.

Goodwood, if you’ve never been, is a dream of a racecourse. It’s set in some rich bloke’s expansive back garden, and it rolls unassumingly across a couple of miles of the Sussex Downs.

Unassuming is a good word here, actually. For all of the high class racing and social scene, there’s none of the pomposity of Royal Ascot. Here, impromptu cabaret acts line the walkways; jazz trios play outside the bars; Pimms is served by the jug (and quaffed by the gallon).

None of the problems that racing suffers, and none of the conundrums that Racing For Change are attempting to solve (in their loaded agenda style) apply at Glorious Goodwood.

It is a truly unique racecourse, and it is a fabulous day out. If you’ve never been, I cannot recommend it highly enough. The only small issue I have with it, and it’s not their fault, is that the rattler from Smokey takes f-o-r-e-v-e-r to get home. But that, believe me, is a small price to pay.

Without gloating unduly, I backed winners. Plenty of winners. Joseph Henry at 38 on Betfair; Sea Lord at 15/2; Libranno for a decent sum at 11/8; and the exacta in the penultimate as well as a place return on Pyrrha (and I really should have backed Tropical Paradise at 16’s!). In the last, I just missed out on another exacta as I had the winner with two 16/1 shots who finished third and fourth. The second was also 16/1 but alas evaded me.

Blooming marvelous!

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Galway’s marathon festival finished yesterday, and it was a frustrating end to a very fun week for subscribers to the Galway Trends report. Throughout the week, Tony Mac (my man) and I covered a dozen races from the forty-odd run.

We had primary trends and secondary trends, the former being more material (we considered) than the latter. After the first set of trends, we produced a shortlist, and after the second set we determined our idea of the winners.

The final record, to a ten euro (or pound) stake at Betfair SP, was as follows:

So, we finished up over 20 points, or two hundred quid / euro. Which was nice. If Arkendale had won instead of finishing second, it would have been over €600…

Incidentally, the shortlists found further winners, such as Invisible Man 4.3, Ask Jack 11.54, Finger Onthe Pulse 50.34(!), and Overturn 7.63.

Of the twelve races we covered, we shortlisted seven winners (albeit that some of the shortlists were not that short!), and nominated three of them at good prices.

Hopefully many of you who subscribed had as good a week as Tony and I did.

The Irish trends was a bit of an experiment, as we weren’t sure whether there was enough interest in betting on Irish racing.

And, truth be told, I’m still not sure.

What I am certain of though, is that the bigger races can oftentimes be cracked using a statistical approach.

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Lest you haven’t noticed, there’s been a few more reviews and a lot more news on here recently. I hope you’re enjoying them. Currently, they appear in the blog feed, but I’m going to be giving dear old Geegeez a bit of a makeover in the near future. Although we’ve all become accustomed to her, let’s face it, she’s an ugly brute!

On the system test front, there’s some interesting goings on, with Little-Acorns and All-By The Book performing impressively. On the other hand, Dream-Lays and One-A-Day Wonder are slightly under-performing at the moment. Or at least they’re not showing a profit.

On-Course-For-Profits looks on course for the scrapheap…

You can track all of the current trials by clicking the ‘Current System Trials‘ in the middle of the top menu bar.

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That’s all from me today. How was your weekend? Did you back winners?

Matt