Monday Mish Mash: 11th June 2012

Frankel and Henry expected at Royal Ascot next week

A bit of a round up post today, to tell you about a few things coming up, in the absence of anything remotely resembling decent racing at the weekend (the days between Epsom and Royal Ascot are always poor).

First up, I and a number of others were in Newmarket on Friday for the Geegeez Racing Club Day. Desperate weather did its damnedest to make it an unpleasant affair, but we’re a hardy old bunch and had a great time anyway.

Highlights were the stable visit to Julia Feilden’s yard, and seeing our boy, Khajaaly, looking happy and well on his way to a full recovery after an operation to remove a lump from his leg.

The vet, and all the stable staff, are delighted with his progress, and he seemed on really good terms with himself, even sharing his box with about twenty of us! I wish I’d taken a picture but I was too busy enjoying the moment and clean forgot. Doh. [Stop press: Gavin has just come up trumps with a snap he took at the yard. You can see for yourself how well he’s looking (Khajaaly, not Gavin!) ]

Khajaaly in his box last Friday

Then it was off to the National Stud to see some new recruits who will be strutting their stuff on a racecourse in 2014. We were able to see one foal up close with his mummy, and Dave B was so enamoured that he nearly lost a finger to the hungry little munchkin. More care next time, Dave!

Finally, we headed across the car park from the National Stud to the July course at Newmarket. Now, it’s called the July course because racing normally takes place there in (and around) July, the highlight of which is the Group 1 July Cup.

Alas, on a miserable early June day, when a minor hurricane blew in to ensure the rain came sideways at spectators, it was hard going. Add in the inexplicable 35 minutes between races, and the complete absence of seating inside (great for pregnant women and the elderly…), and you have yet another abominable show from Jockey Club Racecourses.

Group 4 Security, who have the gig of providing security, followed up their pathetic effort at Epsom (allowing scrappers to carry on drinking, rather than ejecting them) by being preposterously ‘jobsworth’ about a ‘yellow step’.

There were about six people on that part of the grandstand, and I was asked to move literally eight inches so as not to be on the yellow step. I mean, come on, get a grip!!

Then there was the full bin which blew over in the wind. Group 4 righted it. It blew over again. Group 4 righted it again. It blew over again. Group 4 still didn’t think to move it out of the wind.

They are a perfect match for Jockey Club Racecourses, and I’m afraid both need to raise their games for the oncoming Royal Ascot meeting next week.

Speaking of which, I am lucky enough to be heading there on Tuesday for the Queen Anne Stakes and so on. Three Group 1’s to start the meeting, including a possible sighting of Frankel in the opener. Lovely.

If you’re in or around London, and fancy getting your card marked, or just doing some celeb spotting, then this Thursday’s London Racing Club Royal Ascot preview night promises to be a cracker.

The panel has confirmed Nick Luck, Lydia Hislop, Paul Bittar (chief executive of the BHA, and an Aussie preying for a Black Caviar win), and Simon Clare from Coral, who will no doubt be offering concessions not available anywhere else.

The evening starts at 7.30pm, on Thursday 14th June, and it’s held at the Holiday Inn, Kensington Forum, which is behind Gloucester Road tube station. I’m really looking forward to it, so do come up and say hello if you see me there.

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Next up, if you’ve watched my ‘back story’ video, thanks a lot for your comments on that. If not, you can catch it here.

I’ll be releasing the second in that series in the next few days, and I hope that will whet some of your appetites for what is to follow. I’m certainly excited about sharing more details in the coming days. 🙂

Also upcoming, here on Geegeez, is something I’ve been toying with for a while. I’ve finally decided that now is the time, and I hope many of you will embrace the opportunity to interact with the site more. Yes, Geegeez is getting its own forum!

Initially, we’ll just be focused on the main event – horse racing – and, if there’s interest/demand, we’ll expand from there. So if you fancy yourself as a writer, or think you’re as opinionated as me (surely not!), then do join the debate.

Chris and I are still working out all of the configuration bits and bobs, but we very much hope to have things up and running ahead of Royal Ascot next week. Stay tuned!

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And finally, just a quick reminder of the daily content on the site. Tortoise and the Hare has made an extremely impressive start to its trial, with over sixty points profit in the bag at the last update (5th June). That’s here.

Now that was an over-performance to some degree, and this week has seen some fall back from the position, but nevertheless Tortoise and the Hare looks set to have a bright future.

Other notable tipping performances came from Andy Newton, whose bonus Curragh Trends, nailed 14/1 winner Kateeva (22.68 Betfair SP) amongst others.

One reader tweeted that he’d got the placepot up at the Curragh on the back of Andy’s trends. Good stuff!

And of course, Stat of the Day keeps ticking away. It’s been a bit of a chiselling week in truth, with placed selection after placed selection. But they’re pretty much all running well enough, and most are contributing bits and pieces of profit to the pot.

Stat of the Day is here.

Finally, Ian continues to engage and entertain with his sideways look at the latest racing news, so do look out for those pieces.

Tomorrow, we’ll have Mal’s excellent Well I Declare feature, and Wednesday sees the return of The Punting Confessional, which grows more popular by the week. Thursday features the latest trainer stats and trends from Andy Newton, and each Saturday you can get the TV trends from the same author/researcher.

Hopefully, there’s something for everyone. As you know, we don’t email about everything on the site (we couldn’t possibly), so do remember to check back each day, for your daily dose of Geegeez goodness. It’s especially fortifying on a miserable Monday such as this one! 😀

Do look out for the new stuff in a day or two, and in the meantime, have a great start to the week.

Matt