Showing posts with label Corner. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Corner. Show all posts

Sunday, July 31, 2011

Tattenham Corner

Emma Spencer at Goodwood Emma Spencer, a familiar face on Channel 4's racing coverage, finished second in the ladies' day charity race at Glorious Goodwood. Photograph: Jon Furniss/WireImage

Emma Spencer, the Channel 4 racing presenter, was out of luck in the ladies' charity race at Goodwood on Thursday but it has been a more productive week for her brother, Anthony Ramsden. Like his father, Jack, Anthony is a renowned punter and said to be one of the country's most successful gamblers. But it was as an owner that he shone on Monday when his colours were carried to victory in a Grade Two race at Del Mar in California by the impressive Up In Time, trained by the former Newmarket handler Simon Callaghan.

Frankel's trainer, Sir Henry Cecil, came home to three cheers from the crowd after his colt's Sussex Stakes victory on Wednesday, but one traditional part of Glorious Goodwood appealed less to him. Cecil was sporting a panama hat in the Goodwood colours on Friday and admitted: "I don't think that I look very good in one. I look like an idiot."

Additional musical entertainment after racing proved one of the success stories of the week at Goodwood, with a sizeable proportion of the crowd staying into the evening without any obvious signs of misbehaviour. But when the band located adjacent to the pre-parade ring struck up Let's Go to the Hop in between races on the first day of the meeting, not everybody was impressed. One trainer, whose two-year-old was showing clear signs of becoming distressed by the noise, somewhat curtly informed a guitarist as to what he'd do with the instrument if the music did not swiftly end. It did.

A couple of major owners were entitled to wince at the results at Goodwood on Thursday. A couple of weeks after Sir Robert Ogden sold Casual Glimpse for 83,000 guineas, the three-year-old looked worth every bit of that when winning a competitive handicap for his new owners. Meanwhile, Lost In The Moment looks a smart staying prospect for Godolphin after just being touched off in the Goodwood Cup. The four-year-old was sold for 130,000 guineas last year by the British Horseracing Authority chairman, Paul Roy, and Michael Tabor, having landed a huge gamble when winning his first start in a handicap.

Alan Spence, the Chelsea vice-president and leading racehorse owner, was sporting what looked like a nasty selection of wounds on his forehead at Goodwood. But it was by no means as bad as it looked, as the affable Spence had suffered an unexpected allergic reaction to after-sun cream.

The former Liverpool and German international footballer Dietmar Hamann was roped in to help with Thursday's draw for Saturday's Stewards' Cup, but he ducked out of suggesting which horse would win the big handicap. Hamann, now the manager of Stockport County, is a well-known enthusiast of the sport and used to write a column in the Racing Post, but was reported to have racked up a gambling debt of ?600,000 several years ago. "I couldn't pick the winner of a four-runner race yesterday, so I don't think I can pick the winner of this," said Hamann, who evidently was not a supporter of Frankel.


View the original article here

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Tattenham Corner

Scouting For Girls fans Scouting For Girls fans enjoyed their favourite band but failed to be on a winner at Epsom. Photograph: Chris Ison/PA Wire/PA Photos

Aidan O'Brien's 18-year-old son Joseph enjoyed Classic success earlier this year aboard Roderic O'Connor in the Irish 2,000 Guineas and another family member takes to the saddle for the first time in public on Sunday afternoon. Joseph's sister Sarah is riding Nantucket Bay for her father in the Ladies' Derby at the Curragh.

We suggested last week that ex-trainer Charlie Brooks' racing column in the Daily Telegraph on Monday might attract more readers than usual. Although Brooks made no mention of the ongoing problems suffered by his beleaguered wife Rebekah, some eyebrows were raised at the column's subject matter, with Brooks arguing that the government should remove the Derby and Grand National from the list which ensures they must be shown on terrestial television. One reader commented underneath the online article: "It's a disgrace that the Telegraph prints this. Mr Brooks is the husband of the chief executive of News International, and here he attacks the BBC, urging a change in the law that will benefit no one except News International."

Scouting For Girls failed to deliver a popular result when running at Epsom on Thursday night, when the band which she is named after were performing after racing, but it was no more than they were expecting. The London-based pop-rock group mentioned the Jim Boyle-trained filly when interviewed on Radio One this week. "We haven't seen it yet but it'll probably be like us – come in last but be very friendly" remarked one of the band members. They were almost right. She finished eighth of the 12 runners in the seven-furlong maiden.

Expect an unusually high turnout of hacks at Sunday's free Arab racing day at Newbury. Sheikh Hamdan al Maktoum and the Dubai ruling family continue to offer prizes totalling ?20,000 to journalists writing the best article about the weekend's racing, leading to the production of some remarkable copy over the past couple of years. "His Highness Sheikh Hamdan has been very encouraged by the increased interest in Arabian racing among the media," said a spokesman for the organising committee in a press release.

Jockeys riding in next Saturday's King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot will all wear white armbands in support of the Prostate Cancer Charity. The move, which aims to raise awareness of the most common cancer in men, affecting over 250,000 of the male population and their families across the UK, comes at the request of the big-race sponsors Betfair.

Crisps are hardly the best thing to give to jockeys watching their weight, but following a new sponsorship and catering deal between Burts Potato Chips and Jockey Club Racecourses that is what happened on Saturday after a Newmarket race sponsored by the Devon-based company. A box of the snacks went to each runner's jockey, trainer, owner and groom – plus a year's supply to the groom of the best-turned-out horse.


View the original article here