WEEKLY FROLIC
Although not a wild success financially, last week's three selections all turned in encouraging performances and fast-finish- ing Carbury's Pride seems well worth following next time. Both he and I were unfortunate in the decision to race Spanish Steps in Saturday's Ginger Wine 'Chase— a punter's gift at the absurdly generous odds of 17 to 2. Unluckily *only one run- ner-up showed a profit (fields being far smaller than anticipated) and with a loss of £5 19s my stake money stands at £95 Is.
This Saturday sees Newbury stage its much-publicised and long-awaited Schwep- pes Gold Trophy. Despite the non-partici- pation of Coral Diver, Bula and Major Rose, we are still left with a highly- polished field of hurdling stars headed by Persian War who is apparently in urgent need of competitive racing before going to Cheltenham. A very open race with a host of possibilities, yet, surprisingly, popular opinion appears to consider only two horses, the lightweights, Midnight Fury and Camaguey. The latter owes his reputa- tion to a fluent Doncaster win in January and the former (although far from dis- graced in the Ladbroke Hurdle) to trainer, Ryan Price's 'Schweppes mystique'. Both have admittedly been prepared specifically for this contest but seem overrated so fol- lowing my belief that Bula is the outstand- ing hurdler of the current season, I prefer two horses who have suffered very narrow defeats by Fred Winter's star—Dondieu and Moyne Royal. The former was dis- qualified next time out after defeating Pen- dil and Persian War at Cheltenham and the latter has not been seen since being caught on the line in the B & H Hurdle at San- down. They have been closely• handicapped and it's a hard choice but I slightly favour Moyne Royal, if only because as one of my first tips I should hate to miss recouping my loss this time. Later the same after- noon I recommend an interest in the Queen Mother's brilliant young chaser, Inch Arran to make it five in a row in the Newbury Spring Handicap 'Chase—with Royal Relief and Get Stepping in opposi- tion he is taking a step up in class but is well treated with 10 stone 6 lb. Outlay: £3 ew Moyne Royal and Inch Arran.
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