Juliette's weekly frolic
"We Irish have all the time in the world, it's the Americans who insist on early starts." Dan Moore, trainer of Inkslinger and L'Escargot breaking me in gently to the idea of a 6.30 alarm call if I wished to see his Yankee-owned charges enjoying their pre-breakfast spin on Cheltenham racecourse. It was an invitation well worth crawling out of bed for and one which anyone less fated would have turned to considerable financial advantage. Of the half-dozen galloping Irishmen on view, Captain Christy was to take the Gold Cup, Castleruddery the 'Kim Muir,' L'Escargot found only Soothsayer too fast in the 'Cathcart' and even young Gleaming Silver collected £598 for his fourth in the 'Triumph.'
In fact, apart from Gold Cup faller Inkslinger, the only dud in the party was The Spectator selection, Golden Lancer. Clearly the poor fellow was put off by my attentions at that early hour but it seemed a good omen at the time and I backed him accordingly. My followers cannot by any stretch of the imagination have had a good Cheltenham, but those among the 32,000 crowd would have been far too occupied trying to recall the words of 'When Irish Eyes are Smiling' and gulping down the 'lunatic soup' — an Irish term for whisky — to be bothered by a little thing like a losing bet.
How any sane persons can be expected to apply their minds to next Saturday's Irish Sweeps Lincoln while still enveloped in postCheltenham euphoria is beyond me. A moderate bunch of horses with too much weight and too little form, they all leave me cold with the exception of Major Role who, not surprisingly, is a warm favourite. Before I'm had up by the discrimination against flat racing board I suppose I could manage a good word for Pontam who had his moments last year, most notably when defeating Caius under a big weight at Thirsk, and when just failing to defeat Camouflage in the Hunt Cup. I'm fully aware he carried 121b less in the 1973 Lincoln and finished nearer last than first, but he'd been hurdling which may have had some bearing on this failure.
My duty over, its back to the jumpers whom I hope to be watching at Newbury the same afternoon. The second running of the 'Greenham Group' Hurdle offers the intriguing prospect of the 'Triumph' runners rejoining battle on handicap terms. Attivo, obviously will not be there, but is set to concede a stone to his Cheltenham second, Banlieu, who also gets a handy 101b from the third Supreme Halo. This one looks to have it made, but a worthy substitute would be stablemate Rely, who chased home the Irish hotpot Brown Lad in Tuesday's Sun Alliance Hurdle.
The Punters' Club horse Even Up fell in the same sponsor's three-mile novice chase and could well be sent on a retrieving mission in the 2.0. It'll be his debut in handicap company, but since the horse won unchallenged over course and distance at the last Newbury meeting, 10.10 shouldn't prove unduly daunting.
Assets: £38.45. Outlay: £2 ew Pontam (28-1 Ladbrokes), £3 to win Even Up, and David Morley's sel, 2.30 Newbury, Saturday.
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