Juliette's weekly frolic
The nobility of northern England will be prowling over the moors this week, beating out the grouse and ensuring all those sumptuous restaurants and hotels within a fifty-mile radius of York racecourse are equipped to meet the needs of the gourmet gambler. With prize money up to £132,100 the big Knavesmire meeting yearly grows more splendid, spurred on by a' fierce Yorkshire pride that doesn't take kindly to comparisons with those southern fashion shows, Royal Ascot and Goodwood. In any case, thanks to Benson and Hedges, York now has a semi-classic worth twice as much as any race that either of those fixtures can offer.
However, despite the new attraction, this is still very much the ' Ebor Meeting " and it is this handicap that will be taxing the minds of the punters, if not the eye of the purists. The field invariably attracts a sprinkling of 'class ' but with Crucible, Sol'Argent and Bonne Noel paying the penalty for success with their nine-stone-plus burdens, I can't see the older horses in this category as anything other than gallant runners-up. As for the three-year-old up-market representatives — Netherkelly (8.4) and Peleid (8.2) — these are just as summarily dismissed by those who remember that no horse their age has won with over eight stone since Foxglove in 1938 — and he had only 1lb more, Nevertheless, with bottom weight this year at 7.12 the pair are not as far off the minimum as might appear, and Peleid must have a great chance provided he stays the distance. For my champion, though, I must have Arisaig. Even with 8.12 he is well in with all those he's run up against this season and proved he had fully recovered from a protracted illness when slamming Sol' Argent at Goodwood.
Crawford and Gilbeys' generous financial boost sees the 'Gimcrack ' with a record number of entries, but if you believe all you hear only Giacometti, Dragonara Palace and, possibly, lingo need bother to turn up. Sounds suspiciously easy but there are too many dark horses lurking in the shadows to transform this into a three-cornered affair and for tip No 2, I have more faith in Tom Noddy, a horse twice their age. After running Jimsun to a neck in June he gained easy compensation at Haydock and bids for his second course and distance win in Wednesday's Falmouth Stakes.
The press frequently reprimand trainers of fast two-year-olds for failing to take advantage of the favourable weight-for-age scale in the Vernons Sprint. That's in November, the concession's even bigger..in August and with 25Ib from the three-year-old colts and 30Ib from the older ones, Arthur Budgett's Daring Boy could easily be the first juvenile winner of Thursday's Nun thorpe ' for seventeen years.
, If by some unlucky chance the above fail to cover the cost of grouse and other pleasures, you need only suffer till Saturday when there appears to be little to stop Jacinth from skating. up the Goodwood Mile.
Assets: £84.26. Outlay: ,C2 ew Arisaig, £2 to win Tom Noddy, Daring Boy and Jacinth.
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