Equinties - Cheltenham bullish

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Gm Equinauts

The community built through the @Equinties twitter page is unparalleled. Win or lose, up and (hardly) down, it’s a place where anyone can learn about racing, bet on horses and forge new relationships with others.

It’s also provided opportunity for everyone like nowhere else.

Borne from Equinties’ loyal following, BGP Capital - the equine hedge fund was created. Founding members put money in a pot allowing the BGP Capital directors to allocate in the sales market accordingly to find and produce weapons to go to war with for the flat season ahead.

Not only that, the online community via Discord allows members to engage with each other through dedicated channels, help each other control the chimp, follow bets and well… just have fun. Social days organised, COD games joined and even horse riding lessons at BGP HQ are just of the examples of the benefits of such a club. Members forget we even have 4 horses!

It’s a first mover of its kind, nothing else like it available and I’m going to continue to pump it all season so we can grow it with you involved when the club membership opens up again this September for the next round of fund raising.

Now, let’s dive in.

Headline Roundup

Cheltenham hope

Saturday’s Trials Day card at Cheltenham looking likely.

A ‘precautionary inspection’ at midday today is set to be held at Prestbury Park, with conditions race-able.

There was a contingency plan should to be abandoned on Saturday (Cheltenham had been proactive (amazing!) working with the BHA to reschedule the meeting for Sunday instead) but ot looks like they won’t need that.

Fingers crossed we can get some racing this weekend.

(Everyone’s) Turf it out!

Where to start with this. Especially given the current headlines of blaming affordability checks for lack of money in racing.

The Everyone’s Turf Campaign, a Great British Racing campaign involving Jermaine Jenas (ffs), had failed to reverse the declining attendances on racecourses, data has shown.

In what cost £1.6m (£1.35m was provided by the Levy Board), the campaign was intended to attract a younger audience to British racecourses through the months of July, August, and September.

GBR hoped to reach a total of 1.95m visitors in these months, an equivalent level to what 2019 received, however, they fell short at 1.62m.

Rod Street, Chief Executive at GBR, said: "We're acutely aware at this moment in time, £1.6m is a lot of money to spend on marketing and advertising (no shit) but compared to other sports, it's a low sum for national promotion.

“We do acknowledge we missed one of the key objectives in driving admissions but we did sail into the strongest headwinds in relation to the economic crisis, after 2022 had started quite brightly leading up to the spring.”

This, on most accounts, looked to be a bit of a failure for Great British Racing, and one they will hopefully learn from.

More:

Sir GerHARD to place

Last season’s Ballymore Novices Hurdle victor, SIR GERHARD, returned to winning ways at Gowran Park yesterday as he won his two-mile beginners chase, however, he wasn’t flawless.

The eight-year-old hadn’t been seen on a track for 275 days prior to yesterday, but he blew the cobwebs off to beat LARGY DEBUT (who got the second-last all wrong and slowed quickly after) by 38 lengths.

Firstly, how do we rate the performance?

It seems two miles isn’t his distance and LARGY DEBUT wasn’t out of it before his mistake two-out. Add this to a few jumping errors, it certainly wasn’t flawless.

That said, his engine is MASSIVE. He looked in trouble early doors but just didn’t stop. I thought it was quite impressive even if only for the fact he got home so easily after that horrible round of jumping.

What was most interesting about the event was Willie Mullins’ comments post-race, mentioning all the novice chases at the Festival BAR THE ARKLE.

Interestingly, the three-mile Brown Advisory Novice Chase is coming out as Mullins’ number one target ATM, one that would test his stamina to the max.

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Today's best stats

GRANDEUR D’AME has been very hit and Miss since his Fakenham romp but the stat is for Kings record at Huntingdon where is runs a 50% sr in handicap chases.

Pam Sly has a 50% sr in handicap chases at Donny and sends two today for the 13.35 and 15.15. They’re both coming off the back of brilliant wins so you’d expect them to run well again.

LITTLE MISS DANTE (the bumper preview pick of she doesn’t drift) goes for Olly Murphy who runs a 40% sr in Huntingdon bumpers. Woof.

Huntingdon bumper

This is a two horse race between Olly Murphy’s LITTLE MISS DANTE and Twiston Davies’ STRONE BELLE.

STRONG BELLE already has black type on her page having gone close in a Listed bumper lto. Her page is special - she’s out of a dam who is a half sister to the French jumps star LE BERRY. That’s a big woof and more can be expected from STRONG BELLE today.

She isn’t fave for this race though, that comes in the form of LITTLE MISS DANTE who is the full sister to GO DANTE. A proper horse for Olly Murphy who is entered tomorrow (the dog’s sniffing, tail wagging).

The market should decide which one wins but, if LMD shares the ability of her big bro, the rev fc should be coming in today.

Risk on

13.25 ERIGMOOR

Small ew at 10’s in a shocking race full of horses not bred very well. Trainer targets course.

17.45 DONALD LEWELLYN

Moores lot going in on it again. Leverage.