Equinties - gambling runs racing

Gm Equinauts

Today is the last chance for people to join BGP Capital, doors close at 21.00 tonight. If by that time people aren’t in, they’ll have to just watch us from the sidelines and wait for next year.

We hit the buy in ‘sweet spot’ last week, now it’s just a case of closing the doors, collecting the cash, producing a cashflow forecast and going to market.

Raising this amount of money has produced mixed emotions. I’m overwhelmed and massively grateful for the hundreds of people who have put their trust in us. It’s also just proper confirmation that people know we’re the dogs bollocks at what we do. People have seen our results; from the shittiest class 6 races to Listed bumpers at Newbury we’ve landed big gambles. We’ve produced horses for the biggest yards for the biggest races. We’ve 10x sometimes 20x client money from clever pinhooks. It’s a business model shaped by years and years of experience and expertise, and now we’re giving our followers a chance to buy some skin in the game and be a part of the journey.

I can’t fucking wait. Now, let’s dive in

Headline Roundup

The good and the bad for Champions Day

Godolphin confirmed yesterday that last year’s Derby hero ADAYAR will miss this Sunday’s Prix l’Arc de Triomphe and will instead head to the Gr1 Champions Stakes at Ascot to take on BAAEED. Fucking bullish.

The four-year-old by FRANKEL was a general 7/1 shot for the 1m4f contest in France after Monday’s first forfeit stage but connections have opted to take on BAAEED in the feature event on British Champions Day in 15 days’ time.

This was the first news story of the day to cause ripples across ‘Racing Twitter’ (don’t worry, we will get onto the others) – William Buick will probably now not ride in l’Arc given he’s set to sit on the Gosden’s MISHRIFF who’ll likely be a non-runner if the forecasted rain appears.

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However, Champions Day was dealt with a blow in the Gr1 Fillies & Mares Stakes as ante-post favourite FREE WIND was ruled out of the race by the Gosden’s yesterday.

According to the training pair, the daughter of GALILEO sustained an injury during her Lancashire Oaks victory in July so she won’t be given her chance to achieve Group 1 black-type before her career at stud unless they wait and go abroad at the end of the year.

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Racing Twitter explodes

France Galop released a statement yesterday which revealed that this year’s highlight flat race would not be extending its maximum field size from 20 to incorporate the increased interest they had received.

This news was released at around 14:00 yesterday, hours after many on Twitter were led to believe that l’Arc would be increasing their numbers for the race, something they did a couple of decades ago.

The reason for their decision revolves around something called Quinte, a specific bet type in France, something Rory Flanagan summed up well.

This made people across Twitter quite angry and rightly so imo. Why? Well, its not all to do with the mare VERRY ELLEEGANT not getting in. It’s to do with the fact that the race conditions have been dictated by gambling.

It is also sad that VERRY ELLEEGANT cant run either (unless there is a few more NR’s). The seven-year-old Melbourne Cup-winning mare, trained by Francis-Henri Graffard, is number 22 on the French rating list for the race, meaning she is set to be balloted out of the event by two places.

She’s rated a full 11 pounds below her official BHA mark by the French handicapper – this coupled with France Galop’s refusal to bend the rules forced trainer Graffard to post his frustrations on Twitter.

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Is all this fuss justified? From cynical (and probably correct) standpoint, VERRY ELLEEGANT has only run to an RPR of 116 (roughly enough to get her in the race) once in her last six races, with her last two performances achieving RPRs of 100 and 112 – does she then deserve to get in ahead of other horses who have proven that they are good enough to at least get into the line-up? No, not at all… but from a fair and sporting point of view, this doesn’t sit well with me. l’Arc COULD have had more runners (and they’d certainly have had more viewers if VERRY ELLEEGANT ran too).

Whether you like it or not, gambling runs horse racing and tweets from the industry big names such as the below, might be right, but are becoming increasingly ‘idealistic’, sadly. I say sadly, I actually couldn’t give a flying f… I just want to make money.

Headturner causes heads to turn

This story is an amusing one for various reasons. Firstly, John Egan has upset someone. He’s so fucking old it’s a bit like when your 80yo grandma says something racist… yeh it’s not right but she’s 80 and no longer gives af – you kind of have to just ignore it.

Secondly, the person who got offended was none other than Headturner.

Hayley Turner, three-time Gr1-winning jockey, nicknamed the Headturner, came out to encourage more jockeys to speak up against unacceptable behaviour in the weighing room following John Egan’s 10-day ban for improper conduct at Chester on Saturday.

“I’ve been in the weighing room for 20 years and I’ve seen it all, but for me, the way things are now it’s not acceptable to do that,” is what the 39-year-old told the Racing Post recently, comments that vastly differ to her stance from October 2021 in the heat of the Bryony Frost vs Robbie Dunne case.

Because of this, and her lack of public support for Frost at the time, Racing Twitter turned on her in a big way.

More sales news

And finally, the Goffs Orby sale took place yesterday, a day which saw big prices be shelled out for big pedigrees.

The top lot of the day was a NO NAY NEVER full-sister to Aidan O’Brien’s BLACKBEARD, a recent winner of the Gr1 Middle Park Stakes.

€2.6 million was the final bid made by bloodstock agent Richard Knight – according to the Blogger (everyone’s first point of call for racing news) she will be trained in the UK, with the trainer yet to be confirmed.

Elsewhere, Newton Anner Stud (same owners of Jessica Harrington’s FORBEARANCE) secured a Galileo filly out of SIGNORA CABELLO, the 2018 Gr2 Queen Mary successor, for €750k and Michael Donohoe forked out €525k for a NIGHT OF THUNDER half-sister to the Matron Stakes winner NO SPEAK ALEXANDER.

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Risk on

14.26 COPPERFASTEN

Half sis to COPPER GONE WEST rated 135 and trained by same yard. They forked out a lot for this girl after winning a good point. If she’s anywhere near her sister’s ability, she could win this by half the track. Annoying I didn’t spot this girl at 20’s she’s been backed so I'm taking a full bet ew at 5’s.

15.36 BLAKENEY POINT

Won on the bride lto and should be handicapped to double up at a track the yard love to harvest yield at. Half bet win at 2’s.

17.16 CATUABA

This bumper should really be a two-horse race between Longsdon and JJ’s. I prefer the Longsdon horse on blood vs JJ’s who looked mad on rules debut and gave up his chance to win (I’ll tweet about it later). I took half at 11/4 last night and toped up to a full bet at 9/4. 2/1 available.