Angus Mcnae
Captain's Blog, April 15
Music Show won the Nell Gwyn yesterday giving us a nice 6/1 winner. I was pleasantly surprised that she went off at such a big price and have to thank our paddock watching friends for this who must have thought she was badly in need of the run and she was also sweating a little. There is nothing like a little bit of sweat to get you a bigger price these days! She had the best speed figure in the race and as I always say the figures never lie. She will now run in the 1000 Guineas with a solid each way chance. She has won twice at the Rowley mile and that counts for plenty when it comes to the Guineas.
The feature event today at Newmarket is the Craven Stakes and I have had a look at this race as per yesterday in terms of speed figures. Here are my findings:-
Critical Moment 87
Dancing David 87
Dubawi Phantom 86
Edinburgh Knight 92
Elusive Pimpernrel 107
Lucky General 91
Markazzi 89
Mont Agel 83
Morana 84
Clearly Elusive Pimpernel is a standout with his 107 that was achieved in the Acomb Stakes at York last year. He then went on to run a little bit below that level in the Racing Post Trophy. Almost all of the field are open to any amount of improvement, but the same applies to the Pimpernel and he should prove very hard to beat. He is best priced at 11/8 with Stan James and that looks fair enough to me. Lucky General at 14/1 may provide a little bit of each way value if that is the way you want to go, but I am inclined to believe the figures and go with the favourite.
I am in the studio today to help with the coverage from Newmarket and Cheltenham and will be cycling to work. The weather looks set fair and there appears to be no volcanic ash on my route so it makes sense to get some exercise and to save the car for a trip to Nottingham on Saturday. Racing UK are also covering a bumper 8 race card from Kempton for which Alex Steedman and Rishi Persad will be your hosts. Please mail them at studio@racinguk.com and the boys will be happy to deal with all of your missives.
I am still undecided as to whether to watch the Prime ministerial debate tonight where Brown, Cameron and Clegg go head to head. I suspect we will not here anything new or inspiring and to be honest I would rather watch Mary Mungo and Midge than Brown, Cameron and Clegg but I will tune in for the first ten minutes or so to see what it is all about.
Right, it is time for me to get ready to turn the pedals over and make my way to work. Have a volcanic dust free day.
Today’s Selections
3.35 Newmarket – Elusive Pimpernel (11/8 Stan James)
3.00 Newmarket – Mullionmileanhour ( each way 4/1 Paddy Power)
