Tom Roper's Weblog

Haydock, Ascot and Lingfield

200 Haydock: Blue Bajan
220 Ascot: South Cape
310 Lingfield: Alessandro Volta
345 Lingfield: Volta

2000 Guineas

today's selections, all at Newmarket.
2.45: Harvest Queen
3.25: ink Khaldun
4.00: Gonki

Sandown, Punchestown and betting slips

Today is what used to be Whitbread Cup day. Some tricky races but I go for the following

Sandown 240: Monet's Garden [will he like the shorter trip...I hope so]
Sandown 320: Lothian Falcon
Sandown 355: Major Cadeaux
Punchestown 455: Silver Jaro

Today's Guardian magazine carries a series of photographs of used betting slips by Stephen Gill, though they aren't on the Guardian website yet.

Doncaster and Newbury: Doncaster Mile

Newbury 225: Matuhi
Newbury 300: Mr Quasimodo
Doncaster 305: Chief Editor
Doncaster 335: Don't Panic

Aintree: Grand National Day

With some snobbery, regular followers of the turf see today much as alcoholics view the Christmas and New Year party season, as a time when their everyday activity is taken over by amateur idiots. To maximise their profits, the bookies employ staff to explain to the once-a-year punters how to fill in the slip, and how to stake an each-way bet.

Famille Roper is not immune. In this afternoon's big race, the Burra Mem takes Maison du Berlais, while the two heirs to my title and estates have gone for Comply or Die and Black Apalachi. I take Bewley's Berry. The full list:

1.45: Oh Crick
215: Tidal Bay
250: Al Eile
325: Mendo
415: Bewley's Berry
500: Theatre Diva
535: Have You Seen Me

grandnational

Aintree Grand National meeting: day two

2.35: The Tother One
3.10: Tamarinbleu
3.45: Natal
4.20: Greenbridge
4.55: Alderson
5.30: Ravello Bay

Aintree Grand National Meeting: first day

Posting after the event, but my selections were:
2.00: Blazing Bailey
2.35: Kauto Star
3.10: First Buddy
3.45: Sonevafushi
4.20: Lennon
4.55: Franchoek
5.30: Peacock

Navan and Newbury

A quiet day, before next week's Aintree meeting.

255 Newbury: Scarvagh Diamond
325 Newbury: Dancing Dasi
340 Navan: The Railway Man
450 Navan: Mutineer

The Flat

I was struck that, of the four selections I made on Saturday, three on the flat and one over jumps, my judgement was only true in the Carlisle race. And how fast the Doncaster races were, over in an instant, as unsatisfying as fast food.

In this morning's Observer, which, by the way, cannot be bothered to print the race cards for the days three meetings at Musselburgh, Plumpton andTowcester, Nic Coward, chief executive of the British Horseracing Authority, is quoted as saying, 'one of our challenges is how to take a traditional fixture list built on centuries of understanding how horses develop...and build something into the existing framework to bring it to life for more people. A lot of it is about narrative. The summer story is not an easy one.'

Ignoring Coward's use of vogueish PR vocabulary such as 'narrative' and 'story', nothing could be easier to understand than the sequence of flat races through the year, the steady increase in distance from the Guineas meetings through to the autumn meetings at Newmarket, the criss-cross as racing moves from Doncaster to Newmarket to Chester to Epsom to Ascot to York to Newmarket, and so on...if the chief executive of the leading body of the sport cannot see the 'story', heaven help us all.

Spring has sprung

Spring must have sprung, for the flat season opens at Doncaster today, after yesterday's rest. The Guardian reports moves to fix the date of Easter and that William Hill shops opened yesterday, in spite of there being no British horseracing to bet on. Opponents of the present system of arriving at the date of Easter, and of stopping racing on Good Friday, are frustrated by the continuing existence of days when they can't fleece the public. Though a militant atheist, if the present system was good enough for the Council of Nicea, it's good enough for me. Jockeys, trainers and lads need a couple of days a year off the relentless, bookie-driven juggernaut. There's no need to attach them to Christian superstition; we could just as well use the even crazier lunar calendars of some other cults.

250 Doncaster: Zaahid
325 Doncaster: Wi Dud
340 Carlisle: Star Player
400 Doncaster: Vitzanau