A miserable evening in every respect last night, wind and
rain and bad results, but it was a good education on what heavy rain does to
Tapeta as we witnessed times being returned similar to those recorded pre
re-surfacing with the exception of one result which I will come to shortly. It wasn't
until the last race that we saw a return with Diamonds A Dancing, available at
between 5-1 and 9-2 on its opening show winning at an SP of 5-2 culminating in
the loss of a point at worst.
A rather strange assortment of jockeys turned out for the
evening with only a handful of the usual names present and Kieran Shoemark who appears
to becoming an All Weather specialist took the opener from draw 1!, Mark
Monaghan took the second from draw 3 on Philip McBrides Handicap Debutant Bush
Beauty @ 10-1. Our first selection Anonymous John (7-1) could only muster 2nd to Clergyman (draw 6) after looking fleetingly like reeling the winner in.
After three races, it has become apparent that the course was riding markedly slower than the evening before. The rain and win persisted and
more slow times are recorded by Stinky Socks – Cam Hardie (who had already
ridden a double at Haydock) drawn 8, I’m Not Here – Gary Mahon (drawn 11), Wink
Oliver – Graham Gibbons (drawn 4) before the performance of the evening.
Considering we have seen 2 x Class 6 3yo+ Handicaps, a Class
5 2yo Maiden, a Class 4 2yo Nursery, a Class 6 3yo+ Stakes race and the first
of 2 Class 6 2yo Nurseries makes the time performance of 2yo and 16-1 shot: Three Gracez (drawn
6) exceptional on the evening. Already top rated on my figures with an unexceptional 98.8 pre-race,
the manner of this victory would suggest there is plenty more to come and is a horse to follow on this surface after recording the best time of the evening.
The weather forecast is a little more promising for this
evening and hopefully the wind will dry the track out, allowing for our
selections to put their best foot forward on a faster surface this evening.
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