SMALL FIELDS BLIGHTING ALL-WEATHER CARDS: DAQMAN looks at the recent innovations in all-weather racing but also the current issue of small fields, especially at Wolverhampton.
EXETER NAP: On a hard day to spot winners – his nap runs early at Exeter in the seller.
Quality or quantity ?
Actually the answer is a bit of both.
QUALITY
We are seeing the quality on the all-weather at the moment with the excellent innovation of a Championship series with megabucks to be won on finals day on Good Friday, and also, most recently, the Silver Cups Day at Kempton on Saturday, sponsored by BETDAQ, for horses eliminated from handicap races at The Cheltenham Festival.
Both are great steps forward for the sport, as indeed has been the introduction of sectional timing.
All three initiatives should be applauded – punters (and bookmakers for that matter) like good, competitive racing and the all-weather now has a sense of direction – I try hard to avoid the dreaded word ‘narrative’ but can’t think of anything better.
QUANTITY
We have plenty of all-weather meetings, but all is not well at Wolverhampton, in particular, with the racing surface coming under heavy critisim and trainers and owners giving it a wide berth.
The closing two races on Saturday’s card – both handicaps – attracted just three runners in both of them, which is hardly conducive to betting turnover, which let’s face it is their primary purpose being staged at 8.40 and 9.10 on a Saturday evening.
We need Wolverhampton to be working again – and it looks as though a total overhaul of the surface is needed.
It’s not even Polytrack anymore – and that’s from the guys that originally installed it – the Martin Collins Group.
They are distancing themeselves from the surface as they claim their have been so many subsequent modifications.
Malcolm Wallace, chairman said: “Wolverhampton isn’t Polytrack any more, when we installed it back in 2004, it was a Polytrack and if that had gone wrong we would have put our hands up.”
“But since then a significant amount of additional material, which is not Polytrack at all, has been provided by alternative suppliers and the composition of the surface has changed significantly since it was installed.
James Given is one of several trainers to have noticed a change. He said: “It doesn’t ride like Polytrack and the kickback is not like Polytrack.”
All this makes me disappointed that Great Leighs are still not racing. For all the problems at the track with finances, stands etc one thing that was universally praised was the running surface. What was it? Oh yes, I remember now…… it’s called Polytrack.
TODAY’S RACING
We’re not exactly spoilt for runners at Southwell either today.
In the Ladbrokes Mobile Median Auction Maiden Stakes at 2.50 none of the runners have any course form, an important factor on the Fibresand and two of the runners already look thoroughly exposed – Flying Author and Soul Of Motion.
The answer may be Moonlit Sky who shaped with some promise on debut at Lingfield when 6th of 8 to the odds on Zamra
The opening seller at Exeter wouldn’t be my normal calling point but on what looks a very average days racing Scribe might well be the best bet. He was beaten a long way into second behind Lamps at Stratford last time out but unlike the majority of the field here is at least capable of further improvement.
Just the two bets then today – as well as a BETDAQ MULTIPLES double on the pair.
DAQMAN’S BETS:
BET 10pts win (nap) SCRIBE (2.00 Exeter)
BET 8pts win MOONLIT SKY (2.50 Southwell)
BET 3pts WIN DOUBLE the pair on BETDAQ MULTIPLES
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