2 more hunt winner on the final day, 5 for the week. Nothing on the flat, second week in a row they have drawn a blank.

What a week!!

Ater my first G1 flat win, The Orange Goddess managed to win the G1 6f TJ Smith Stakes, unbelievable as she is my first real sprinter generation!!
What a thrilling finish and Jim's Bulldog Star Boy would have well earned it too!

Atlantic Vienna won the Ladbrokes Marathon Leg 2, a low Hcp but 3rd flat win of this week.
Finally Floridiami won the Starters Orders 6 Chase Qualifier Leg 5 with massive 5 1/2 lenghts, 2nd NH win of this week, makes it 5 wins this week.

Congrats to all other winners and placers, see u next week!

Moliets Surfer (Holger)

Might just do a tipping show at the beginning of the days races each day......

Stu (Grim Reaper) Grey or Stu (Uncle Albert) Grey might do a Poll, at least I have got rid of my moaning tag given to me by Gray last year

Good week on the flat with 2 winners Sunset Ride bagging her third league win and Tusk getting his first. 9 others in the money with Purple Records being an extremely unlucky 2nd. Pleasantly surprised with the flat team having garnered 9 wins now. Considering I am 465 years down the evolutionary scale compared to some that's a satisfying strike rate.

Not so good on the show jumping side with no winners but 8 finished in the money so there is still hope we can improve on the 6 wins so far this season. Also the newbies did well especially Friendly King who got an unexpected run out in the Welsh National due to Ettrick Mill being not allowed to run but stuck on well for 4th. He is my main GN hope and hopefully his front running style will find a few out in that one.

And so to Ettrick Mill !!

Not sure whether to be amused, annoyed or just plain disappointed with some of the comments aimed my way in the live stream last night. But at least it gave Hans a break for a few minutes. Do you think I am an idiot ... or more to the point do you think I think Gray is one. If you look in the handicap thread you will notice I posted a comment to Sirius last week stating that runs over obviously wrong trips should be disregarded for handicap purposes. Why after doing that would you think I would try it myself. The truth of the matter is I had no race for EM again as he was either barred by distance or rating from everything except G races. That race was the only one I didn't have something else in and at the time there were only 5 decs. So why not try and pick up some easy money rather than just not run. I will be doing the same this week as well if there is no other race for him. His main aim is the G1 at Cheltenham so there is no point me trying to get his mark down as it will only go up again when he wins that the week before the GN. I have 2 others for that race anyway and we already know bottom weight in the national will equate to a 125 handicap mark so there is little point manipulating or protecting a rating.

As I pointed put last week I won't be making any more suggestions or offering opinions about changes anymore as some people take it all too personally and it gets silly but I see it was suggested last night that G races are treated the same as handicaps for distance purposes. Makes a lot of sense but bear in mind a few things. No Guineas winner will ever be able to have a crack at the Derby. The Queen Mother and Champion Hurdle winners probably won't be able to run in the big Liverpool G1s and the Ascot Gold Cup will be full 0f 0-75 handicappers as nothing else except last years winner will qualify on distance !

martin there was nothing malicious aimed at you last night i myself was trying to lighten the mood as the previous weeks problems were not whats needed in the league.
You bring an awful lot to the table mate as you have since you started but there are somethings you need to know about this game a guineas winner will never win the Derby a 1m2f horse might to problem is trainers will always maximise their winning potential so a very good miler will not beat a very good 1m4f horse.

We really need you to start the preview shows again as its not the same without you Doug as well and even uncle albert (i suppose) ill even do that dreaded interview cards on the table lets get this going again

Martin I for one could not respect you more than I do I think you guys have been a breath
of fresh air to the league im saddened you are no longer going to make suggestions I think
that will certainly be our loss.

Im disappointed by some of the reaction last week it felt like going back in time 3 years people
not running there horses too i found that to be tragic and to be honest i cant for one second
get my head around taking that sort of stance it only damages you.

Anyway Martin just wanted you to know you are greatly appreciated here.

Steve you forgot Stu again your ban is extended to 2 years now

no stu is uncle albert every tip hes ever made has sunk without trace

Another nice day with one winner on the flat in a h'cap race.

Two winners over fences, a G1 winner and a G2 winner.


This has been an outstanding week for the team with 3 winners on the flat and 7 winners over fences, ( 3 x G1 winners and 4 x G2 winners).


I am really pleased with some of my week 5 uploads.

Jim

Chump change and a 3rd for me.

Good to see Hans horse win that Aussie G1 - almost any other track and he may have missed all the money.
Most of his horses are from the Australian game now and since last season I have a belief that Aussie trained horses perform much better on home tracks than English in the League.
My horses aren't of any class but I have notice them 'stick on' and run respectable races (from my point of view) on the Australian tracks and theoretically like in real life a mile at any English track poses a little more endurance than a mile at Flemington.

Anyway - Martin may not be up to making suggestions but it's water off a duck's back to me so I still will be - I already have an idea for flat tweaks for next season to chat to Gray about.

Cheerio

What makes you think his horses are from the Australian game?

If you go to the race replays there is an Australian flag next to his horses name at the very start of the race.
Most of his horses on the flat at least, he is exporting from an Australian game.
My horses have an Aussie flag and Sirius horses have an American flag.

I think all UK horses don't have a flag - it's blank. Irish horses in the jumps league have an Irish flag, I believe.

Will have a look when I run the races as it shows all in the race kit.

There is certainly something in horses preferring certain tracks be it corners conditions or whatever, this is apparent in trials less convinced this extends to country of origin, but you never know.

From my own experience from single player and league - there is.

Very happy with my second win in the hunt.
Mr Sandtail ran on well last start that caught my eye - and thankfully that form carried on and the right sort of race presented itself. I was very stoked grasping the lead and the win in the shadows of the post!
Then on the flat in the Goodwood Stakes one of my stayers Jwala Downe found the right conditions and race to suite and out stayed the rest - I knew he had a win in him and it finally happened.
Greylami Via my key sprinter finished a quarter length second and was only beaten by the wide gate - if it pinged near the rail it may have held on.

All in all it has been a disappointing season so far - my stable are the best horses that I have ever entered - even the cast offs for the Hunt. But my Flat team are finding it hard to win.

Looking forward to the next two days!

Well done on your 2 wins.


In the flat game, there is a lot of emphasis put on green bars. I reckon I have the best green bars that I can have. Apart from some of Pauls horses, my green bars are right up there near the top.

When I first bred horses with these good bars, they ran OK but not G1 class. I reckon I have bred about 10 - 15 generations of these types of horses, breeding only the best horses of each generation with each other and have seen small but steady improvements in the performance of these horses. On average it takes me about 4 seasons of breeding each generation of horses to breed enough good horses in that generation, so probably about 50 seasons in total.

I am lucky, since I retired, I can spend about 5 hours a day breeding, so I get through the generations of horses quite quickly. I only breed for the league now as the normal game has become a little stale as my horses win 95% of the Group races. The other factor that helps me breed generations of horses quickly is, in both my flat and jumps games, the season only lasts 5 months and not the 11 months of a standard season.

Just keep at it and the wins will come.

In conclusion, I think once you get horses with good bars, just keep breeding the best with the best and you will produce horses that can compete at the very top.