A very quiet by normal standards, but a winning one with Real and Barcelona both winning. Dubawi Cheetah was scratched and did not run.
It was Manchester 2 London 0 in the match-up of the top teams in the Premier League. Man City were lucky to get the 3 points with a last-gap penalty kick taken by Balotelli. The result could so easily have swung in Tottenham's favour had Defoe not missed a gaping open goal minutes before City's game winner. These 3 points could prove decisive in the end, no doubt.
Man Utd played like champions in winning at the Emirates Stadium. They certainly won't give up the title fight until the end and man-handled Arsenal for a deserved win. The after-match talk was all about the controversial substitution of Arsenal's arguably best player on the pitch Alex Chamberlain after their goal. I agree with those that maintain that Wenger got it wrong (again) there. The young phenom was one of the few players able to cause some havoc in the Mancunian defence and should have continued the game if they were serious of getting the badly-needed 3 points out of the game. Just reading Wenger's post-match analysis would make an Arsenal fan want to cry; he felt they could have won the game comfortably in the second-half. I don't know which game he was looking at, but Man Utd should have easily buried a couple of goals on his Gunners; the visitors were by far the most menacing throughout the game.
In La Liga, Real and Barcelona won as expected and it was another no-event at the top. Ramblings of squad conflict at the Bernabeu are surfacing and it will be interesting if these unsettle the Los Blancos. At the present, Madrid are playing as good professionally as they can in La Liga and I cannot see any reason why they are not to be followed.
On Tuesday, back to racing where the 15:50 race at Southwell looks a good place for Moataz to strike again in the space of 3 days. The Mark Johnston stable is on fire and Moataz looks to be ahead of the handicapper in this average handicap. If the Elusive Quality gelding takes well to the fibresand surface, he should play a major role at the finish. I recommend him as an each-way punt.
Each-way: Moataz
Showing posts with label Mark Johnston. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mark Johnston. Show all posts
Monday, January 23, 2012
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Al Zarooni v/s Bin Suroor - a tale of 2 performances
Real Madrid are just running riot against overwhelmed Villareal, and unless the second half shows a change of cataclysmic proportions, this is going to be an easy good recommendation on the Los Blancos.
The general observation over the past years has been that many juveniles that showed great promise in grooming stables such as those of Mark Johnston and Andre Fabre, became flops when they joined the parent Godolphin operation. Many other potentially good 2-year olds that were outright acquired at a high price from other stables also did not do themselves justice once they joined the Dubai stable. Fingers were mainly pointed at trainer bin Suroor (BS) for not only failing to bring on the newcomers properly, but also for wrecking their careers as well.
This year, Sheikh Mo decided to go with 2 trainers and gave his confidence to Al Zarooni (AZ), who was attributed about half the stable and a load of new 2-year olds as well. The results so far are astonishing to say the least. I look at the trainer statistics on the Racing Post today and the numbers don't lie;
Mahmood Al Zarooni 78–389 20% 51 46 46 £1,455,771 £1,839,382 +131.61
Saeed Bin Suroor 48–343 14% 56 40 39 £418,305 £819,341 -112.66
Al Zarooni beats the bin Suroor in every single category. The story so far is that while AZ was winning prestigious Group 1's at Royal Ascot on high-class Rewilding, BS was tasting Group 1 glory in lesser-fancied places like Italy or Germany with old stalwarts like Campanologist! The likes of Blue Bunting and Rewilding that have carried the flag proud for Godolphin this year have all been under the care of AZ.
It is arguable that AZ's dominance can be attributed to the fact he was given the better crop of horses than bin Suroor this year. Only the insiders of the stable would know that for sure. But his better strike rate also demonstrates that he is more likely to get the horses spot-on when he readies them for a race, than his counter-part.
It is worth of note that Godolphin used to command a strong contingent running Stateside under the care of BS. This year, their incursions on that side of the point has been rather tepid relative to previous years. There is no doubt that bin Suroor's influence has diminished on that ground as well.
Whether these are the results of Godolphin politics or Sheihkh Mo's decisions, it will be interesting to see how all this folds out. The main interest for a punter is that when you look at a racing card, check the trainer first. In these current times, the odds are that an AZ-trained horse will give a better performance than a BS-trained one.
The general observation over the past years has been that many juveniles that showed great promise in grooming stables such as those of Mark Johnston and Andre Fabre, became flops when they joined the parent Godolphin operation. Many other potentially good 2-year olds that were outright acquired at a high price from other stables also did not do themselves justice once they joined the Dubai stable. Fingers were mainly pointed at trainer bin Suroor (BS) for not only failing to bring on the newcomers properly, but also for wrecking their careers as well.
This year, Sheikh Mo decided to go with 2 trainers and gave his confidence to Al Zarooni (AZ), who was attributed about half the stable and a load of new 2-year olds as well. The results so far are astonishing to say the least. I look at the trainer statistics on the Racing Post today and the numbers don't lie;
Mahmood Al Zarooni 78–389 20% 51 46 46 £1,455,771 £1,839,382 +131.61
Saeed Bin Suroor 48–343 14% 56 40 39 £418,305 £819,341 -112.66
Al Zarooni beats the bin Suroor in every single category. The story so far is that while AZ was winning prestigious Group 1's at Royal Ascot on high-class Rewilding, BS was tasting Group 1 glory in lesser-fancied places like Italy or Germany with old stalwarts like Campanologist! The likes of Blue Bunting and Rewilding that have carried the flag proud for Godolphin this year have all been under the care of AZ.
It is arguable that AZ's dominance can be attributed to the fact he was given the better crop of horses than bin Suroor this year. Only the insiders of the stable would know that for sure. But his better strike rate also demonstrates that he is more likely to get the horses spot-on when he readies them for a race, than his counter-part.
It is worth of note that Godolphin used to command a strong contingent running Stateside under the care of BS. This year, their incursions on that side of the point has been rather tepid relative to previous years. There is no doubt that bin Suroor's influence has diminished on that ground as well.
Whether these are the results of Godolphin politics or Sheihkh Mo's decisions, it will be interesting to see how all this folds out. The main interest for a punter is that when you look at a racing card, check the trainer first. In these current times, the odds are that an AZ-trained horse will give a better performance than a BS-trained one.
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Pontefract Thursday
Genius Step won cosily for a nice race and the Godolphin colt looks a nice sort. It will be interesting to see how he fares when step up in trip. On the other hand, Real Madrid provided more disappointment and failed to win at Santander. I would have been better inspired to have gone draw-no-bet on that one since they cannot even score against mediocre opponents. What is there to say about Madrid after these 2 lacklustre matches? Could Mourinho be losing it? We'll see.
There is a cracking card at Newmarket today but the value punt to me seems at Pontefract. In the 16.50 race, Really Lovely looks the pick of the fillies. This daughter of Galileo was a staying-on third on her last race and the mile distance will suit. Probably her main opponents will be nicely-bred debutantes Jarrah from Godolphin and El Lail from Mark Johnston's stable. I cannot see Really Lovely out of the placings, so I recommend her as a Place.
Place: Really Lovely
There is a cracking card at Newmarket today but the value punt to me seems at Pontefract. In the 16.50 race, Really Lovely looks the pick of the fillies. This daughter of Galileo was a staying-on third on her last race and the mile distance will suit. Probably her main opponents will be nicely-bred debutantes Jarrah from Godolphin and El Lail from Mark Johnston's stable. I cannot see Really Lovely out of the placings, so I recommend her as a Place.
Place: Really Lovely
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