There have been many column inches here and elsewhere dedicated to the enigma that is Jim Bolger. It appears he has developed a tendency to overface and overace his charges and there may well be grounds to believe that in Wednesday’s Falmouth Stakes at Newmarket, Finsceal Beo will again have too much on her plate.

It seems well beyond the realms of recovery, that this filly, a double Classic scorer last season, could have possibly recovered from her exertions on the Pretty Polly at the Curragh a mere ten days before this race. Finsceal Beo was discovered to be clinically abnormal post race and I cannot possibly believe that this horse will be capable of running to the top of her game.

Also in the line up will be Finsceal Beo’s nemesis the wonderfully consistent Darjina, she has the look of the winner for me. She has five pounds in hand on the Irish trained runner on official figures and she is the one to look to. Finsceal Beo was well fancied and well backed at Royal Ascot but she peaked that day.

Lay her on Wednesday.

Don

The possibility of a 100% performance was distinctly on the cards until the winning performance of Napoletano washed that possibility away. The “clean slate” day remains elusive and while we continue to strive for that level of performance, the shorter the price of selections, the more likely they are to win (as it stands to reason) and therefore unbalance our books as it were.

Napoletano, trained in my neck of the woods by Epsom handler, Simon Dow looked a very unlikely winner, two furlongs from home. But a determined drive and a resolute horse managed to see him win by half a length and at the line, he was actually value for more than the official margin of just half a length. The 2/1 favourite, Prince Valentine ran with a dissimilar resoluteness and idled badly after hitting the front to my eye.

Napoletano is consistent in this grade, but really didn’t seem to be as well weighted as the favourite on previous form. As joint top weight off 10 stone and a rating of 65 he was 3 pounds higher than when runner up run last time out. I think we fundamentally didn’t misjudge the winner’s claims in the race. I think we misjudged the quality of the opposition by comparison.

Anyway if we were to put up a performance like that every day we would be wealthier men.

Best of luck today,

Don