Day 3 at York - "Gimcrack"

This is the 328th edition of the Wayward Lad blog.

Yesterday’s blog generated a lot of interest and a fair few supportive comments – thanks to those who responded via this blog and twitter. It’s always good to get feedback especially from other horseracing bloggers and aficionados.

It’s a late blog today as there is only one race that captured my interest (the 3:05 at York) and my selection for that race has been posted on Betting League. You have to sign up to view my selections now and it costs you a few quid a month but I think its worth it. I won’t flood your email box with half-a-dozen selections a day, chipping away at your hard-earned betting bank. If I have a selection, then I will have seriously considered not only its chance but also the odds available and whether it is worthwhile. Sometimes, I over cautious and if you refer to my blog page on Wednesday you will see that I talked myself out of a winning wager on TWICE OVER for the flimsiest of reasons – despite nominating him as by far the best value in the race.

I also left posting this blog late to leave the previous post on the page-front as I’m not sure how many visitors scroll-down and read blogs they’ve missed – and it did generate a fair amount of interest.

When I was younger (that is, under 11yo) the “Gimcrack” used to really capture my imagination – in fact, it was one of the highlights of the flat racing season for me. Old hands will no doubt recall owner David M. Robinson won it several times in the late 1960’s with horses trained by Paul Davey. I think I am right in saying that it is a picture by Stubbs of the horse Gimcrack that sold recently at one of the highest prices paid for a painting at auction - £22.40 million on 5th July this year. It was purchased by the seller for just £12,600 in 1951. It’s come a long way down the pecking order since Mill Reef won the race in 1970 – and then went on to win the Derby and “Arc” as a 3yo before starring on the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year show.

I cannot see anything from this year’s race repeating those feats, and so for glorious deeds we need to look to the Nunthorpe at 3:40. This race is a cracker with a heritage to match, and this year’s event fits the bill exactly. This is a race that I will watch, as I’m never quite sure with sprinters. However, HOOF IT looks a seriously good candidate following his Stewards Cup win. It would have been interesting if the 2yo Best Terms had run in this rather than the Lowther Stakes (Group 2) which she won convincingly yesterday.

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Thanks from Wayward Lad.