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Mildred Pierce is indeed excellent and surprisingly dark for it’s time (1945). It’s aired fairly frequently on TCM (Sky 319/320)
Quote: from EC on 7:55 pm on Sep. 3, 2006[br]I <br>what is happening with smartsig?.<br>
No idea what plans there are for the seemingly dead website, believe the idea initially was to run it as a subs-only replacement for the defunct mag.
Apparently there exists a ‘breakaway’ private e-mail discussion group called Smartersig.
Monet’s Garden for me. Looks a terrific chaser in the making, particularly his adept fencing and looking forward to seeing him over 3m.
Colonel Frank too.
Quote: from apracing on 5:15 pm on Sep. 3, 2006[br]<br>I reckon one key reason why the Leger is no longer popular is that it’s a Group 1 race. That sounds daft, but winning it means that the horse has to carry a penalty in almost all the races that you would logically target as a 4-y-old – particularly the Yorkshire and Goodwood Cups, because they are group 2 contests.
I’ve long thought that the five Cup races, being so distinctive and having a long history on a par with the the five Classics, should all be elevated to Group 1 and all of them restricted to 4yo+.
The Yorkshire Cup as an early season G1 for 4yo+ over the Leger distance akin to the Coronation Cup over 12f and culminating in a G1 Jockey Club Cup so further enhancing what is supposed to be ‘Champions’ day at Newmarket.
The St Leger, like it’s French and Irish counterparts, to be opened up to older horses and it form along with the Geoffrey Freer, Lonsdale Cup and Park Hill a series of Group 2 3yo+ staying events ‘subordinate’ to the Group 1 Cup races.
Of course in an ideal world the St Leger would be the pre-eminent race for 3yo and the race all owners/breeders would want to win. Stamina and robustness are virtues; speed and fragility vices.
It’s nice here in cloud-cuckoo land.
Find it hard to believe there’s been a tailwind on the straight today. It’s been blowing around SW all afternoon and with the straight lying approx ESE TO WNW the wind if anything will have been side on to half-head.
Currently SW 30mph in the area
(Edited by Drone at 4:25 pm on Sep. 2, 2006)
Quote: from Grasshopper on 2:50 pm on Sep. 1, 2006[br]The idea seems to be that watering, followed by rain, could leave the place in a quagmire, which may result in a ‘PR disaster’ for National Hunt racing.
Given the drainage at Cheltenham now I’d be surprised if it ever got heavy regardless of how much water they put on prior to the festival even if it tipped it down for all four days (an unlikely scenario).
Over the last eleven years the word ‘soft’ has appeared on one sole day at the Festival, in ’02.
And in the same period at all Chel meetings ‘heavy’ has appeared just three times, all at the January meets.
It would be much more of a pr disaster if the festival was run on firmish ground again.
Quote: from davidjohnson on 8:58 am on Aug. 30, 2006[br]
Quote:
As the horse population gets bigger, I’d bet the text size can only get smaller!!<br>
Certainly need a magnifying glass to read that other great sporting annual – Wisden – these days. They toyed with the idea of splitting it into two volumes and/or changing the dimensions of the book but such a sacrilege was met with howls of derision from we stick-in-the-mud cricket buffs.
For two years in the ’90s the Timeform annuals became a two volume boxed set without the colourful dust jacket. Still find it irksome when glancing at the otherwise pretty yardage of annuals.
Always an enjoyable read and worth the money IMO. Bookcase creaking under the weight of many years’ copies.
The Timeform ratings are included for each horse along with qualifying suffixes (all explained in the intro) such as p – likely to improve x – poor jumper.
If your unsure about whether to buy it try looking for used copies at a second hand bookshop or the bookstalls at race meetings. The Flat version is essentially the same.
Couldn’t possibly vote for any of the three ‘main’ parties nowadays so it would be Green, as it has been for the last two elections. Not a fanatical ‘save the planet’ type but there’s less wrong with their policies than t’others.
If there was the choice of registering an abstention on the ballot paper I’d probably vote that way.
Still remain true to the belief that all who are fortunate enough to live in a democracy should vote, even if it’s for the ‘least bad’ option as in my case: there’s still too many folk in the world denied the fundamental right of deciding who governs them.
As well to remember what side your bread’s buttered.
(Edited by Drone at 8:25 pm on Aug. 29, 2006)
Quote: from cormack15 on 12:53 am on Aug. 26, 2006[br] J.Mac and Edwina getting it on!<br>
A vision almost as ghastly as J.Maj and Eggwina
Quote: from EC on 9:40 pm on Aug. 25, 2006[br]
I will follow some of that advice for sure.
No more than advice born of the experience you are currently suffering EC.
I’m sure you knackered serial Flat bettors will welcome the close of the evening season tomorrow and the first decent night’s sleep since late April.
I’m not bored by racing; but only because – for the past few years – I’ve totally ignored everything bar Steeplechases and Flat Group/Listed, with betting restricted to the former save for the occasional fire-up when on-course at my local tracks York and Donny.
So blank days are common, particularly in summer, but this simply means you enjoy the ‘action’ days all the more.
Betting/following mundane racing day in day out you have little interest in other than as a betting medium just means that when a classy meeting, like the Ebor, comes around it doesn’t get the juices flowing as it should and seems ‘just another day at the coalface’.
Take a pull, take a break. Too much of a good thing ain’t a problem but rather too much of a bad thing viz. a constant diet of 0-70 handicaps and their brethren.
At this time of year I find murmuring the words ‘Charlie Hall’ on head hitting pillow guarantees sweet dreams.
Started raining 1800 hrs stopped 2200. According to Ceefax 10mm fell and the going is officially soft. This morning is sunny and breezy.
It will not be a bog but will certainly be dead.
The going was borderline GS on tuesday and G yesterday
Plate, Ebor, Ces – any or all.
Not quite in the same league but always find the Melrose (tomorrow) intriguing, it being a race for nascent, promising stayers
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Care to add another sheet of foolscap venting your spleen against the current fad for the 4×4; that vehicle so admirably suited to city dwelling, the school run and office commute.
There is of course only one 4wd worth considering and that is the Land Rover Single Cab Pick Up. Seasoned by at least two previous careless owners and ten years in a farmyard so ensuring that impossible to fake aroma of sheep turds/dip/lanolin, dog breath, WD40 and pipe tobacco.
The rot set in with the invention of the Range Rover.
Dave Dee
Are you aware of:
Soulmates?
Eden really isn’t my type at all but if you could persuade Jenny Pitman to sit for you similarly attired I would pay good money (a pony) for a lifesize painting; the view in the ceiling mirror these days is both embarrassing and depressing.
BTW oil preferably and definitely not watercolour.
