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Another runner (September 23) ridden by our top jockey for Imad Alsagar and another well beaten horse. When will IA and his team of advisers realise that their current crop of horses are simply not good enough?
Another one bites the dust! Backed from 9/2 to 11/4 today (23 September) and ridden by our top jockey the Imad Alsagar’s horse was well beaten. When will he and his advisors realise their horses this season are simply not good enough?
Another one bites the dust! Latest one, backed down from 9/2 to 11/4 and ridden by the best jockey available is beaten out of sight. When will Imad Alsagar and his advisors realise that their jockey was not the problem? When will it dawn on them that their current batch of horses are simoly not good enough?
Those who believe that voting Liberal Democrat is a wasted vote because they will never get into power ensures democracy will fail.
As things stand, the Liberal Democrats are the only feasible choice. Trump, with his silly sanctions is systematically ruining the USA. It will be a sad day if we follow his policies, such as allowing Israel starving millions of Palestinians and constantly bombing their country and denying climate change. The problem we have is that Farage and Reform are Trump supporters who would mimic his disastrous policies. Then we have Labour who are afraid to criticise Trump. For example, it would be right to imprison those who broke in and damaged aircraft, but to define Palestine Action a terrorist group is over the top. The Conservatives could be described as ‘Reform Light’. This leaves the Liberal Democrats as the only sensible party. I admire, Ed Davey, their leader, for refusing to attend the Trump meets our King Event. I feel for King Charles as he is an obvious supporter of the Commonwealth and Canada, yet he has to meet the moron who is trying to destroy that country. For those who say, ‘but the King invited him’ the reality is that the King has to be non-political and has to do what the Government tells him to do.
Epsom Racecourse in my view is a disgrace. They have an interesting Spring meeting, followed by a 2 day Derby meeting with some quality races. But over the years, taking account of inflation, the Derby has gone down and down. After the Derby meeting it is pure rubbish with most races being class 6 maidens or handicaps. It would be OK if there were one feature race showing off some good horses but there isn’t. Of course, bookmakers love it as it is well known poor horses aee more unrealiable.
I have been to 75% of the courses in the UK and York, by far, is the best of them. For me the August Ebor meeting is as good as it get, far better than Royal Ascot. The quality of racing all round is as good as it gets – every meeting will have a feature.
To date in 2025, Hollie Doyle has ridden 6 winners for Imad Alsagar out of 28 rides, a strike rate of 21 4%. Ousin Murphy has ridden 1 winner from 5 rides, a strike rate of 20% Now I think we would all agree that with Ryan Moore being injured Oisin Murphy is the best jockey currently racing. Yet he has a lower strike rate than Hollie Doyle. This seems to reveal the Imad Alsagar’s perceived lack of success is down to his horses, not his jockeys.
Also, I did not miss the blank day. There is far too much racing and most if is rubbish. In the 1970’s/80’s the balance was right. Most punters looked forward to the next meeting at their local track. Now it is impossible to follow racing; the fun has been driven out of it. After the St Leger meeting, we have Newmarket, Ascot and the the biggest French meeting to look forward to. Nothing else. To demonstrate how racing had gone down hill in this country compare the prize money for the Derby and the Arc de Triumph in 1975 and 2025. At one time the Derby has the highest prize money; now look at it!
I have only had two seasons (in over 20) where I made a reasonable amount of cash. The first was when I noticed an apprentice was amazing – he kept winning at big prices. So I kept backing him and he kept winning. I thought this was easy, but at the end of the season everyone, including the bookmakers, latched on. Now a 4/1 shot (7/1 when he was an apprentice) was 5/2 and a horse whose fair odds would be 1/1 was now 2/5. So you could not win long term backing this apprentice.
Of course, this apprentice was Ryan Moore, without doubt the best jockey out there.
So, thank you Ryan. Hope your leg is healed completely soon.In my view you can only beat the bookmaker when he gets the odds wrong, which is very rare. This will usually be in a small field (up to five runners) where the favourite is a ‘false favourite’.
Many punters like to bet in large field handicaps, which is bread and butter to bookmakers. If bookmakers work to a margin of (say) 1.5% per runner, then the margin in their favour will be 7.5% in a 5 runner race, but 30% in a 20 runner race. Of course, the margin in their favour multiplies in doubles and multiplies again in trebles etc. Which is why bookmakers love ACCA’s and offer minor incentives to encourage punters to lose their money.
I spent 20 years trying to find a system that would make money following racing. At last I discovered it – I bought Paddy Power shares (now Flutter Entertainment) for €5 per share.
At Wolverhampton today Oisin Murphy was riding one of Imad Alsagar’s horses which appeared to get blocked in and was well beaten. It could have looked as if it were a terrible ride, but the reality was the horse would not quicken when asked to. The point I am continually making is the jockeys are often blamed when the horse is simply not good enough.
My view is that if the horse is good enough, Holly Doyle will win the race. She has just won the feature race at Goodwood today. I woudn’t agree that she rode a poor race on Zgharta; rather she was unlucky in not getting a clear run in the Goodwood race
Of course I agree that Oisin Murphy is a superb jockey and if he was the first retainer to Imad Alsagar, then a great deal. But when it comes to the key Group 1 races it is possible that Oisin will not be able to ride for him. In addition, all the top riders seem to have retainers for the best trainers. Imad Asagar might find it difficult to find a better jockey in these races.
I think that horse racing protests too much. Tax is not the problem – in the 1970’s betting tax was set at 10%, meaning we paid tax of 10% or our stake and if we didn’t our winnings were reduced by 10%. Racing still flourished because in those days it was exciting.
These days it is dull overall – there is too much and most of it is low quality. It all went pear-shaped when racing kept on pandering to bookmakers by introducing irrelevant all-weather meetings, giving them another advantage as poor quality racing is more difficult to predict.
Tax paid by bookmakers has no adverse impact on punters, unless they increase margins in their favour. In which case sensible punters should not bet. The solution is to revive racing to make it interesting again and put pressure on bookmakers to stop being greedy by offering fair odds.
I think that Imad Alsagar and his team have made a mistake. In my view they blamed Hollie Doyle for getting beat on Zgharta at Goodwood and the ‘a change of strategy’ was to ensure they had a winner at the York Festival at York.
I know from many years experience that jockeys often get blamed when the problem is the horse. So it proved with Zhgarta that despite being favourite and being ridden by Ousin Murphy it still got best.
Engaging Murphy would have been great if he was first in line to ride their horses, but he has other retainers who have first choice. Their will be times when he cannot ride their horses.
