Guineas meeting marks real start of 2014 Flat season, with O'Brien's intriguing colt Australia set to grab attention
From Sandown via Punchestown to Newmarket and Chester, the transition from jumping to the Flat over the next two weeks will be all but seamless. There are no fewer than 12 Grade One National Hunt contests at Punchestown's festival meeting between Tuesday and Saturday, when the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket will be the first Group One of the British Flat season, and it can be difficult to stop and reflect when there is always so much to anticipate.
The 2013-2014 jumps campaign did not leave a long sequence of images etched on the memory as some have done in recent years, though the afternoon at Towcester in early November when Tony McCoy rode the 4,000th winner of his career stands out as a moment when racing, and a fair proportion of the general public too, paused to appreciate one of the truly extraordinary sporting careers.
Continue reading... Reported by guardian.co.uk 6 hours ago.
From Sandown via Punchestown to Newmarket and Chester, the transition from jumping to the Flat over the next two weeks will be all but seamless. There are no fewer than 12 Grade One National Hunt contests at Punchestown's festival meeting between Tuesday and Saturday, when the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket will be the first Group One of the British Flat season, and it can be difficult to stop and reflect when there is always so much to anticipate.
The 2013-2014 jumps campaign did not leave a long sequence of images etched on the memory as some have done in recent years, though the afternoon at Towcester in early November when Tony McCoy rode the 4,000th winner of his career stands out as a moment when racing, and a fair proportion of the general public too, paused to appreciate one of the truly extraordinary sporting careers.
Continue reading... Reported by guardian.co.uk 6 hours ago.