Juliette's Weekly Frolic
Bottomless going proved Casbah's undoing at Sandown, but the large and vocal crowd were made of sterner stuff and, warmed by an appropriate royal victory in the first, the majority weathered it through until after the Hunter Chase, with just a little assistance from those blazing baskets of coal that Sandown obligingly dots round her enclosure.
Three fences from home in the 1971 Cheltenham Gold Cup Glencaraig Lady keeled over: back in Gower Street the television spluttered sympathetically and fell silent. Twelve months of knob-twiddling, aerial-waving and box-bashing on the part of the racing correspondent and at best the fiendish machine can be coaxed into a toneless roar more easily likened to an afternoon at Brands Hatch than the evenly-modulated utterances of Mr Peter O'Sullivan. It thus became blindingly clear to me, if not to the Editor, that a visit to Cheltenham was the only practical solution, and having worn that gentleman into reluctant concurrence with my schemes it only remains to line my — and his — pockets with a trifle more skill than I displayed last Saturday. None too happy with the Champion Hurdle commitment to Coral Diver, I'm tempted to further lunacy by 33-1 chance Melody Rock — a recent two lengths beating by Spy Net, to whom he was conceding 261b, looks no mean effort in view of the latter's all-the-way Imperial Cup success. With The Laird opting out of Wednesday's "Kim Muir," the finish is likely to be fought out by Fanackapan and The Ghost. The former lost a tremendous tussle with Prairie Dog at Ascot, but the latter, who missed the Welsh National with an eye injury, may just prove the tougher at carrying these weights.
Penetrating analysis of Gold Cup form has led the experts to a wide range of solutions and, as few would confidently discount any contender, I'll give some tentative support to Glencaraig Lady. She is fit, she has stamina and she can move in the mud. What more could one want from the fairer sex? However, with some ominiously bright sunshine drying out the ground, a safer carrier of fortunes could be Official in Saturday's Triumph Hurdle. On a line through Something's Missing he has a good deal in hand of North Pole . .
could go on forever but consider that enough misdirected pence for one week.
Assets £126.45. Outlay £3 win Glencaraig Lady. Official and The Ghost; £1 each way Melody Rock.
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