Juliette's Weekly Frolic
A bitter Lord Wigg is quoted as "wanting nothing more to do with the sport" once he retires as Levy Board Chairman in November. Such outspoken comments won't make life easy either for himself or his hosts at the public functions he must Perform over the remaining weeks and the customery platitudes may ring a little hollow when he unveils Kempton's new Silver Ring stand this coming Friday. However with the hundredstrong Alberta All Girls Drum and Bugle Band, hotfoot from the Olympics opening ceremony on hand to brighten the scene followed by a hefty bet on my cast-iron, getting-out certainty, Boscage (4.30) the day should end happily. With Sandown reduced to a pile of rubble on the road to Goodwood, the Variety Club of Great Britain shifts Saturday's annual charity Jamboree to Sunbury for the first of the quaintly titled 'Sandown (at Kempton)' meetings. Cliff Michelmore, Jessie Matthews and the Regimental Band of the Scots Guards figure among the human attractions at, what the advertisers have christened 'The Year's Big Glamour Meeting,' while a record E20,000 of sponsored prize money will ensure more adequate equine support.
Flanked by such new boys as Volvo and Green Shield Stamps, that doyen of the sponsors, William Hill, are putting up £5,000 making their 'Trophy, the richest race on the card. This nine furlong event has attracted a bright array of handicap talent including Ryan Price's Cambridgeshire hope, Hardy Scot. However, I secretly hope he stays at home for the sake of a six-yearold named Grandrew. Having laboured gallantly under top weight in his last five races this majestic grey gelding at last returns to something like the weight that won him the 'Jubilee' over the course and distance in May.
Hailing from the exclusive, and virtually invincible, establishment of owner-trainer, Herbert Blagrave, Bright Fire heads the handicap for the preceding Sportsman Club Handicap, but since Galiano obligingly settled several personal debts with a 10-1 victory at the last Newbury meeting, the three-year-old deserves my support here. Assets £83.83. Outlay £3 to win Boscage, Hardy Scot (if Abs Grandrew) & Galiano.
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