Black Magic –

Walthamstow Report 01 Feb 2007

A decent card opened with a match between Pork Pie and Roxholme Silk. Roxholme Silk presented the race to Pork Pie, with a particularly tardy start.

The Div 2 maiden standard looked to be going the way of Kindred Sparky after he hit the front at the first. However, he never seemed to be shaking off Special Roxi, who lead at the 3^rd turn. The jury was out in the kennel as to what went wrong here. You could not be backing him if he turned out any time soon.

A dreadful S3 intervened between the decent racing and Ingenious had time to have a look at a challenger off the 2^nd bend before winning the race comfortably.

Tanner Butler faced a rise in class in the Div 5 race. He stumbled at the start and could not recover. Killeacle Adrian broke well and led the field to the 3^rd bend before Shelbourne Ryan showed his class edge to take the race from the 3^rd bend.

Snazzy Time followed up his win from last week when breaking smartly and making all in the uncompetitive hurdles race. He probably performed a bit below his best as Wol ran him to a length and a half.

Another favvy went in as the novice stayers was won by Local Knowledge. He broke averagely, but showed some early boot and made all here. Musical Beauty turned with every chance, but lacked middle pace before staying on again. Double Top showed some middle pace before failing to see out the trip in this company.

Erinaceous Star (Arc finalist last year) broke very smartly in Div 4 and made most of the running before succumbing to the late surge of Special Deal late on. Noirs Heart turned with every chance, but could never quite get on terms here. I believe Special Deal is a very fast dog indeed, but I think he suffers from lameness regularly.

Roxholme Babe  produced an electric break when leading in the Div 3 race. Ronnies Earner turned close behind and negotiated the first turns particularly well. The writing looked to be on the well as Ronnies Earner close in on Roxholme Babe towards the 3^rd turn. However, he seemed to take a long time to get past and made rather heavy weather of it from this point. Sometimes it’s hard to put these races in perspective.

Many were expecting Ronnies Earner to step forward markedly on last weeks promising run.  My personal view was that the proximity of Droopys Majella made the form look questionable, though it’s hard to be confident here. Ronnies Earner is a lovely scopey dog with loads of pace and he may leave this form behind. I presume he will be going for the Arc. He needs to find a fair bit of improvement. His Irish form is good and the fact the Ernie Gaskin (Snr) hung on to a half share as he accepted the massive bundle of cash from Mr Davis may speak volumes in time.

Big Brett Coal dissapointed again  and the reliable Blackmagic Guy comfortably won the stayers event.

A competitive Div 2 Arc stakes was taken by Greenfield Hero. Who led early and won his 2^nd race from three starts at the Stow. Despite failing to win from 5 starts in Ireland, he’s done well at the Stow so far. Milldean Cahill performed particularly poorly here.

After some fair results for the punters in the first 2/3 of the meeting, a horror show closed the card.

Cash For Kate was renamed Cash For The Layers after falling out of the traps in the novice marathon. She ran on late and held every chance and was nearest at the finish. She was turned over at threes on here. Unlikely Hotshow made the running to the 5^th bend before Melon Twister took over. 

Bigbadassassian  (5/4F) never looked in the hunt and amazingly only got beat half a length in the Div 1 Arc stakes. This messy race was won by Powerfast Rapid in a particularly slow time.

Bookies favourite Ross Fortune ran 2^nd yet again. This time as a 1/2F Happy Memories was screamed home by his trainer here.

Last updated: 13 Jun 2008 by Stow_judge