Courage Mon Ami

Oh no, have it in a 200 double, will see, haven’t seen the ascot gold cup race, one of us will win

Figgis, is this a straight lay? Would you mitigate the potential losses by part-laying anything else? Who in particular do you have in mind as likely to finish in front, or are you just banking on an under-performance without a strong view in the race?

Hi Howellsy, it is just a straight lay of the fav. I reckon there are a few in here that have shown better form than him when on a good day, but I wouldn't be confident about any of them running their race. I actually even believe that Coltrane, who he beat last time, has shown slightly better form at his peak, but was a little off that in the Gold Cup. Because of CMA's recent figures I also think there's a chance he could run below form today, but I'm not banking on that. Basically I'm just hoping that any of the others I have rated higher in the past can perform today. And that CMA isn't better than I think he is

I suppose on the one hand you'd say that with normal improvement the fav should be a few pounds better than these now, but you are always aware of the possibility of a hard race having an effect, perhaps especially in his case as it would have been a huge step up in class. It's also possible he was slightly flattered by passing horses quite late after they had been going hard for a couple of furlongs. It's a no bet race for me, but I am laying a lot more often these days.

Howellsy, actually I think the fav has reached a peak, at least in the short term. And it's not even a particularly high peak. So I don't think he'll improve past some of these. The main concern is that the horses that I believe have performed better than him either aren't coming here in top form, or are in and out performers, or have had a hard race or two.

WD, annoying should had a saver on the winner, israr form looked good, rest of them looked same crap

Well done Figgis - I doubt you had a moment's concern.

Placed layed it in all the markets, hedge against the win lay part, you would of cleaned up ,crossed my mind

Ta. But would you believe I still had mixed emotions watching the race? Strictly on this year's form I had Quickthorn highest rated and didn't have a penny on. Backed him last time, but even as I was looking in disbelief at his price today I thought he's probably not going to back that performance up

My model for picking winners spotting horses I know in the profile, jumped off the page, sometimes happens just miss out on a good opportunities, make so many decisions all day, can just wear down the brains performance

That's the way it goes Figgis. Still, you put your view up here and collected.

Yet another horse whose big reputation relied on a single run,. And in his case it was in the 2.5 mile Gold Cup, a distance very rarely run. Coltrane is a decent staying horse but he probably didn't get 2.5 miles at Ascot and was well beaten again at Goodwood. The staying division looks sub standard unless you think that this was the real Quickthorn who will sweep the board in future Cup races.

What happened to this horse? I thought he was vying for fav in the Cadran. Now, he's missing altogether.