Johnny Wards spotlight Limerick Monday.

He tipped a 1/7 loser today.

to be far eddie , so did most of them....

but he also put up 2 winners out of 3 selections

i wouldnt criticize  him for putting up VLV tbf.

fair play if u get her beat but hard to see her being beat pre race.

even harder when the other 2 came out of the race ...

that is one hell of a poor card there tomorrow , apologies to all owners     concerned ....

Johnny Ward is a top guy, how can you go against a 1/7 shot? If you have to pick one in a race hard to ignore a 1/7 shot. Those spotlight verdicts he has to pick a winner? Surely reading the lines him saying it's a "tentative selection" is really saying small bet if you must?

Spotlights should be accurate and give as much information as possible within the limited space that the writer is allowed. It is not necessarily a tipping section nor should it be. Facts rather than a writer's opinion are more important.

its an impossible job.

why punters even read them is beyond me. hes just one bloke with an opinion. Surely people arent backing selections based purely on spotlight selections?

People back selections on here as a result of 2 words from the person that puts it up in come cases. Each to their own.

If you don't want the videos while you are studying a race you are doing about 10% of what you should be doing.

Inpection planned could be off

im not one to take advice from spotlights etc but the irish ones are stupid. im not sure if johnny ward writes them all but unlike the british ones they give no worthwhile information whatsoever. sometimes the ones across the pond make reference to breathing ops, gelding ops or a horses record fresh etc. the irish one invariably says something like "ticks the distance column" or "unproven at this track" or "unproven on this going". never is reference made to breeding etc

Off

1.45 cork. spotlight tells us better again, an unraced horse is "unraced on the going". is it sherlock holmes writing these?

The race is the 12:45. it is diomed that says that and its says unproven on the going.

Diomed is useless but you could not have got much more wrong in one sentence if you had tried.

spotlight, diomed... big difference. do you write them? point being theyre a waste of time

I generally don't even read them as videos and form are there for all to see and other people's opinions can just cloud your judgement.

You obviously don't subscribe to the site or buy the paper? The previous comment about ticking the distance column is more of the diomed rubbish that appears on the app. I don't know who writes them or if it is the same person as spotlights but they are a waste of time.

buy the paper when theres good racing on like at cheltenham last weekend. prefer website, form much easier to read i think

am aware of at least one RP analyst who watches every horse in every race in Ireland and has a very comprehensive database on every horse that runs. When you read the subsequent analysis I think it becomes clear who puts the most work in.

as?

kavvie, I'm not a fan of the constant knocking of people who have profiles in the racing media, either in print or audio-visual. Its particularly prevalent on the main forum. There are favourites in all walks of life and others who are better at their jobs. If you don't like someone's work, do you move on or tell us all how perspicacious you are? I prefer to share something with forumites that might actually contribute something positive.

RA,
I could be wrong, but I think what kavvie was asking was whether it was Alan Sweetman (AS) that keeps the database.

i wouldnt think it is as,i would think more like joh,but i am only guessing

i did indeed ask was it alan sweetman whos opinion id value highly.sorry for any confusion..

I rate Kevin Blake very highly altho' at times he tries too hard, particularly writing for the IF. This is the inevitable outcome of working for a trade organ that survives on sugar pills. For example, I would suggest that writing a piece about Frankel being the greatest ever (or some such) only trots along beside the real story of Frankel being a lost global opportunity for racing and the elevation of Irish breeding and British racing to a
massive audience.

I had to laugh when I realised I was too tetchy, assuming kavvie was suggesting I was "clear as" (mud) presumably. This misunderstanding would never beat the famous thread on Brian O'Connor's blog when the Turf Club's mouthpiece Cliff Noone became a Wildian man of no importance when he was mistook for "no-one". Silvergreaser, take a bow for creating a legend?

Judging by his spotlight on the 1.00 at Gowran tomorrow Johnny Ward must have been a reader of Keen Leader's each way play thread!

Haven't seen the Spotlight yet but he's getting a bit of stick on the main racing forum about it.

Good winner put up by Johnny Ward at Dundalk 3 points win,and spot on,fair play where it's due.

I think he is very good was certainly spot on today.
He said Great Soprano race was his for the taking and his summary of Clare Harrier was near perfect gave the one two.