Ashforth's Alternative View: It's time for Pink Gin at Wincanton

Ashforth's Alternative View: It's time for Pink Gin at Wincanton

By Gavin Sheehan Don't USE
Last Updated: Tue 5 Dec 2023
If you’ve been following my tips, in as far as I give any, you’ll definitely be showing a level stakes loss and should stop doing it. Personally, I’ve been showing a level stakes loss for over 50 years and it’s not easy to change the habits of a lifetime. On the other hand, between the ages of 0 and 18, I broke even.
So, it’s probably best if you don’t back Pink Gin in the three mile plus handicap chase at Wincanton (3.45). I know the trainer, the owners and even the horse well (don’t get too excited, in my experience inside information isn’t all it’s cracked up to be and tends to be even more expensive than its absence).
Pink Gin can be expected to jump well in the very capable hands of Zac Baker and, even at the age of 11, should at least be involved in the finish and may well win. Don’t say I didn’t tell you, unless the outcome is unsatisfactory, in which case please have the decency to stay silent.
Whereas Pink Gin is 11 and lives in a stable in Gloucestershire, trainer Ron Thompson is 80 and lives, probably not in a stable, in Yorkshire. As he trains near Doncaster, he may be a Doncaster Rovers supporter, as I was until I grew up. The club operates on a yo-yo basis, forever going up and down.
The stable star, Mr Strutter, runs in a 0-70 handicap at Southwell on Wednesday (2.55). As stable stars go, Mr Strutter is a modest example, rated only 67, but he has won four times for Thompson, for whom winners are few and far between. So go on Mr Strutter and good luck Ron.
When you’ve followed racing for a long time, names on a racecard catch your eye and prompt memories and opinions. We all have our opinions of trainers and jockeys, well-founded or ill-founded. Take the Southwell card. There’s Luke ‘Flapper’ Morris, a workaholic who has far more rides than anyone else. If you watch when a race gets serious and so does Morris, you’ll find it easy to pick him out in future.
There’s Jason Hart, linked with trainer John Quinn. I think Hart’s one of the good unsung. Then Graham Lee, with a record no other jockey can match, having won the Grand National and multiple Cheltenham Festival and other top jumps races before switching to the Flat and adding the Ascot Gold Cup, Nunthorpe, Chester Cup, Stewards’ Cup and Northumberland Plate to his unique tally. Now he rides mainly for Bryan Smart.
Franny Norton, his career long revitalised since his adoption by Mark Johnston; Grace McEntee (7), gaining experience under the guidance of her father, trainer Phil McEntee. So many names, so many connections. George Downing, long attached, largely unnoticed, to Tony Carroll’s yard. The going up and the going down, the thriving and the struggling.
It’s a miracle how some jockeys survive and the same is true of many small trainers. Maybe they don’t, living in hope with unbalanced books. That’s racing.
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