Ian Carnaby’s Weekend News

Life is hard enough without choices like this: whether to watch Dan Burn going through the motions with little to do at the back as Newcastle dismantle Southampton or Jim Old’s Spirits Bay, ridden purely for the place money, running against Constitution Hill at Cheltenham?

Do what you feel is right, I suppose. Jim is a good friend and we’ll meet at the Plough just off the M4 sometime soon and talk about Spirits Bay, who is officially trained by Nigel Twiston-Davies but runs for a trio of owners headed by Jim.

By sharp contrast I’ve never met Dan Burn  –  what a name that is for an uncompromising centre-back!  –  but he was born and raised in Blyth and played for Blyth Spartans, like my uncle Tom, who signed for Southampton in 1937 and was also a no-nonsense central defender. All right, I admit it. A Geordie friend informing me that Dan regularly walks his dog on Blyth beach tilted the scales.

So I top up the each-way bet on Spirits Bay  –  66/1 early on in a five-runner race but dropping to 40s as we approach 3pm, the ‘off’ time for both events  –  and hope for a minor miracle in the shape of a highly creditable second to the favourite. It helps that Jim has told David Ashforth that he ‘expects to beat one.’

With the mobile switched off I watch the game and endure another predictable home defeat, though in fact Newcastle, helped by one very poor VAR intervention, make harder work of it than most teams this season. Dan Burn is immaculate, playing on the left side of the back three but moving into the middle when it matters. They all cheat at corners, as we know, and he makes sure that Paul Onuachu (‘tall Paul’) jumps no higher than his natural 6ft 7ins at critical moments, which are few and far between.

The last time Southampton went down we bounced straight back, of course, and the previous time, when we dropped two divisions into  League 1, we had Swiss multi-millionaire Markus Liebherr helping us back to the Premier League. Even with a huge turnover of playing and backroom staff I rather doubt that there will be a similar revival this time. Thus I watch games in a fairly relaxed frame of mind with lunch and conversation with my daughter meaning more to me than the result, much though I want the Saints to win.

At home I take my time before watching the tape of the Unibet Hurdle, registered as The International. I’m optimistic when they turn for home and can see Spirits Bay is going better than two of them, thereby making a nonsense of official ratings, but he is never going to deny Brentford Hope the runner’s-up spot. It is almost unheard-of for Jim Old to run a horse twice in a week but this was a shrewd move with the prize-money in mind and I’m pleased for him and the other owners.

Now and again things happen which make you forget the roar and the greasepaint. I’ve visited Jim at his various yards over the years and always remember the front page of the old Sporting Life, yellowing now, up there on the wall of his office, telling the story of Collier Bay’s memorable triumph in the 1996 Champion Hurdle.

The report that day was written in his own inimitable style by Alastair Down, who rejoiced in big-race victories for stables just outside the front rank. Just over two years later the Life itself was gone, while we all remember Alastair’s sad passing a few months ago. Oddly enough, when we left the Plough after our last meeting, Jim bumped into Alastair in a supermarket where he was laying in supplies for friends in the evening  –  a shout at the devil, even with all hope gone.

If I could afford to go back into ownership, I’d buy a yearling, send it to Jim and name it Sentimental Agent. I watch the deadly serious analysts on television and accept that, despite the hours I spend on modest sprint handicappers, I may well be a frivolous observer by comparison.

On Monday, to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, there was some wonderful music on Radio 3 and it included a movement from Grieg’s Peer Gynt suite which I recognised as Solveig’s Song. And suddenly I was back at Brighton several years ago and Steve Woodman’s mare wasis bursting though in the centre to score at 10/1. She is by Norse Dancer, her owner having thought carefully before naming her.

Then, on Tuesday, I note that Fergal O’Brien is sending Blue Betty all the way to Newcastle to make her racecourse debut in the second division of a mares’ open NH race. Unsurprisingly she is sent off at 7/4 favourite and wins tidily. I wonder if she has any north-east connections and discover she is out of Bit Of A Geordie by Geordieland.

I’m a bit of a Geordie, in fact I’m half of one. It’s time to make my jogging debut on Blyth beach, matching strides with Dan Burn.

Possibly.

It has been a strange, disjointed NH season so far, with the weather largely to blame. Where I would once have ‘switched across’ to the jumps, the moderate fare on the AW has justified careful study. It’s good to be reminded of just how good Hollie Doyle is and Nick Littmoden snapped her up for Monsieur Beaulieu at Lingfield the other day.

Given a perfect ride, Monsieur Beaulieu collared the leader and strode on to win this six-furlong handicap quite convincingly. He has been raised 4lbs and that would normally put me off (4lbs will deny most moderate horses on the AW) but the same combination has a very good chance in the £30 In Free Bets With BetUK Handicap (2.05 Lingfield Sunday). It is very important to me that Hollie rides again.

I’ve thought for quite a while that King’s Lynn would win one more race for Andrew Balding. My thoughts turn to Doncaster when turf racing resumes but the old campaigner isn’t good enough for Group 3 or Listed contests these days. Consequently, the Class 3 Weekly £5 Free Bet With BetUK Handicap (1.42 Southwell Thursday) looks about right. With James Doyle there to ride likely favourite Dyrholaey for his retaining owners it looks as if each-way is the right way to go.

I worry about the amount of water currently restricting operations at Ditcheat. Otherwise, tough handicapper Alafdil will no doubt go close in Sunday’s Pertemps Qualifier at Musselburgh (3.00).

Selections

King’s Lynn E/W (1.42 Southwell Thursday), Monsieur Beaulieu (2.05 Lingfield Sunday)