Dean Ivory – upwardly mobile
LAST month I talked of Dean Ivory’s best ever string with 10 horses rated 80 or above. The handicapper’s recent reactions to two winners last week seem to confirm the upwardly mobile profile of Harper Lodge Farm.
Firmdecisions, who won a 7f handicap at Headquarters last Saturday by seven lengths has been raised 11lbs to an all-time high on the turf of 91.
Golden Amber, who won at Chelmsford, also last week, was raised three pounds to 88 for her 6f victory by three-quarters of a length.
Interestingly, the handicapper left Solario Racing’s King’s Concerto alone on 63 after he was well beaten at Windsor last week. Do you hear the Racing Manager bleating about being hard done by?
Not a bit of it. The horse did not act on the ground and Seb Sanders quite rightly looked after him. However, the handicapper also quite rightly dismissed the run as too bad to be true. Connections are often too quick to condemn handicappers for supposed harsh treatment. However, watching horse races studiously is what they do for a living and more often than not, these professionals get it right.
This is another occasion when Mr Handicapper has probably got it right. Connections of King’s Concerto think he has the potential to be better than his current mark.
Hope the handicapper is not a regular reader of this column….
