Author: hawkinsport

Friday

15:35 Newmarket – Al Basti Equiworld, Dubai Joel Stakes (Group 2) – Tempus

GOT off to a winning start over a trip of a mile for new trainer Archie Watson at the start of the year, after moving from Roger Charlton’s yard. Then went without a win in five runs, but two of those were in second at listed level, again over a trip of a mile. One was behind useful Charlie Appleby runner Modern News and the other was lost to eventual group two winner Chindit. Mutasaabeq finished second in that group two race by only a head and he runs here. However, Tempus appears to be an improving horse which is why he gets the pick. His most recent form has recorded a hattrick of wins, with his last two coming at group three level, reversing the Modern News form, before winning the Prix Quincey at Deauville 25 days ago. Pogo is likely to be in the picture late on after setting a strong pace and Potapova could go close from off the pace. There is also a possibility of rain before the race but Tempus’ versatility should come into play regardless of conditions and will serve him well.

Saturday

14:25 Newmarket – Juddmonte Cheveley Park Stakes (Fillies’ Group 1) – Trillium

RICHARD Hannon’s impressive two year old made it three wins from four runs 12 days ago, battling hard to beat The Platinum Queen in the group two Childers Stakes. This came on soft going, proving that she is capable on almost any surface and she beat a respected rival in the process. Hannon also highlighted that The Platinum Queen beat Trillium’s track record at Goodwood, which adds significance to the form. She travels impressively and shows excellent ability to win from behind, an indicator of great speed. This race will be her toughest test to date with multiple runners in the field boasting prolific winning records and winning form at group level. Meditate was denied last time out by a special performance from Tahiyra in the Moyglare Stud Stakes, but it showed that she is beatable and Trillium should have the quality needed. Treasure Trove has also shown excellent ability and isn’t without a chance, but a position further back in the field has been required in her last two wins to settle properly. Giving any ground away to the likes of Trillium and Meditate could be costly and overall Trillium looks very appealing in a quality renewal of the Cheveley Park Stakes.

Tricast

At time of writing Bet365 decimal odds are 41.43 for the tricast.

15:00 Newmarket – Juddmonte Middle Park Stakes (Group 1) – Blackbeard

FRESH from a group one win in the Prix Morny at Deauville last month, Aidan O’Brien’s charge has strong claims on paper, yet is second favourite to Marshman at the time of writing. This is due to Marshman running a brave race in second, just over a length behind the impressive Noble Style in the group two Gimcrack Stakes last month. Blackbeard is able to set a strong post-to-post gallop at the highest level as he proved last time out, which will help him deal with Marshman. Blackbeard has four wins at listed and group level, by far the most in the field. Blackbeard has been known to be difficult before being loaded into the stalls, which is something to keep in mind, but he often runs well regardless. It would be O’Brien’s seventh success in the race and although Mischief Magic and Marshman aren’t without a chance, Blackbeard gets the pick.

I first made contact with Chris Kirwan of the South Wales Argus by email.

I was polite and showed awareness that someone in a full time journalism job wouldn’t necessarily have a lot of time.

He was open to the idea of a placement and gave me free reign to propose my own ideas.

In my first placement at the South Wales Argus, I learnt he basics of how to communicate and respond to the demands of the publication I am writing for.

I was given a set brief for my work on the weekend rugby round-ups, which included a word limit, a deadline and set criteria for the content.

Although it wasn’t very common I did try to offer ideas for different types of content such as a preview for the Welsh National, which I executed poorly and also timed it poorly as my placement providers weren’t available across Christmas.

I have more recently submitted a piece about Welsh National winning trainer Sam Thomas, which took a lot of planning and was a story I sourced myself.

It is uncertain whether it will be posted or not and it is too close to my module deadline to have been posted yet, but it has been sent off to editors as it probably needs to be cut down.

I have not only learnt the importance of following a brief, but have also been given the freedom to source my own content.

The ideas I came up with were either not executed well or struggled to meet a deadline and this is something I will take into consideration for my other placement roles.

Placement Post 2

FOR this placement I contacted Jon Waldron via Twitter regarding a different deadline, when I had to interview someone for a law and ethics presentation.

Thankfully when I asked if he had any work placement opportunities he was approved by his bosses to take me on.

This helped me understand how important a past working relationship is, even if it was for something relatively small or for a small amount of time.

It was also an effective way of using my social media accounts to establish new contacts and I am grateful for anyone who responds when I am in need online.

My time at the Colchester Gazette has yielded the most work in terms of published work.

Here I was able to follow a different brief every day, with most of the content revolving around EFL League Two.

However, the subject of the pieces could be about Colchester United, the league itself, the best players in the league or managers.

It is also the placement I was able to put most of my own ideas into motion and then led to them being published.

This is mainly because my ideas, such as the piece about Colchester United manager Wayne Brown, fit the market that the publication was trying to fill.

It was relevant to the topics previously covered by the paper, which meant it had somewhere to fit.

There was a week gap in between some of my work however, due to juggling other deadlines which I could probably have managed better.

In future I would try to complete more work in better time so that when it came to producing more content in the future there would be less clashes.

This placement also offered regular contact on Twitter, as well as email, and offered a more connected way of working with my employer.

This probably helped me to produce a range of different content because I had a better understanding of what my employer wanted.

My previous placement was excellent because it got me used to working to a brief, so for The Daily Gazette Standard, the process felt very easy because of what I had already done.

Placement Post 3

MY work for YYFM has mainly been interview based and, although I am unable to find the published content yet, again with some being submitted shortly before deadline, I have produced three interviews so far for them.

I achieved the placement through my dissertation officer, Steve Johnson, who had contacts outside the university with the Ysbyty Astrad radio channel.

This placement has been great for networking, having been lucky enough to meet world champion boxing trainer Tony Borg through this placement.

Due to the nature of this placement I have done a lot of travelling to Newport and to different parts of Cardiff.

It has given me experience in planning and preparing meetings, with my interview with former cricket player Paul Crump helping me understand how to build rapport with an interviewee.

The interview almost felt secondary and it just felt like a friendly chat, which I think benefitted the content massively and helped with my future interviews, such as with Sam Thomas.

Paul was also more than happy to have a chat in the future, so it also improved the way I make contacts.

I now understand you can make a lasting impression even if you are focused on work, because the enjoyment we both got from the interview didn’t feel so much like work.

It also gave me great experience in staying calm and looking at the conditions of an interview and making adjustments before filming, to minimise background noise and ask the correct questions.

For my second interview with Tony Borg I had a set brief, to question him about how boxing has changed since he was boxing.

The interview meant I had to plan my questions carefully, thinking about time and making sure my questions covered the subject broadly.

I also had to take into consideration my recording equipment when I was given new content to cover.

I had to consider the use of a tripod or a microphone for the quality of content or whether not to use such equipment for added mobility or lack of room etc.

Placement Post 4

Having finished three placements I took on last year, the last post is dedicated to a placement I first started last year with Bowls Wales.

Although I only completed 10 hours for them this year, it was almost a continuation of last year’s work, where I created a video to promote the safety of bowls during a pandemic.

This is another example of a strong working relationship I have built through placements, this time with Claire from Bowls Wales who provided a crucial placement for me last year.

It is also the only form of content I produced during placement this year that will be published in video format.

It also presented a unique challenge, in that someone else had filmed the content and sent it to me, with my role solely editing.

I had to try and analyse what to take out and how to put the piece together, watching each interview in its entirety and planning ahead for the video before sending it off.

Due to me completing a similar task last year, this was relatively easier than that first experience which perhaps was a lesson in familiarity.

The more I familiarise myself with different types of content it will only benefit me because I will have a similar feeling with more types of content.

It will hopefully make me a more versatile journalist and it is the reason I have ended up with a mixture of different placements, despite the majority of my content being in my favoured medium of writing.

Overall the placement process has benefitted me massively because, although I had work experience before university, it helped teach me what I have to do to achieve my preferred career path in sports journalism.

Towards the end of the course I have finally made contacts in the sports I would like to cover in future.

Although I understand I have to work hard covering anything I can in the meantime, I hope these contacts will help me get a job covering those sports further down the line.

SAM Thomas has had a season to remember, after claiming the Welsh Grand National in December.

The Lisvane based trainer has had 20 winners from 103 starts this season, and he had to pick a success in the iconic grade three at Chepstow as his highlight of the season.

“Obviously the highlight would have to be the Welsh national, it’s a race that I was never very successful as a jockey in.

“To win a Welsh National, being a Welsh trainer it’s very special.

“he’s a horse which we have had from the very start of his career and was bred not far from my family home in Cross Ash by great friends and Stan Brown, who gave me my first ever winner as a jockey under rules.

“The whole story is just pretty epic really from a personal point of view.

“It’s just great to win in such a big high profile Welsh race, being a Welsh team.

“We are down on winners from last season, but we’ve had some really big weekend winners, obviously the Welsh National being a grade three and a grade two at the end of the season with Stolen Silver. So, lots of memorable weekends along the way.” 

 Iwilldoit took the same route to the big race as the previous winner, Secret Reprieve, only having one run in the build-up by winning the Welsh National trial.

“We obviously had a dream to go and train him for the Welsh National which was the plan from the season before.

“The season before didn’t quite work out.

“I ran him in the Borders National first time out which in hindsight was the wrong thing to do.

 “He came back really light and was very difficult to train from there on, so I learned a lot from the season before this season with him. 

“I kept the horse at the yard for the summer, instead of going back to Stan the Breeder’s where he always had done. 

“It just meant that I had the horse in a lot earlier than I’ve had him in the past. 

“Also, for a horse which maybe hasn’t been the easiest train in that he is a bit of a worrier, it just meant that he was already at the yard and didn’t have to be transported anywhere.

“The trial really was the most obvious prep race for him.

“The only negative about that is that it was just three weeks before the actual Welsh National itself, which would be the absolute minimum really for Iwilldoit.

“All credit to the horse to be able to pull them off really.” 

February 19^th was another successful day for the yard this season, when Good Risk At All and Skytastic picked up a double at Ascot worth £39,000 in prize money for Sam’s yard.

“Good Risk At All, we have always thought very highly of, and I guess we were a bit disappointed at the start of the season, he just never quite got into gear really.

“He was beaten at Chepstow first time out, we took on Jonbon at Newbury on ground that was too quick, he finished second that day which was still a good run, and the time was pretty fast. 

“Then he got beaten at a handicap hurdle in his next run by a nose, so it just took a while to get going until Ascot, it was a real relief Be honest.

“Certainly, with him he just got the hang of it, and he just proved that he does love soft ground.

“That was great and unfortunately, we got we missed out on Cheltenham with him, he got balloted out of the Coral Cup.

“That left us with Aintree and for whatever reason he didn’t fire.

“He’s still a very good horse and we’ll put him away now.

“He could go novice chasing, or he could stay and be targeted at a nice handicap hurdle off a mark of 137 he’s still really well handicapped, there’s lots of options.

“Skytastic had a niggle at the start of the season, so that meant we didn’t have him where we wanted him to be, so he started a bit later in the season.

“He was workmanlike at Doncaster and did it really nicely first time out. 

“I was absolutely thrilled when he won at Ascot. 

“He’s certainly a horse that doesn’t love heavy ground, so he showed his good horse to win the way did, and again at Aintree, unfortunately he didn’t quite fire, he has come back absolutely fine.

“Three miles might just have stretched so he might step back in trip next season.” 

                         

Sam runs a relatively small yard with just over 30 boxes but has shown his yard can produce those big weekend winners.

“I’m very lucky that the majority of horses that we train are owned by Mr Walters, who has been a huge supporter of national hunt racing for many years.

“He has put a lot of money into the industry. 

“We’re very lucky to have the exciting horses we train, and we are in quite a lucky position, that if the horses aren’t good enough to be Saturday horses they generally get moved on.”

“As a result, although we are a small yard and it’s very much quality over quantity.” 

The Welshman was very successful as a jockey, having ridden over 500 winners. He was part of Paul Nicholls’ yard during a golden era, where he rode the likes of Denman, Kauto Star and Big Bucks. He told of his story of how the racing journey started.

“As a kid all I ever wanted to do was ride ponies and horses, much like someone who wants to be a tennis player or footballer all their life, that’s what I want to do from a very young age.

“That was down to my parents really, they were big supporters, dad loves his racing, and I was riding ponies at a really young age. 

“We did lots of hunting, show jumping and cross country, and I thank my parents for putting all their time, effort and money into providing me and my sisters with our hobbies really.

“I was quite determined from the young age that I was going to be a jockey and thankfully it all worked out.”

After racing, Sam decided training was the next step to take in his career.

“I think after riding I was probably quite lost in terms of where I was going to go afterwards.

 “Mentally, all I ever wanted to do was ride so I was a bit stuck at first as to what avenue I was going to go down.

 “I just gradually started to pretrain horses and did a bit of breaking in and I really enjoyed that.

“I probably jumped into training and was a bit naive, I thought it would be easy, but looking back I was probably a bit naive.

“I would have done things differently if I was able to do things again.

“I probably would have taken my time to gain some more experience before I committed to getting on with it.”

 
He recalled what it was like to ride Denman, a legendary horse who Sam rode to a memorable Gold Cup in 2008.

The horse also produced two of the great weight-carrying performances of all time in his two Hennessy Gold Cup victories under a weight of 11 stone 12lb, and the Welsh jockey was also in the saddle for the first of those wins in 2007.

“If anyone has ever driven a car, riding is a bit like getting into a car but not knowing what engine is under the hood.

“He looked like a nice horse, but you still don’t know what they’re going to give you until you get onto the grass or gallops or jump a fence.

“It’s only when you started driving and experience that you think this is a bit special.

“I was blown away by the feel he gave me first time He gave me when we just went down to do some schooling.

“The first time I took him on the grass, and we were going to give him a warmup and he just took off with me and I will never forget that initial feel that he gave me.

“He really blew me away that’s what he was like when he was feeling well, and he was at his best

“you’re riding a big horse, but he had so much speed, power and enthusiasm and that’s what made him so good.”