Hello, Friend

As always, I hope you had a great weekend.

In today's email I touch on a couple of our syndicate horses, take a brief look back at Market Rasen, the success of a couple of recent 'eye-catchers', and I also look forward... at long last I dive into my content survey feedback that 381 of you were so kind to share... including a video, the future, and the two lucky prize winners...

Let's crack on...

'Team Sir Canford' are still basking in his victory, as is he. And well, after my Summer Plate efforts, I needed something to smile about at the start of this week!

Sir C has been raised 4lb to OR100, which is fair enough and at least means we can plunder another 0-100 before he has to move up slightly in grade.

20 of us are off to Dr Newland's stable on Saturday morning for a look around and to see Sir Canford, followed by a pub lunch. THE great game.

Don't forget, there's still time for you to join us from August-October, just let me know! It will be a fun three months and the perfect way to see how we do things.

We've got Shandancer running on Thursday at Worcester and maybe he'll make it two winners in just over a week. A return to his best will see him go close, here's hoping! It's only a matter of time before he wins over hurdles. His last run can be ignored, he got wound up pre race, no energy left off the bend, he'll be getting a red hood for the stables and some earplugs from now on. He doesn't like racecourse tannoys/noise, some of which are right near the racecourse stables and that was his excuse on his last visit to Plumpton also.

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A damp 'Summer' Plate...

I won't dwell too much on Market Rasen, but I won't blame the ground, as that was predicted pre race, and I never like excuses. If you put up horses, there's only one person to blame, and that's yourself, its wasted energy looking elsewhere. Evidently given the forecasts they shouldn't have watered so much, and questions should be asked.

Given their form coming into the race/their chase profiles, I suspect the front five are all worth keeping onside over fences for the rest of the summer. I'd be surprised if they didn't win a few more between them in time. (Born Famous - although won't be a price next time, Courtland, neither will he, but Hang In There, Chief Black Robe and Saint Avans all ran with credit, possibly on ground they didn't really enjoy. They ran as if still room in their marks and it was a hot renewal on paper, for all the ground played havoc)

My two were poor... although Gloire D'athon was in there pitching turning for home before paddling - he's either hated the ground, hasn't stayed, or both. He's got more chases in him, a galloping 2m4f back on better ground. Killer Clown was pulled up, running no sort of race, as the market predicted, 8s>16s. I thought the ground would be ok, but who knows, or it put too much pressure on his wind and he's got breathing issues, that his second run back after a wind op. Moving on!

What I should have done was focus on my Royal Ascot eye-catchers, and the last set of eye-catchers I sent you, as a 'way in'. Atrium won back at his beloved Doncaster (6/1, dead heat) and Dutch Decoy won at Newmarket (5s or so) on first start after his big Sandown effort when running like a well handicapped horse, poorly positioned.

As a re-cap, those last eye-catchers were: Gaassee, Nolton Cross, Dutch Decoy, Saint George, Lake Forest, Local Dynasty, Good Earth, Isle of Lismore, Jimi Hendrix, Farhh To Shy...

Dutch Decoy is the second of those to have run and won next start, Isle of Lismore the other, who thankfully I covered in last Friday's 'Through The Card'. We'll see if anymore hit the board in the coming weeks.

If you missed that 'eye catchers' video, you can watch it HERE >>>

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Thank you for your feedback...

I've finally got round to recording a video looking back at your thoughts on my content, what you like and what you'd like to see more of.

I've run through the survey results, with some discussions on the future, and you can click here to watch >>>

The five content areas for me to focus more on are... Through the Cards, Horses of Interest, Big Race Trends, Big Race Previews, and Eye Catchers/horses to follow.

When I record videos the ideal length appears to be a max 10-15 minutes and I need to do more of those, while still room for the odd longer one. You'd like more 'big race preview' videos and 'horses of interest', noted.

There's still room for more 'static' research, including my 'Trainer Track Profiles' reports, which I need to think about, given the time they take. But I'll come up with something for next winter jumps season.

Nearly 50% of you would like content delivered by 8pm the evening before, which is very instructive, and noted. I will be working harder to get more content out the day before by 6pm, for the next days racing.

Moving forward, the 'daily content' will mainly focus on Wednesday to Saturday's racing inclusive, getting to work Tuesday afternoon. Not staring at horses on Sunday's and Monday's has been good for my mind and has made a positive difference. My days of posting seven days a week are now over.

My blog and the 'members club' will be returning at some point, maybe later in August, with a £1 trial of course, and reduced fees from previous offers - on reflection I may have got greedy and started charging too much.

The monthly subs will likely be £19.99 per month, the annual and quarterly options working out at around £14.99 to £16.99 per month, which I'll hope is more aggreeable to some of you :)

Of course, they'll still be plenty of free content flying around as always, but obviously not as much as recent weeks.

However, that's all for another day.

PRIZES... 381 of you completed my survey and I owe two of you a £25 cash prize.

My random number generator fired out Rachel Oakley and a Paul X... I have both your emails and will be in touch today.

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We've got Glorious Goodwood and Galway on the horizon, and i'd best start researching some trends and trainer pointers.

Speak soon,

All the best,

Josh

p.s don't forget you can find last week's 'eye -catchers' video HERE>>>

p.p.s ... and watch my survey feedback video HERE >>>