Robin Oakley

The joy of the early autumn Newmarket meetings

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issue 05 October 2024

There’s no shrewder punter than J.P. McManus who likes to say: ‘There’d be many more fish in the sea if they could only learn to keep their mouths shut.’ Last year, clever young Emmet Mullins won the Cesarewitch with J.P.’s The Shunter but when Emmet let it be known that he was aiming for the other half of the Autumn Double, sending This Songisforyou to Newmarket for last Saturday’s Cambridgeshire, there was no way of keeping a lid on things.

The money poured on him for days. This side of the Irish Sea we all run scared of the Emerald Isle these days: if it isn’t Aidan O’Brien sending yet another from his Coolmore treasure box of beautifully bred colts and fillies to pick up our Group races, it is the likes of Mullins and John McConnell launching weekend raids for lesser targets.

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