An iconic year for racing continues.

Many were miffed by Mikael Barzalona's celebrations before the line came in the Derby last Saturday, but I for one loved it.

Mikael Barzalona - a new master on the flat.

It COULD have all ended in tears, but it didn't thank goodness, and the 2011 Epsom Derby is a race we will all remember deep into the future.
The Cheltenham Gold Cup proved that Long Run was the new kid on the block as he left old time heros Kauto Star and Denman behind him and this years Derby has proved that Mikael Barzalona is most definitely the new master jockey on the flat.
I find the image of Pour Moi crossing the line one of the most iconic images of flat racing I have seen for years. It's miles ahead of the dreary view that race win celebrations are unprofessional and frowned upon by old time trainers and old time racing folk. The pure passion in his celebrations fed straight through to my heart and I hadn't even backed Por Moi! It was the same elation you could see when Tony McCoy won the Grand National on Don't Push it. Purely Iconic.

Pure elation from the Frenchman.

Elation like this is a fantastic promotion for our sport, and misery guts have been waffling on about it way too much. It made it a more exciting, heart stopping race, which is what we need on one of the biggest days in UK racing. I'm of course not encouraging before line celebrations in the future, especially celebrations that pull on a horses mouth like Barzalona's, but we should think back fondly on what was a dramatic and emotional Derby.

Plus, he looked totally rad!

Totally rad.

Fallon - No he Khan't

Well, a drama dotted few hours on the morning of the Derby. I'm still in disbelief. Rubbish, rubbish news for racing again. Hopefully Carlton House can win to shove this insignificance under the carpet a bit.

Carlton House

I find it an extremely petty and childish affair. Kieron Fallon should have learnt his lesson by now to draw well clear of any controversy, but has yet again made himself look like a dishonest and selfish figure. And it was all looking on the up for you Kieron!! Doh!
Native Khan's owner, Mr Araci, clearly had his feathers ruffled, but to drag this through the courts? I find it ridiculous personally.
Jockeys are always getting jocked off, usually down to discression of owners or trainers, but is this a case of spitting the dummy out when a jockey does it? Not that i'm trying to defend Fallon you must understand. Fallon apparantly had signed a contract and he should have kept his word, but in my opinion, the owners should have been a bit more dismissive ie, breaking all future connection with the jockey, or Ed Dunlop could have done the same, rather than treating it as such a serious matter and blowing everything out of proportion.

ANYWAY, I think Johnny Murtagh is a way better pilot, and I'd choose him to ride over Fallon any day!

Native Khan

I've had my ew money on Native Khan for a few days. There is doubt to wether he'll stay in according to his breeding, but i'm not worried by the stamina issue, but have a slight worry about his speed... not that that'll matter if the race is run as slow as yesterday's Oaks.
All in all, I hope with all my might that Carlton House has them all behind him come the line. What a day it'd be for Queenie. You only ever see her grinning properly and genuinely with her horses, as opposed to that gritted teeth thing she does when she's accepting flowers from small children, or applauding the winner of Britain's Got Talent at the Royal Variety Show.

Good luck to you all today, no matter who you hate the most. I'd egg them both.

Fillies

Hola! It's been another fairly lengthy gap since you were lucky enough to get a blog post out of me, but never fear, I'm still around! ;)
So, i've enjoyed a nice little holiday in Spain where I wanted to see the Spanish Andalucian horses, and flamenco dancers, but saw neither of. However we did manage to find authentic Spanish Tapas after 4 days of looking, (some english run restaurants tried to fob us off by putting onion rings and chicken nuggets on their 'tapas' menu). I won't even begin to bore you with the details of encountering a man on the very crest of the Rock of Gibralter who'd ridden his moped all the way to the top to relieve some tension... if you catch my drift!

Anyway, enough of that. It's Oaks day!!
Firstly, I'm looking forward to the Coronation Cup a lot more than I am the Oaks. It's a small, yet perfectly formed field. I'd love to see a favourite of mine, Dandino do the biz, but he'll probably be a bit outclassed here. St Nicholas Abbey surely isn't a danger to the fantastic Midday is he? It is however, a cautious statement to make, allbeit with a question mark at the end. The fact is, no one really knows how good he is.

The Oaks looks wide wide open to me. I've taken advantage of the 'Blue Bunting wins, money back' promo that William Hill have going on. I've had a WIN bet (yes... i've had a WIN bet) on Zain Al Boldan (9/1). My each way bet goes on the other Mick Channon runner Fork Handles, for three reasons. 1) It's been backed from 100s into 50/1 over night. 2) Some good reports from people (including @Erm_Racing who's heard she's been working better than her stable mate at home). 3) I asked the dog who was going to win the Oaks and she touched my hand with her paw when I said number 6. So that's a sealed deal then.

Those are my only bets so far, but updates on any last minute bets will no doubt be tweeted (@eachwayemily).

Zain Al Boldan

Last but not least, you may know I've recently taken part in the Filly Factor (a comp run by Racing For Change via www.lovetheraces.com to find the first female commentator). I unfortuantly didn't make it passed the 2nd round and my dreams briefly crashed around me, but I'm now more determinded than ever to get into commentating, and i'm going to give it a go the proper way! The feedback from my audition was generally that my voice wasn't strong enough, so I'm going to shout more from now on.
Jokes aside, I'm hoping that seeing as the competition is being run by Racing For Change, we see some new faces in the next round and not a recycle of the same old same old. I know the competition has angered a few people, infact Sean Boyce wrote a whole blog post about how hideous he found it, so it'd be nice to see a good outcome from the competition and not just a brief flash in the pan of female commentating. It's always nice to prove Sean Boyce wrong isn't it?