The final haul at Ascot was £52,000 and certainly relied upon good luck. The rain’s arrival on Thursday night made calculation extremely haphazard. Not merely was the data supporting the claims to handling very soft ground very shaky there was the problem of deciding where the draw on the straight course would be adverse or less so. Guesswork was called for.
This was of course the first meeting with some sort of crowd since 2019 and ITV have taken over broadcasting rights. There can be no doubt that Ascot has finally lost its cachet whereas prices seem to have continued to motor ahead. However, the racing continues to be utterly absorbing.
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Housing has lately been rocketing in price where such advances are excluded from any computation of price levels in general to determine inflation. The advances are caused by a vast sea of easy money and will have to be brought under control. This means higher interest rates and a sharp decline in the long gilt. There is still time to short this, currently standing at 127.82.
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A few days ago Pittards (LON:PTD) announced that it intends to buy back its capital. I think that this is a fairly bullish development since an announcement to buy back at 55p what is possibly worth 110p on published figures is very encouraging. I am worried that PTD could be caught up in political troubles in Ethiopia. But I just hope that their manufacturing operation will stay a long way from the fighting.
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Talking of fighting it seems that Myanmar is descending into civil war. Just what the military think they are achieving I cannot imagine.