“I see the jockeys who rode in the last race have said a mountain has been made out of a molehill regards running the race.”
I’ll remember that the next time they doll off the home straight obstacles at Cheltenham due to low sun.
I would like to know the racing line taken by Sir Gino in relation to that hole. Surely just touching the lip of the hole at half speed could have caused potential serious injury in half a tonne of racehorse?
Was it then exacerbated by jumping the later hurdles? The tail carriage after the 3rd and the way he was moving before going lame 3 out might suggest something was amiss.
It was just as well the hurdle races had so few runners (did the hole appear after the Juvenile hurdle?). Imagine if 18 or 24 runners had been running towards that hole. It doesn’t bear thinking about.
And how could Cheltenham groundstaff tell for certain in fast fading light in January that further holes weren’t lurking or the ground might give way elsewhere? Even Pullin couldn’t say what the issue was.
It was grossly irresponsible to run that last race. Imagine had a serious injury occurred due to a fall at an obstacle and there was no light to see what was going on. The way the day was going it wouldn’t have surprised me in the slightest.