Well he did it with Leopardstown at the DRF a few years back when they happened to be quicker than soft and he got them to water for the next day – I guess good ground is the new good to firm.
The other trainers should come out and say we hope for the ground to be like this as often as the weather allows it because if Willie isn’t going to be sending his horses over it will give us all more of a chance to win the big races.
Personally, if you have a NH horse that can’t race on good ground then they either shouldn’t be in training or you should head to France where it is nearly always soft and the prize money also happens to be better.
To be honest connection have absolutely no clue whether FTF would or wouldn’t have gone on that good ground, the amount of times horses surprise trainers in doing something the trainer thought beforehand that they couldn’t do is numerous.
Good ground is not a welfare issue – if you consider the ground too fast for your horse(s) then follow what trainers do with horses that don’t want soft ground………don’t enter or run them.