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I may be having a Stevie Wonder moment, but nowhere on this thread have I read what John Hales is alleged to have said.
Does anyone have any idea what Down’s article was actually based upon?
"What Downs has said is his opinion. An opinion I think is absloute garbage. With his experience he should know horses are not machines and you don’t have a fuel injection lever you can pull on at will.
If he is insunuating John Hales was some kind of masterplan to set up the race for Kauto Star then the man is bonkers, totally out of order and should be removed from his post."
Where in print has AD expressed any of the opinions attributed to him the quote above?
Alastair Downs has opinions – about racing , horses and God forbid owners! And he communicates them better than anyone in the Post.
Why should owners be above criticism?Im not a fan of Down’s either but isn’t this all a fuss about very little?
Yes Down was probably wrong to say what he did but shouldn’t Hales just shrug his shoulders and respect Down’s right to have his opinion, however silly or innacurate it is?
I don’t like all this suing of people.
When does Alistair Down officially leave his post at Channel 4 racing ?
I happen to like him. But maybe I’m in the minority (again !
)Gambling Only Pays When You're Winning
No Aristo – Down intimated that John Hales was far from happy with the tactics used on NC because Kauto Star was in the comfort zone all the way.
I read on another forum that there was a small altercation in the winners enclosure resulting in PN walking away from the Hales team shaking his head.
All sounds like crying over spilt milk on both sides if you ask me.
If Down & Hales still have beefs with each other (and by the look of both of them they like a lot of beef!), why don’t they settle it by a Sumo showdown (best of three)?
Katie . welcome to the forum ,,
, love the sumo idea , absolute quality more please , before these jumping nuts hibernate for the summer
have fun
Ricky
If you read Paul Nicholl’s column in today’s Post you would be left assuming nothing had happened. I find that very hard to believe.
I went to the Midlands Racing Club Cheltenham preview on the Thursday before the Festival. Hislop, Machin, Mellish, Sam Turner at al on the panel.
John Hales was there, and was asked up to the mic to discuss NC’s chances. No doubt that he fancied his horse big time. It seems that he had plotted how the race would be run with military precision. Can’t remember the precise details, but he was saying something along the lines that he hoped to be 7L ahead of Kauto at the top of the hill, and 4L behind him over the last, and would then do Kauto again up the hill.
He seemed, as I say, big on his chances, but not to the point of obsessiveness.
I just suspect that with John Hales, the journey from lighting the fuse, to it going off is a rather short one sometimes.
It may well be that the toys did come out of the pram…and that at times he can appear graceless (eg when he spoke about having "put him on the deck" when talking about Moscow Flyer).
Storm in a teacup methinks.
No Aristo – Down intimated that John Hales was far from happy with the tactics used on NC because Kauto Star was in the comfort zone all the way.
I read on another forum that there was a small altercation in the winners enclosure resulting in PN walking away from the Hales team shaking his head.
So in effect he was saying NC should have set a faster gallop. The quetion remains coukd he have and if he did would he be cuttinng his own throat.
I would imagine Hales was in agreement with PN that NC couldn’t do a Denman and the plan was to conserve some energy for the latter stages.
The fact Kauto Star was in the comfort zone was he was simply in tip top condition and it had nothing to do with NC or the gallop he set.
NC simply doesn’t have the class to kive with NC when he’s in that sort of form and that is the simple truth of the matter.
If Mr. Downs, who I happen to like and have a lot of time for, was not saying the above I would love to know what he was trying to say?. John Hales has the right to be angry if the man is suggesting he was cheating by making it easy for Kauto Star.
He’s been taking silly pills IMO but John Hales should be like Ronaldo when he gets fouled. Get up get on with it and forget it happened. Nothing can change the result now and AD’s words are already fish n chips
He definately said that if Kauto was 4 lenths up at the last fence Neptune Collonges would get past him; he also told us to back Nipper ew last year and I, for one, ignored him. Mick Fitz gave the horse a peach of a ride last year…after what Christian williams said on the Morning Line and seeing the was he rode the horse [with no one realising that the horse was carrying an injury] my first thought as an owner would have been that he was ridden to help Kauto Star win [as happened, in my opinion 2 years ago]. Storms in teacups, perhaps, but Mr Hales gets very emotional about his horses [are you going to the Aintree preview, Sauron?; Cheltenham was the best yet, and the tipping was v. good]
Surely if you are going to cast aspersions on the character of Mr Hales, you actually have to back it up with some evidence?
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Fists
Neptune Collonges could have set a better pace, should have, and most certainly did last year where, far from being outpaced as was the case this time, he finished best of all the principals.
Whether it would have incommoded Kauto Star enough to make a difference, neither you or I could say, but it is blindingly obvious that NC wasn’t ridden to best advantage, and the owner has every right to complain when, as it seems, the race was orchestrated against his own horse’s interests.
The only energy he was conserving was apparently that of his stablemate’s.It was quicker ground this year maybe Neptune wasn’t comfortable going a stride faster.
i agree with many of you storm in a tea cup i also think A Down is by far the best writer in the post a wordsmith who conjures up the emotion in racing perfectly .Carry on Mr Down
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