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For me Next Destination won’t win the Ballymore on good ground. I just don’t see it at all. Unless the race cuts up.
He doesn’t always travel well but he finds- those are the sort of horses you want on your side.
I believe you just described an Albert Bartlett horse, rather than a Ballymore horse judge. Ballymore/Neptune winners of recent times have mostly proved to be speedsters rather than stayers.
Mike is right, Mullins and Hendo may well go decide to swerve Samcro in favour of the easier option of the AB, but I don’t think either of them would beat Cracking Smart over 3m up the hill.
As judge said both horses look suited to the Ballymore rather than the AB, especially Next Destination. Imo they are at the mercy of the Gigginstown horses in the respective races.
I cannot see Henderson sending On The Blind Side here. The horse has too many gears and has already displayed a turn of foot up a hill – ideal for this race.
Most horses with ability to travel at pace / have gears have been stuffed in this. They come down the hill, turn for home and that’s when the extra half mile does them.
He made no comment about him until yesterday, it was the jockey talking in previous interviewers. Even yesterday although he was leaning towards Ballymore when the interview forced it down his throat by saying “one would imagine its the Ballymore at Cheltenham” he still said he would be entered in the Albert Bartlett, he even said he would get an entry in the Supreme. Never trust Mullins this early in the proceeedings when it comes to Cheltenham entries. He has a pack of cards to shuffle and we’ve been there before when what is said earlier doesn’t actually happen in March.
As I said in a previous post happy to take him on in the Ballymore at this stage.I believe you just described an Albert Bartlett horse, rather than a Ballymore horse judge. Ballymore/Neptune winners of recent times have mostly proved to be speedsters rather than stayers.
not sure, altoir was also a “finder” (or still is, rather) but he won over 2 miles. not sure it depends on the distance, although altoir has a lot more natural speed than next destination.
Thats a fair point, but my point still stands that it is usually a ‘finder’ who wins the AB, and a ‘speedster’ who wins the Neptune. Last year’s winner Willoughby Court obviously in the former bracket, but by and large if you think your horse is one who finds and finds for pressure, the AB is probably the race for him.
Hard to know which bracket Next Destination fits in at the moment, if he must fit in one, but as I’ve said I don’t think he will be good enough to win either race.
Surely the bigger question is whether the horse will stay or not. Next destination doesn’t look like a horse who will get three miles at cheltenham to me, so the logical step would be to keep him to 2 miles four.
Whether they stay is certainly the bigger question ,but not the only one. L’ami Serge for example, he clearly stays 3 miles, but once he’s asked to go and win the race he finds nothing. To win the potato race you usually need to stay AND find for pressure. I agree with ND, 2m4f is probably his best trip, but on a line through Cracking Smart, I imagine Elliot is fairly confident Samcro has him covered.
He has mentioned several times that he hoped he would turn out to be a ballymore horse, not just yesterday
Obviously no definites, but yesterday he gave the impression of the 3 novices that this would be the most unlikely, i think on the blind side will run in the ballymore also, cannot see him throwing a “classy” horse into this type of race
You’re wasting your time on those horses for this slog, they likely won’t even turn up. Look for a tough yoke – fabulous saga, dom dolo are still at decent prices. You’ll get decent price on anything at Warwick grade 2 this weekend, should be an interesting one with callett mad, mr whipped and a few other around the 20/1 mark that are all aiming for this race as they don’t have the class for the ballymore
Why wont anything in the race have the “class” to win the ballymore? Theres 2 or 3 unbeaten horses who all put in nice performances, theres 4 already rated 138+ After only a few runs at the ballymore distance? Fail to see how they cant end up being “classy types”
They dont need to improve that much to be competitive in the ballymore off a rating of 140 after a couple of runs, its entirely possible.
I dont fancy any of them for the ballymore yet, but if one of them was to bolt up on sat, then why couldnt they hust be the type?
Wasn’t really the point of my post (central point that the 2 horses getting most air-time on this thread should be taken on) but sure its possible a class animal emerges for the middle distance novice hurdle on Saturday also… Even though I don’t really fancy any of them for it, and nor do you seemingly!
Another one for Cracking Smart here, a lot to like about the way he finished both of his defeats to Next Destination. Looks noticeably versatile with regards to the ground, albeit as Ginge says – Bumper form over a shorter distance on good ground perhaps doesn’t give you the strongest indication of what he can do come the Spring.
Form actually bears some similarity to that of Monalee’s campaign pre-Cheltenham last year, who was my big 2017 antepost bet. Replace ND with Death Duty, and pray there’s not a Penhill coming round the corner in the next few weeks!
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