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All you lads that ranted about the ride at Tipperary (that I saw nothing wrong with) – where are you now the real skullduggery has gone on?
Watching the Irish St.Leger live from Donny last Saturday, I could not believe what I was seeing – Scorpion hosing up, Yeats struggling to get near him…then…Scorpion becomes seriously unbalanced for no apparent reason, allowing Fallon to catch him with 50 yds to run.
Either Heffernan is seriously inept as a jockey and has no business riding for a top level stable, or he did that deliberately as connections were desperate for Yeats to win. You decide.
I couldn’t hear Fallon on RTE properly afterwards but I think he made some jokey comment about Scorpion having his own ideas about the game or something like that.
It looked bad to me TBH
My initial reaction on watching was that it looked poor but on reflection and after seeing the head on it was apparent that the horse wasn’t helping the jockey. Scorpion is notoriously difficult and I think as the horse tired he started lolling about. (lolling about is a technical term btw!)
Not the tidiest of finishes by Heffernan by any stretch and I doubt he’ll ever be promoted to the top job but I think that hinting at skullduggery is utter nonsense.
WW
Watch the race on ATR or Tube a few times (ATR can be slowed down and includes head on)
You may come back with a different set of rhetorical questions.
Heffernan was less than adroit in pulling his whip through and looked weak generally but there was nothing more to it than that.
Of more interest to me was the way in which the Ballydoyle horses were ridden in yesterday’s National Stakes. By accident or design, they succeeded in compromising Rio De La Plata’s chance although, in the event, it benefited neither the O’Brien team nor Myboycharlie.
Specifically, it seemed to me that as the stalls opened Dettori wanted to have his mount prominent, tracking New Approach. However, O’Donoghue on Great Barrier Reef went across him, obliging Dettori to take Rio back to nearer last than first. Dettori later seemed slow to react as Manning kicked on but when he belatedly went in pursuit McDonogh on Minneapolis seemed keen to keep him in and Dettori couldn’t begin his run when he wanted.
Taken in isolation, these would appear to be no more than normal "race-riding" incidents of the type you see every day but it’s also worth pointing out that just after the turn Heffernan on Lizard Island took a long look round to see what was happening behind him when on the face of it he’d got his horse in a perfect position, tracking the leader on the rail, and merely had to concentrate on what was going on in front of him.
I’m not anti-Ballydoyle. We’d be a lot worse off without their willingness to campaign their horses in the way they do but although I’m no conspiracy theorist yesterday’s race left a bad taste, for me.
Ctiticism of Heffernan’s ride on Scorpion is ludicrous. He’s a thinker, and when push came to shove he threw his head up and didn’t want to go through with it. In retrospect Shamie might have been better off using hands and heels as his response to the whip wasn’t helpful but to suggest he was stopped in favour of his stablemate is the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard for some time. I backed Scorpion each-way and was quite happy with the ride- with anything else chasing him he’d have won.
Hadnt really noticed that Gus, but interesting in itself
If true, then it does leave a nasty taste and thos on top of a few incidents this year which have alientated punters
They have enough power not to have to resort to such nonsense
"Scorpion is notoriously difficult"…."Scorpion is a thinker"
My notes based on watching him closely in the paddock and throughtout his races at Chester, Epsom and Ascot (twice) this year are that he is a free-sweater and edgy in the preliminaries. I saw nothing in any of those 4 races to suggest that he was a particularly awkward ride. Some of you boys just make it up as you go along, I think.
I remember Dettori riding Scorpion from the front in the St Leger and he didn’t seem to shirk the issue. He was awash with sweat that day too.
Saying that, as a son of Montjeu it wouldn’t surprise me if he’s losing interest in a fight. It was similar with Montjeu himself and Hurricane Run is good example of how his offspring tail off mentally.
or maybe, just maybe (and I know this sounds crazy) he was beaten by a better horse..
or maybe, just maybe (and I know this sounds crazy) he was beaten by a better horse..
Yeah your right there, and it’s even more difficult when your riding a finish against Fallon, Yeats is better than Scorpian and Scorpian has had a reputation for being difficult, don’t think there is any more to it than that!
Cant believe the disparaging comments being made about a 120-rated Group 1-winning horse. Would love to read the descriptions you reserve for common-or-garden handicappers with half his ability/rating. Scorpion is a top horse and switch the jockeys on Saturday and he would have won another Group 1.
Scorpion’s ability isn’t in question, but his temperament is quite rightly coming under scrutiny. Agree with what the welsh wizard says initially in that he’s an edgy type that gets geed up in the preliminaries but that it doesn’t affect what he does in the race.
However he clearly didn’t fancy it imo once Yeats got within hailing distance, sticking his head in the air and running about under pressure.
Cant believe the disparaging comments being made about a 120-rated Group 1-winning horse. Would love to read the descriptions you reserve for common-or-garden handicappers with half his ability/rating.
That’s coming dangerously close to equating ability with temperament, isn’t it? Monkeys / dogs / nutjobs are monkeys / dogs / nutjobs whether they are Classic animals or teenage point-to-pointers! It is fundamentally dishonest for anyone in racing to insist otherwise, and it’s why I am always hugely appreciative of the brutal honesty of Timeform, Mackenzie & Harris, etc. in highlighting as much in their respective fields.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Temperament is a totally overplayed aspect of horse racing analysis, particularly in this instance. Is Scorpion inconsistent/unreliable? His form-figures certainly dont suggest so. Likewise, Harchibald received this sort of a abuse. Despite the fact that he was only once outside the first two in about ten outings at his peak (before injury apparently diminished him).
On Saturday jockeyship was the winning of the Irish St Leger and I certainly concur with the view that the will/right to win was stronger on one side.
I would hardly count my point as anything as strong as abuse, and in answer to your original question, I would accord the common-or-garden handicapper exactly as much of a comment on his irresolute behaviour as the Group 1 winner! I repeat; any notion that a classy performer as Scorpion undoubtedly is should be any less exempt from having his temperament called into question than (((racks brains for hairy dog at the very opposite end of the ability scale, and finds…))) Trooper doesn’t stack up in my view.
…And I’m not sure how such a thing as suspect temperament can be regarded as totally overplayed, when it does make a difference to the outcome of a select number of races every year. But for that temperament, Carthy’s Cross would never have racked up 13 places from 19 chases without winning one (despite being poised to in most of those), and Ouninpohja would be down in the record books as this year’s County Hurdle winner. Laying the former in-running has been one of my most consistently profitable pastimes of the summer – I don’t regard that as overplayed or as an irrelevance.
I will also add that Sunday’s race hasn’t had the slightest influence on the above, largely as I haven’t seen it yet. But if Scorpion did dog it (the debate wil continue), then for crying out loud don’t let past achievements or the kudos of his 120 rating influence anyone into insisting he didn’t.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
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