Betfair Chase 2021

[Gingertipster]

“if you look online you,ll see the story about Yorkhill , when he turned up at Thomson yard he had a virus , practically skin and bones, the yard brought him back , made training fun again and then won a grade 2 with him , in my eyes that was the best bit of training of all last season”.

The race Sandy Thomson won was the Rehearsal Chase. A handicap that used to be a “Grade 2” when See More Business won it but not for some time and not last year.

“Brought him back”, brought him back to what? Good though he did in bringing Yorkhill back good enough to win off the mark he was given, was it really as magnificent as you claim, HDLG? He did not bring Yorkhill back anywhere near his best, given massive help by the handicapper and even a boost by Covid.

Thomson obviously deserves credit for first time tongue tie and change of tactics. Yes, Yorkhill “soured” for his previous trainer. Could down tools when hearing the crowd. But if I remember rightly there was no crowd for the rehearsal. Something in Yorkhill’s favour yet nothing to do with his trainer.

Yorkhill also ran off a mark of just 142, that’s some 22 lbs less than his best official rating and 10 lbs less than the 152 of his final Mullins run just two starts back. Indeed – at 1 lb per length – had he ran off the same 152 in the Rehearsal and put up the same standard of performance… Instead of winning Yorkhill would’ve been fighting for 5th position.

Begs the question – had the handicapper not been lenient. Would finishing 5th off 152 in the Rehearsal have been described as “the best bit of training of all last season”?

Plain fact of the matter is when horses are on the downgrade it’s more about whether the handicapper has dropped the horse enough. But that’s taking emotion out of the “story”.

Value Is Everything

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