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A strange time to suddenly change tactics. Leading so far out on a horse lacking race fitness. Add in the heavy ground and in my opinion this was a candidate for the worst ride of the season.
On the face of it I’d agree, but I wonder if it was in order to give BB a real hard blow?
Getting to the front so far out was always going to mean he was in the thick of a stiff battle up the hill. I get the feeling they may have wanted him severely tested ahead of the World Hurdle.
Mike
After hearing Nicholls speak after the race, i came the conclusion that Sam had been asked to give BB a good race, make some use of him. Brilliant run against three or four race fit rivals
Nicholls seems to be plotting the season well, as he’s just proven again with Lac Fontana.
Seven Barrows picking up about £12,000 on a big Saturday is farcical, really.
Given the storm we had here that was like the one at Cheltenham I wonder what the ground was like? There seemed to be a lot of talking on phones prior to The Cleeve and I was wondering if it was crossing their minds to pull him out of the race? I probably need to watch it again, as it was a ‘watch through my fingertips’ race for me, can’t believe how nervous I was.
If he’d been trained by a certain Mr Donovan i’m sure he’d have bolted up
Not at those prices!
Mike
A very satisfactory return, and still the best option in what looks an even weaker division than usual; unless Annie Power runs, of course.
heavy ground lack of fitness and being ridden from the front – and a bit of age.
when fit still a beast – magnificent animal that might still win come march.
not the force of old but the proximity of others gives us all a clue.
Any ride is easily criticised in hindsight. BB has pulled and been hard to settle in the past. Why would STD want to get into an early fight with a horse who’d be even fresher than he normally is?
He let the horse bowl along using that big engine he obviously still has. There was no sign of his customary flat spot, no idling, to my eye. He ran a huge race after that injury and layoff and in that ground against a most consistent horse who at one time indicated he might make the top class (he was beaten less than 10 lengths in Mik D’Haguenet’s Neptune (Baring Bingham))
It was also KB’s ideal ground as he’s full of stamina, and the decider looks to have been the breathing op, letting him finish off his race. We hear plenty of the 30lbs behind BB stuff, but you wouldn’t have expected BB to run right up to his rating. KB has been rated as high as 155 in the past and was in receipt of 8lbs.
Look at the RPRs: if you accept that BB didn’t run within 10lbs of his best, it was a most open race – including the winner.
I think too much is being laid at Sam’s door just because a long shot won it. Had AFC just touched him off, I doubt there’d be anything like this flak for the jockey. You’ve got to ride the race as you see it from the off. He might do it differently in the WH, but that doesn’t mean today’s was a bad ride imo.
Don’t really buy this ‘lack of fitness’ stuff nor the ground excuse
One of the many things this horse has done admirably well is run to form – and win – after a layoff; prior to today he has won all his seasonal starts after 6 or so months off
Is 14 months off likely to render a horse less fit than 6 months off, and if so why?
There’s also no apparent distinction, ratings-wise between his wins on good, dead, soft or heavy, including the Cleeve on heavy in 2009
Nope, on today’s evidence he’s not the horse he was, which isn’t too surprising given his injury and age
Betfair’s current ~5/2 for the Stayers’ doesn’t appeal
I’m reminded of the ‘out with the old in with the new’ when Inglis Drever (5/1) toppled Baracouda (6/5) in 2005
I seem to be in the minority on this forum in not believing that young STD is the second coming !
That said, I cannot see how todays ride can be criticised, as apparently he was riding to Nicholls’ instructions.
In my view it was a good performance from the horse in the circumstances , but the instructions themselves were flawed.Wonder what price the winner was turning in? Looked 1st one beat.
I only wish Solwhit was running at Chelt – he would be an odds on shot (IMO) running at an very attractive price.
I think he would have beaten a peak BB, but that’s only me.
NB – they both did mate!
Drone, his seasonal debuts in the past have been in easier races than today’s. He’s run just twice on heavy ground over hurdles before today, both times, he’d had at least one race that season.
As to the fitness question, I don’t know. It depends when PN was able to start working him compared with previous seasons, and how much work he needs as he gets older.
But going by opinions on here, and social media, today’s run certainly seems to be dividing people, not least the bookies: anything from 5/4 to 3/1 for the big one.
After all the attention regarding the change of jockey Nicholls was never going to criticise the new jockey in public.
‘Ride him positive’ doesn’t necessarily mean you take the lead three out.
I thought it was Iris’s Gift that beat Baracouda Drone.
True Moe and thanks. Much to my annoyance I forgot that! I was referring to the next year, 2005 when Inglis Drever delivered a second ‘topple’, I suppose you could call it
I think the point pertinent to this thread may be that Baracouda was a short-priced favourite on both occasions; a situation that may re-occur with Big Buck’s come this March and if so a scenario I, at present, would relish if betting
Actually, for the sake of everyone’s favourite soft target Sam T-D I hope BB does win!
After all the attention regarding the change of jockey Nicholls was never going to criticise the new jockey in public.
‘Ride him positive’ doesn’t necessarily mean you take the lead three out.
I thought he settled and jumped better for Sam than he ever did for Ruby. When asked to quicken down the hill he did so and did it again going toward the last in perfectly straightforward fashion. No signs of a quirk throughout the race or on the run-in where he hung left, probably, imo, from tiredness. He kept on right to the end in game fashion.
Drone, I wasn’t nit picking
It’s just that, you know the way some things stick in your head in a ‘frozen in time’ way? We were at Cheltenham when Iris’s Gift won; we’d followed himall season [even down to seeing him getting beat at Punchestown] and the thing that sticks with me is seeing Francois Doumen standing behind Baracouda, with his hands on the horses back and the saddest look on his face..not a sadness at losing the race but a sadness for the horse.Crippled me to see it
[albeit dead chuffed for Iris’s Gift [Ted?]who I adored].
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