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If ever proof was needed that a decent jockey makes a yard this is it. Last season with the hapless Tony Evans and David England, the wheels came off at Naunton.
I agree entirely about Evans but England is a reasonable jockey. The stable would have done a lot better last season if he had taken all the rides.
My understanding is that PB wished to return to the South at the end of last season and the offer of the No. 1 position at Twiston-Davies’ gave him the perfect opportunity. So it’s not true to say that he "lost his job" at Howard Johnson’s.
Not sure that the fact that N T-W’s horses have for once kept their form for a whole season can be related to Paddy’s arrival, though.
My understanding is that PB wished to return to the South at the end of last season and the offer of the No. 1 position at Twiston-Davies’ gave him the perfect opportunity. So it’s not true to say that he “lost his job” at Howard Johnson’s.
Howard Johnson was unhappy that Paddy Brennan wouldn’t move to a Northern-based racing agent of Johnson’s choosing. Brennan returning South at the end of the season was not the original plan, nor would it have happened as soon as it did had the partnership with Johnson remained more harmonious.
Not sure that the fact that N T-W’s horses have for once kept their form for a whole season can be related to Paddy’s arrival, though.
As far back as the big Market Rasen meeting last September, NTD was claiming that the bubble was sure to burst imminently, as it always does, owing to the comparatively “unsexy” bloodstock he buys in – compared to many trainers – being outclassed from there onwards.
If nothing else has changed about the way he has campaigned, fed, exercised or anything-elsed his string this season, and yet results have been as good as they have for as long as they have under Brennan and England, then I think some of the credit can be laid at the riders’ doors. How much is a matter of opinion!
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.
think the trainer/jockey relationship is a very important one; I’m sure that Ferdy Murphy is missing Graham Lee at the moment; when is he due back?
I rate Brennan highly, very highly.
The ride he gave Pigeon Island the other day at Cheltenham in a slowly-run, small field was very very good.
Also, I think his riding of Battlecry, and judgment of pace, has been excellent.
Agree.
Nigel Twiston-Davis has had a very good year, i think there was a month before Cheltenham or so when his form dipped a bit, but he has had a great season.
Paddy Brennan looks to have got himself a very good position at the yard and they seem to make a good team.
Not a tactic I particularly like but more horses being ridden from behind has probably been a factor in the string retaining their form for a longer period.
The stable doesn’t have the firepower of others at the sales but has always been backed by a few influential owner-breeders. It should also be remembered that this season they were missing Carlitos who was potentially the best horse in the yard.
Relationships between trainers and jockeys are of mega importance and credit must be given to both. He is obviously a top class jockey riding for a top class trainer.
Jeremy touch on how much credit do you give to the jockey?There is a bit more to it that just saying great trainer great jockey.
When you get right inside racing a jockeys advice is very important to a trainer, perhaps just as important as their riding abilty. Most trainers depend on them to assist in entries and whether to run in certain races against certain opposition.
Jockeys chat to one another every day and if they ride something special they talk about them to fellow jockeys on a daily basis. They are by far for the best part better judges than trainers and why wouldn’t they be. They are armed with more information about what is going on.
A trainer may well not know a horse from another yard is exceptionally useful whereas his jockey is more likely to. The trainer may avoid sending a horse for that race and place him somewhere else.
That kind of inside knowledge that only Jockeys have can make the differnece between 70 winners and 90 winners in a season.
So People like Davis and Brennan, Phillips and Walsh are teams and one would be lost without the other on many occasions.
I personally prefer to think of them that way and give credit equally to both
" Jockeys chat to one another every day and if they ride something special they talk about them to fellow jockeys on a daily basis. They are by far for the best part better judges than trainers and why wouldn’t they be. They are armed with more information about what is going on. ": FOFF.
And no better man than King Kieren!
Simply the best.I do not know why N. T.D. horses always do well at Perth.
He has been targeting this track for years now and following all of them blind has produced massive profits to level stakes year after year.
Whatever jockey rides for him at Perth does well.
The recent success cannot be put down to the jockey. Over time the strike rate for the combination will be back within normal range. Next month there will be another human superstar in great form when in reality they are just having a lucky run of success.
NTD specially targets Perth and is always looking for opportunities to add to his score. Some times he simply runs a class horse in a weak race to clock up another point on the board. He also treats his trips to Perth as a holiday staying locally with a very wealth landowner friend on a nice country estate.
My understanding is that Twister started off by sending horses up there in the autumn for good ground and decent prize money, had a few winners and has continued to support the track. He’s not the only southern trainer with a good strike rate there, but he does send far more horses to Perth than the others. In fact it’s worth noting his horses any time they travel.
The oddity is the record of Henderson, who can’t buy a winner at Perth and whose horses seem to get a nosebleed as they cross the M62 going north!
AP
Agreed, AP – it’s increasingly as much to do with what Perth is like as a course and what rewards it offers, rather than it being a place to hoover up with class horses in weak races.
Granted, Wallace is correct where the likes of Knowhere’s bloodless first chase win against some very limited opponents 20 months ago is concerned, but I couldn’t honestly say that there look to be too many short-priced-NTD-hotpot-versus-the-living-dead races at the Festival this year judged on the size and depth of today’s and yesterday’s fields.
There is even a brace of 18-runner handicaps to keep Glenn and his many disciples happy – no superstar in the Kilmany Cup, one of these, but the maximum field for this feature 3m chase must please the course executive hugely.
Jeremy
(graysonscolumn)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.
Seconded, MP – many pundits, myself included on occasion, seem to have spent half the winter trotting out the "oh, it’s bound to come to an end very soon" line, only for it not to!
The cupboard doesn’t exactly look totally bare of horses who can graduate from bumpers to hurdles, hurdles to chases, novices’ chases to handicap chases, etc.; so whilst there will undoubtedly be a fair number of horses starting next season on unfavourable handicap marks, I don’t think the effect of that on the yard’s string will be overly crippling.
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.
The stats simply do not back up the theory that NTD/PB combo is something special.
Year S/R all courses
2000 13%
2001 8%
2002 9%
2003 19%
2004 21%
2005 13%
2006 12%
2007 17%
2008 13%It is very easy and becoming more common for people to jump on a bandwagon and claim a jockey or trainer is something special. A reasoned analysis of the stats usually disproves these hype theories.
Show me a trainer or jockey with a consistent strike rate over 30% from a good sample and I will start to get interested.
However NTD’s record at Perth over the same period is impressive and shows he really does target Perth as a favored hunting ground. This is the type of easily found stat that journalists, presenters and mug punters latch on to and destroy any value.
Year S/R Perth
2000 67%
2001 29%
2002 9%
2003 50%
2004 44%
2005 23%
2006 29%
2007 29%
2008 80%How many runners have the combination, or indeed just Twiston-Davies, had in each of the given years? I would suggest 13% across 600 runners is far more impressive than 13% across 50, despite the proportion remaining the same.
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