- This topic has 9 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 6 years, 2 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
Looks like Cooper is going to be Potts rider in England. Would have preferred Power on Finians Oscar
Johnny Ward @Ui_Maine · 2h
Best of luck to BJ Cooper with two rides in Ludlow tomorrow for Alan Potts, the start of new axis there with the English owner, with RM Power to ride the Irish runners. Cooper expected to ride Finian’s Oscar if he runs Saturday.Daunting first assignments for Cooper at Ludlow tomorrow. He’ll be trying to nurse the erratic Mick Thonic around before trying to persuade notorious dodgepot Exxaro to put his best foot forward in the feature race.
Not a good start for Cooper, obviously low on confidence at the moment.
Seemed unsure how to ride Ludlow when trapped out wide and shunted around in traffic aboard Exxaro, finished last. Then a soft unseat from Mick Thonic. Neither horse is an easy ride, granted, but he must be feeling pretty low right now.
I would have thought Potts would have preferred Power in both countries considering the jockey’s successes at the end of last season.
As for Cooper, he is not the first nor will he be the last ‘next big thing’ to achieve extraordinary glory when too young to handle it. No doubt he has good riding talents but not as exceptional as the media and others led him to believe. I know he’s had injuries but could that be partly be due to his own deficiencies in presenting a horse to an obstacle? Whatever, Cooper does not appear to have developed his skills or matured off the track as should have been expected since he burst onto the scene, losing a top job and witness today at Ludlow where he gave Maybot like answers to interviewer Alex Steedman while coming across as a person uncomfortable in his own skin before riding poorly.
Another great day for Cooper! A bad blunder and forced to pull up on Mick Thonic followed by a fall at the second last when looking the likely winner on Sizing Tennessee. How long will this arrangement last? I’m not sure Alan Potts is a particularly patient man. Meanwhile, its noticeable that Colin Tizzard chose to use Robbie Power on promising winner Slate House. No reason Power can’t come over to ride the Potts horses in Britain as well as Ireland.
No question Tizz prefers Power. Almost landed a nice touch at Chepstow a week or two back when Power came over for one ride Lostintranslaton – backed from 9s to 11/2. Travelled like a good thing and was going so well that he badly overjumped three out and almost came down. Finished 2nd in the end to a good prospect of Nicholls.
Young Cooper strikes me as a bit too big for his boots. He actually issued a press release when speculation was building over the Potts job: all that, ‘I have been linked, blah, blah blah, there are no agreements in place blah blah blah’ . Cannot think of any other jock who voluntarily sent out a press release. Almost as bad a sign as referring to yourself in third person.
This from Chris Cook in The Guardian earlier this week:
“One of the trickier trainer/jockey relationships in the run-up to the Cheltenham Festival will be that between Colin Tizzard and Bryan Cooper. The pair were unexpectedly brought together by the late Alan Potts in early October and it has never seemed that either man exactly rejoices in the company of the other.
Matters cannot have been improved on Sunday, when the Potts family-owned, Tizzard-trained Vision Des Flos bounced back to form with an impressive success at Exeter under Tom Scudamore, when there was no obvious reason why Cooper could not have been in the saddle. Vision Des Flos is now a contender for the Festival’s Ballymore Hurdle.
In a snatched phone call yesterday, Tizzard denied that Cooper had lost his position as the main rider of the Potts horses based in England. But that was as much as the trainer was prepared to say on the subject of jockeys and it seemed to me to fall short of a ringing endorsement.
Tizzard, I believe, would much rather have continued to use Robbie Power, who remains first jockey for the Potts horses based in Ireland. Power, after all, won four Grade Ones on Tizzard horses in April. Who wouldn’t want him?
Cooper, on the other hand, has seemed short of his best in the last 18 months and particularly since losing the Gigginstown job. Ireland is a very competitive place for any jump jockey and he has not been picking up good rides for new employers. His strike-rate this season is 8% and he has not ridden a winner for six weeks.
Any trainer would wonder if that’s the right man for his horses at the Festival. Potts’s heirs seem content to leave decisions in the hands of their trainers, so we may hear more on this subject in the coming weeks.”
Lo and behold:
“Robbie Power will be first choice on all Tizzard Potts family horses at Cheltenham” (Racing Post).
Bryan Cooper’s record in the last 21 days – 5 rides – P5FPP. His two intended mounts at Listowel have been withdrawn though he has a runner shortly. His last ride was on 27th August on a 50/1 shot.
He has had extremely bad luck with injuries but his confidence must have been totally shot for one to go from the top job at Gigginstown not so long ago to riding virtually nothing.
Here’s hoping that this post will bring him luck as the opposite usually happens to what I think.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.