- This topic has 76 replies, 22 voices, and was last updated 5 years, 2 months ago by
.
- Posts
Yeah dbr, that really was a top class bumper field, the formlines tie in everywhere.
That was just unreal.
That almost defied belief. I doubt I have ever seen an easier bumper winner. I reckon this could win something good on the Flat.
He will surely get a huge rating for that
Has blown apart a top class field
What distance do we think for him over hurdles?
hink Ramilles took on Cromwells as he’s seen as the stayer out of two and if he was to win it was by using stamina.
Would say Kilcruit is fast and 2mile or 2m4 would be fine.
Twitter: Jackh1092
Hindsight is 20/20 so make the most of it!Yeah 2m to mid, very high cruising speed
Yes FF, im intrigued what they will give him, its goinf to be big
RPR 142- only Champagne Fever equalled that in the Chelt bumper recently. He had The New One, jezki, Many Clouds and Moscow Mannon in behind….
Twitter: Jackh1092
Hindsight is 20/20 so make the most of it!Thanks jack, interesting stat and very Intriguing. especially, considering the depths of his ability in a bumper have not been tested atall, what could he have ran today if he had to?
Everything about todays run points to something special.
Again sir gerhard hasnt set a foot wrong, as impressive as he appears, i cant see him contesting with that sort of form, im still overwhelmed by it and ive watched it about 30 times over lol
Should be a cracking race in prospect im hoping for a performance like that at chelt, shame none of us will be standing on the track to witness!
Reminiscent of Dunguib
Ahh Nath, just hearing that name is the equivalent of a straight woman getting whispered sweet nothings by Tom Hardy
Dunguib that is….not Nath
I nearly posted my preview on here but realised I hadn’t looked at all the horses and hadn’t reasoned why I was rejecting them. I just focused on the top 4/5 in my eyes.
Not doing this to look amazing or making it up but my other mates don’t get horse racing.
I know times aren’t the be all and end all in national hunt races but it isn’t going to do you any harm if you can post a fast time BUT you may have been running at max to get that time while a ‘slower’ horse just beats what it needs to (you also don’t know if that ‘slower’ horse has much in the tank at all)
Kilcruit quickened away lovely when asked to and his time was pretty good. However, the horses behind have both been upped in trip (only to the next step of 2m4f) so maybe the way he quickened away wasn’t as impressive due to that. However, again, the clock doesn’t lie and he did extend well when asked and travelled really smoothly throughout the race. The third place horse has gone on to win and the 2nd placed 4th in his race.
Ramilies is a funny one, he has only raced twice, once in December 2019 and the latest win. You can’t really hold a FTO loss against him (Kilcruit did the same). Tucson train has done nothing (7/16, 6/7 and 2nd to Ramilies) in his races so there’s not a yardstick to use against him but on the other hand, it did ensure that he didn’t really have to do anything but a tiny little bit of hands and heels to go away.
Was a different course to Kilcruit but times were very similar so maybe it’s closer than I thought but, to my mind, Kilcruit won by further, and the horses behind have done well. Ramillies jockey (Patrick Mullins) didn’t have to go for Ramillies at all, he did bounce up and down on Kilcruit but no whip. So perhaps Ramillies is the the better of the two visually. Jennings from Racing Post had an hour long interview with P.Mullins last week and he said Kilcruit is brilliant – he rides him out every day, didn’t mention Ramillies.
Hollow games was flat to the boards to win his last race. Was a better time than the others at the top of the market and Jack Kennedy will be riding Sir Gerhard so that tells you most of what you need to know. The 2nd horse Eurotiep has gone on to win over hurdles but he wasn’t trying towards the line and Hollow games only won by 1¾ lengths when getting 3lbs.
So, onto Sir Gerhard. The super strong favourite. He didn’t impress me as much as I was expecting LTO, he beat Letsbeclearaboutit by 4½ lengths with a very similar amount of encouragement to that given to Kilcruit. However, Sir Gerhard was racing throughout most of the race behind the bridle and did get going well when encouraged to do so. Letsbeclearaboutit was giving Sir Gerhard 3lbs. To be honest, I expected Sir Gerhard to win far more easily and, maybe just my preference on how I like my horses to race, it was far less impressive than both Kilcruit and Ramillies.
His time at 4m 15.9s was 5 seconds slower than Kilcruit’s but he was also getting 3lbs (on the same track and slightly worse conditions – maybe the weight allowance negated the poorer conditions).It’s easier to compare the times at Navan for Kilcruit and Sir Gerhard as they were at the same track. It’s harder to directly compare the Ramillies time as it was at Leopardstown.
Unfortunately, after a quick internet search, I can’t tell how much (in time) the status of the ground makes but I suppose we now know the quickest NHF times at those courses (on good ground). Navan appears to be the quickest track of the lot but there’s not much between them.
Conclusion
I’ll probably end up with egg on my face but I just don’t fancy Sir Gerhard at the 3.75 he currently is. Time and visually it wasn’t the best. Elliot’s Three Stripe Life was only 4 seconds slower and the ground looked worse.
Sir Gerhard is no longer entered (shame), Patrick has chosen to ride Kilcruit so that’s a good indicator (and as a creature of habit, Willie also won this race last year with Appreciate it in the same colours). I’d guess that, at least at home Kilcruit is the better horse and therefore why Patrick is riding him.
If things go as they look they should, Kilcruit should shorten in the market for the bumper.
So, my choice is KilcruitAfter the race yesterday, I am obviously very impressed with Kilcruit.
Don’t think Patrick even gave him a squeeze and he beat Letsbeclearaboutit by 12 lengths without encouragement.
Glad I took the 10/1 several times before the race yesterday as, visually, that was mighty impressive and he also won the race in 4m 2s without going for him.From his previous race, he responded to pressure and quickened away lovely.
He beatKilcruit has been impressive on Winter ground. Sir Gerhard will be better on better ground. Kilcruit ground preference, he may not have one, but we don’t know. I’m not losing faith in Sir Gerhard, we have seen horses over the years impress on Winter ground and underperform at the Festival. All to play for.
What do you mean mike? The ground was soft, it wasnt a bog, soft is what cheltenham will likely be, im not entirely sure what your saying here, winter ground is what we get at cheltenham …
Kilcruit did look to have a very pronounced knee action on first viewing
Id have to watch it back to be sure
ham there was heavy in the going description. We don’t usually get that at Cheltenham.
We have had soft ground at cheltenham plenty, in more recent times ie klassical dreams year it was pronounced soft on the day but a bog would be a better way of explaining it, winter ground is winter ground, the aim for cheltenham is soft ground otherwise you get a host of NRs if good is mentioned.
He will be fine on soft anyway
Also, i dont understand why your saying sir gerhard will improve for better ground? hes won only on soft, arguably last time out was probably softer than yesterday, hes by a sire whos progeny are by far more suited on soft/ soft to heavy than any other going, so why will he be suited by better ground? There is some hope on the dam sire side, not much though
I dont see why kilcruit has the ? Marks?
I’ve rewatched the race from Saturday, soft to heavy was the description but, to me, it was on the soft side of that.
However, I don’t think that Kilcruit’s action was particularly higher than any of the other horses in the race.
Sir Gerhard’s race was the heaviest of ground raced on. He won but it certainly wasn’t impressive. Maybe he will be better on better ground but the direct comparison is Letsbeclearaboutit and kilcruit beat him by 12 vs 4.5 lengths of Sir Gerhard’s.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.