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Thats very interesting – so to ask an obvious question, why is Mr. Nicholls listed as the horses trainer, when it sounds like he isn’t?
Thats very interesting – so to ask an obvious question, why is Mr. Nicholls listed as the horses trainer, when it sounds like he isn’t?
Presumably because he holds the licence.
So Davy Russell now has to dine John McCririck, hopefully Davy Russell will invite another guest, Donald McCain and hopefully he buys the fat eejit some humble pie after his disgraceful comments regarding McCain entering Overturn in the Champion Hurdle on Talksport this morning. Think he called McCain a disgrace.
Just goes to prove how full of bullsh!t Davy Russell is. He’s well known for it.
Would NH have entered Oscar Wisky had he known he had Rock On Ruby and Overturn to beat? Admirable runs from them both though.
Thought Binocular was given a shocking ride and should have beaten Hurricane Fly
I think this race is a prime example of where people get caught up with horses getting beaten by short distances. Rock on Ruby’s form, were it not for a head and a neck, would look something like 121311 and he’d be a dual-Grade 1 winner.
As it is, he hadn’t won a Graded race and his form was only 122312.
Another lesson learnt for me. All it takes is not clipping the top of a hurdle to turn around a neck.
I don’t think Ruby had his finest hour either!
He was content to be sat well off the pace and McCoy content to be sat stalking him. I think they both left it too late and let the front two get away.
I still think the 3rd and 4th are better horses than the ones who finished 1st and 2nd.
McCoy should have known all about Overturn having taken that horse on a few times already this season with different outcomes, and Ruby should have known all about the eventual winner….
Great ride from NF though and delighted for him, even though the defeat for HF hurt me really bad in a number of ante-post bets
actually graham rodway made an interesting comment about hurricane fly, on one of the racing post videos, which might explain his lacklustre performance. he pointed out that the horse takes several runs to get to his peak, and that his best performance last season was actually at punchestowns after the festival. maybe he was just a bit short this time?
Yup, that was my initial reaction and exactly what I said in my post on here after the race. Horses with just 1 run prior to the Champion Hurdle don’t have a fantastic record and it could be that he simply wasn’t fit.
re: HF sweating up before the race I think I heard or read somewhere today (may have been the RP post race analysis) that the horse actually sweated up as much if not more before last years race?
As regards him being undercooked by Mullins, he won the 2010 Punchestown Champion Hurdle following a five month break so there is evidence to suggest this horse can win following a sizeable break. Indeed, he also won at the 2009 Punchestown festival following a four month break. I am no expert but if a horse is returning from a 4 or 5 month break is this not virtually the same as making a seasonal reappearance.
I take the point that maybe with age he may require more stoking up, but that would need to be proven first. As things stand I think his achilles heel (stamina) has been revealed today. I know this may seem preposterous as he has won over 2.5 miles in Ireland and France, but they were very slowly run races that arguably developed into sprints and suited him. Today, on good ground the searching gallop seemed to sap all his stamina reserves. I wonder if the fact HF was an 8f flat horse (compared to Istabraq for instance who was placed at 1m 6f on the flat)is now, with the benefit of hindsight, significant and also informed the tactics employed today by the connections of the front two – the race did look over turning for home.
I was delighted to see RoR drift to 11; I’d thought he’d be 7-8, and was a cert to finish ahead of Binocular and be placed.
Having said that, I don’t think the Fly gave his running, for whatever reason. To be beaten by Overturn and just ahead of of Binocular is not his true form.
But RoR won with quite a bit in hand. Will he go to Punchestown for a rematch?It’s very strange looking at the ratings, and I think possibly some of us are possibly looking at the winner through tinted glasses as he hadn’t really shown any real star quality before, but his ratings are strangely similar to Istabraq’s, Hardy Eustace’s & Peddler’s Cross’ in terms of improvement from Neptune success to the following season’s Champion Hurdle runs.
And like I said in an earlier post (of course it’s very easy for me to say this in hindsight, not trying to sound clever), turn around a couple of small margin defeats and he’s a dual-Grade 1 winner and a Cheltenham Festival winner with form that reads 121311, beaten only by a subsequent Festival winner & possible RSA winner & a ridiculous gallop at Aintree when he was possibly over the top anyway. His Cheltenham form would now read 1211 were it not for that head defeat to First Lieutenant.
I’m looking at the Champion Hurdle market & it’s difficult to see some younger horses coming through the ranks to take him on. Darlan, Trifolium, Cinders and Ashes, etc all ran in the Supreme & it’s an extremely difficult transition from Supreme to Champion, Hurricane Fly, Overturn and Binocular will be 9-year-olds, Grumeti, Baby Mix, Pearl Swan & Balder Succes all only 5-year-olds, etc.
Grandouet & Spirit Son the 2 who leap out at me, but certainly I won’t be underestimating Rock on Ruby from now on, especially at a course he obviously loves dearly.
I think a point has to be made heading towards next years race. Spirit Son beat Rock On Ruby by 21 lengths at Aintree last year, and Cue Card by 13 lengths, who himself wasn’t amazingly far away from the uber-impressive Sprinter Sacre today.
There’s 20/1 out there for anyone who fancies getting on early gents
It’s very strange looking at the ratings, and I think possibly some of us are possibly looking at the winner through tinted glasses as he hadn’t really shown any real star quality before, but his ratings are strangely similar to Istabraq’s, Hardy Eustace’s & Peddler’s Cross’ in terms of improvement from Neptune success to the following season’s Champion Hurdle runs.
And like I said in an earlier post (of course it’s very easy for me to say this in hindsight, not trying to sound clever), turn around a couple of small margin defeats and he’s a dual-Grade 1 winner and a Cheltenham Festival winner with form that reads 121311, beaten only by a subsequent Festival winner & possible RSA winner & a ridiculous gallop at Aintree when he was possibly over the top anyway. His Cheltenham form would now read 1211 were it not for that head defeat to First Lieutenant.
I’m looking at the Champion Hurdle market & it’s difficult to see some younger horses coming through the ranks to take him on. Darlan, Trifolium, Cinders and Ashes, etc all ran in the Supreme & it’s an extremely difficult transition from Supreme to Champion, Hurricane Fly, Overturn and Binocular will be 9-year-olds, Grumeti, Baby Mix, Pearl Swan & Balder Succes all only 5-year-olds, etc.
Grandouet & Spirit Son the 2 who leap out at me, but certainly I won’t be underestimating Rock on Ruby from now on, especially at a course he obviously loves dearly.
Excellent post. Also don’t underestimate the confidence he and the team will get from the performance. He reminds me a lot of Hardy Eustace in that he keeps finding and finding. I hope Noel Fehily keeps the ride, I have a suspicion he just might. A cracking jockey and a modest, unassuming man, should think the weighing room were delighted for him!!!! On the satellite yard thing, I am sure Henderson has a similar set up and know Martin Pipe used to, with his son David running the pointers, which is, basically, the set up between PN and Richard Barber.
I believe Hurricane Fly ran below par here. I’ve heard many people suggest he was taken off his feet or that he was outstayed but I can’t have this. The horse has a turn of foot like none other in the land, yet when Ruby pulled him out to close on the leaders the horse just couldn’t go with them. The nitrous injection that Ruby had seemingly expected was non-existent. The horse has shown he stays 2m 4f on soft ground in the past so I don’t think the stamina argument hold much water either.
He ran a similar race to Boston Bob. Coming off the bridle before the turn in and looking at one stage like he might close the gap, before flattening out again. Many of the Mullin’s horses ran poorly over the course of the week. Midnight Game and Uncle Junior both ran stinkers on the Tuesday, Sous Les Cieux disappointed me on the Wednesday, among others. It might say a lot about Hurricane Fly and Boston Bob that they got as close as they did, given connections post race comments that they ran flat.
I don’t think Ruby gave Hurricane Fly a bad ride either. The horse simply wasn’t good enough on the day. Great rides from the front two, fantastic to see Fehily ride a Champion Hurdle winner after all the years of trying to bag a winner at the Festival.
I suspect the answer lies somewhere between . . . HF is overrated at Cheltenham and RoR is underrated at Cheltenham
I’d have to agree. Hurricane Fly’s Champion Hurdle probably wasn’t as good as it was said to be. Peddlers Cross hasn’t lived up to the hype and Oscar Whiskey hasn’t done much better.
BUT>>>Different day different tactics he’s still good enough to beat the likes of Rock on Ruby but there will be others to worry about next year so I doubt if he’ll be winning the title back anytime soon or Rock on Ruby will be retaining it.
Shocking decision by the AP JP NH team to ride Binocular the way he was ridden. No way could he out speed Hurricane Fly had it come down to that.
I mean how stupid is it to change the tactics that won you the Champion before?
I was worried about Hurricane Fly being the same horse before the race and possibly it is the case he has lost a bit of his zip. He’s probably still the best hurdler around at the moment, even if he is over rated a bit.
I recon one of the Nicky Henderson due or Spirit Son and Grandouet will prove the best around next year, time will tell
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