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Impressive performance by Jered. Certainly looks like he’ll develop into a serious contender for the Champion. AP could have some headache if he has to choose between him and Binocular if they both show up in March!
Morgiana could be a very informative race if that’s his next destination:
Punchestown 16 November 2008 MORGIANA HURDLE…..Entries……..
1P263- Aitmatov 206 Noel Meade 7 11-10 158
11226/ Brave Inca 570 C A Murphy 10 11-10
14165- Catch Me 206 (28F) E J O´Grady 6 11-10 147
2327U- Cork All Star 208 (57F) Mrs John Harrington 6 11-10 141
162P/4 Cuan Na Grai 42 Paul Nolan 7 11-10 135
/1204- Harchibald 205 (37F) Noel Meade 9 11-10 160
12220- Hardy Eustace 248 D T Hughes 11 11-10 160
25111- Jered 208 Noel Meade 6 11-10 155
2-0331 Raise Your Heart 31 Ms Joanna Morgan 5 11-10 137
/F110- Sizing Europe 250 Henry De Bromhead 6 11-10 167
1170-4 Five Dream 36 P F Nicholls 4 11-7 145
2121-F Pierrot Lunaire 21 P F Nicholls 4 11-7 157
21231- Won In The Dark 204 Sabrina J Harty 4 11-7 135
14-401 Megans Joy 42 C A Murphy 6 11-5 137Jered is woefully short in the market now having been cut for beating what ammounts to one rival and Cork All Star is only rated low 140’s.
Interesting prospect but nothing more than that at this stage, 6/1 is skinny as a rake.
He will be woefully shorter come march, this horse is different class to
anything in this years Champion! Katchit will see the backend of Jered
quickening away from him! i just hope he gets there!I think you are saying if Crack Away Jack Jered or Binocular won the Champion hurdle against those mentioned they would have to be extra special? That’s half the field
Not at all- perhaps I should spell out my initial sentiments to you. If Katchit (who just isn’t a good Champion Hurdler, no matter what theories you cook up), Osana, Punjabi etc finish in the same postcode as the winner this year, it hasn’t been a “Classic” Champion Hurdle.
Surely its early to say Katchit isn’t a good Champion Hurdler ?
If Katchit were to beat a fully fit Sizing Europe this year and win the Champion Hurdle would that make him a good Champion Hurdler ?
or if he went on to win the next 3 renewals ( Big if but it could happen ) would he still not be a good Champion Hurdler ?
Maybe he isn’t a great Champion Hurdler, but imo saying he isnt a good Champion Hurdler is harsh, he’s the first horse in how many years to win the Triumph then the Champion the year after, maybe it wasnt a great Champion Hurdle he won but you can only beat whats put in front of you.
It’s not too early to say Katchit isn’t a good champion hurdle winner it’s totally ludicrous. The horse pi++ed up in the Triumph slaughtered them at Aintree, wasn’t off a yard for most of the season and goes on to win the best Champion Hurdle since Istabraq.
This season’s renewal has the makings of the best Champion Hurdle for years. Something you simply couldn’t say, not even in a dream, about the Hardy Useless days.
I haven’t much else to say on the subject other than to say those who think
Hardy Eustace, Brave Inca or Rooster Booster are names for the hall of fame should take up tiddlywinks and give racing a miss.Great performance by Jered but at the moment I am still convinced he has a bit to find on Binocular. Between those two Crack Away Jack, Sizing Europe and Katchit I’ll be damned if anyone can come up with as many Champion Hurdle possibles over the last 5 years who were all running at the same time. Right now I wouldn’t argue with anyone who said they fancied any of them………..great race in prospect!!!!!
Hardy’s performance in his second champion could hardly be described as useless. He was never going to let Harchibald go past and lets not forget Harchibald’s performance at Newcastle last year when he laughed at the current champion.
Hardy had a whole host of class performers in behind him that day:
Harchibald has won two Fighting Fifths, a Bula and a Christmas Hurdle.
Brave Inca won the Supreme and was a future champion. Accordion Etoile won a Greatwood and a grade one as a novice chaser. Macs Joy was a multiple grade one winner. Al Eile has won three Aintree Hurdles. Rooster Booster was a former champion. Back In Front won a Supreme Novices and a Bula. Essex won a Pierse Hurdle and a Tote Gold Trophy off 11st6. 2005 could hardly be classed as a weak renewal in my opinion.He may not have been Istabraq but it takes a bloody good horse to win at three consecutive festivals and to be placed in the next two.
Fists
Best CH since Istabraq ? You’re having a laugh !
2008 4 mins 8.1secs Good/Soft – Katchit
2007 3 55.7 Soft – Sublimity
2006 3 50 Good/Soft – Brave Inca
2005 3 51.5 Good – Hardy Eustace
2004 3 54.5 Good – Hardy Eustace
2003 3 54.7 Good – Rooster Booster
2002 3 53.8 Good/Soft – Hors La Loi III
2000 3 48.1 Good – Istabraq
1999 3 56.8 Good/Soft – Istabraq
1998 3 49.1 Good – Istabraq
1997 3 48.4 Good – Make A Stand
1996 3 59 Good/Soft – Collier BayI admit using times over NH can be a bit of an inexact science but over ten seconds slower than any CH since 1996 (even allowing for the wind) and slower even than Captain Cee Bee in the Novices. Katchit won by being the gutsiest horse on the day who managed to handle the wind and tacky going best and benefited from Sizing Europe stopping as if shot. He beat Osana who is a decent sort but not sure is top class, Punjabi who is better on flat tracks and Sublimity who barely jumped a hurdle yet still finished within 7 lengths ( a bit like Kauto Star in the Gold Cup
) . Personally I think Katchit has a fair away to go to match IMO the best Champion Hurdler post Istabraq which is Brave Inca, who since his 5 year old days has run 18 times over 18F or less winning 10 times, second 6 times and third twice , 15 of those races being of a Grade 1 status.They were racing against 40mph winds at the time of the Champion Hurdle…enough said bout that.
You would think there was a million years between these horses running.
Hardy Eustace started 3/1 second favourite and Brave Inca around 5’s in Sublimity’s Champion Hurdle. They were still the "Elite" He destroyed them and by jupiter he was simply not a good winner by any stretch of the imagination.
You know all last season I kept saying so and on the day me and the lads who were on at 12/1 were laughing all the way to the bank. It doesn’t seem to matter that to you die hard Hardy Eustace and co fans that Sublimity was the reigning Champion Hurdler that Katchit left in his wake and Punjabi destroyed in Ireland.
Don’t throw times at me look at the form and read it. It doesn’t lie. I wouldn’t give you 10pence for anything that ran in the Champion Hurdle between Istabraq and Katchit. Without doubt the worst bunch of hrslers in the races history sine I first saw Magic Court win under Pat McCarron.
I will give you this. It does take a good horse to win a Champion Hurdle but there are Champion Hurdlers and Champion Hurdlers.
Menstion Sea Pigeon, Night Nurse, Persian War, Bula e.g. immediately you think "Class Horse" a real Champion….I’m sorry but when I hear Rooster Booster I just cringe….nothing more than a handicapper in the right place at the right time.
I disagree about sublimity being useless, sublimity IMO is a very good horse, when he gets his ground, he had no sort of prep for this years champ hurdle and still ran a good race, despite mistakes.
IMO the 2008 champ hurdle wasnt a weak one but it was a tactical one thanks to Osana, and that ruled a lot of the field out of it, as some were sat so far off a slow pace to ever get into (sizing europe, who I didnt back was much better than where he finished), but that made Katchits win all the more impressive, whilst at the same time I think that with those same tactics Binocular and Crackaway Jack would have had all the speed to be involved in that finish.
This years champ hurdle will be a very interesting one and does look full of classy animals.
Form book says Harchibald could NEVER get past Hardy Eustace.
Form book says Harchibald could get past Katchit. Or was it windy that day too?That may be so, PV, but if we’re going to start measuring horses by how Harchibald performed against them?…………well, we would be as well giving the game up.
In Harchibald’s case, the statistics are like a mini-skirt – hinting at something, but ultimately hiding more than they reveal.
Was that the day at Newcastle when the dogs were barking "Don’t bet Katchit" The day when there wasn’t 10 pence for the horse on the course? or don’t you remember me saying so about a dozen times last season.
If you believe that was Katchit’s true running you should re-mortgage your house and back Snap Tie for the big un
I think one of the lads from the yard confirmed that Alan King ran him knowing he wan’t right and he had another set back and missed work before he was beaten hands down by Osana.If you want to get silly about this Peruvian try this for size. On a line through Harchibald Katchit is the best champion hurdler of all time as he beat Harchibald by 33 lengths in the Champion Hurdle against Hardy Eustace beating him by a neck.
To be honest I think Harchibald was a class horse and the best of them all during that era, but unfortunately he was a funny old sod who just wouldn’t go past on an off day. Hardy Eustace was lucky it was Harchibald and not something like Sizing Europe that came at him cantering that day.
Its not concrete, and that is my intention. Neither is the lines of form through an equally unreliable beast in Sublimity. Nothing is as clear cut as Mr. Fury seems to intimate. I’m all for debate, but all this tripe about anyone disagreeing with his rants knowing nothing and taking up tiddlewinks is a bit much.
Edit – the above is to Grasshopper
Fists – Sizing Europes best piece of form to date is an 8L beating of an over the hill 11yo Hardy. If Hardy "Useless" is such a "boat" and not worth "ten pence" in his prime, why would this piece of form impress you so much?
Fists – Sizing Europes best piece of form to date is an 8L beating of an over the hill 11yo Hardy. If Hardy "Useless" is such a "boat" and not worth "ten pence" in his prime, why would this piece of form impress you so much?
It wasn’t the form that impressed me it was the horse himself. If you look back my posts from last year you will see I backed him at around 12’s or 16’s along time before that race.
I wasn’t the only one who was impressed by that peformance wasn’t he made a 6/4 favourite right after the race?
IT’s fine for you to say he was over the hill but he had won the Coral that season and reversed form with Al Eile when Sizing Europe beat him. Obviously not the force he was but he still had a lot of his old ability. Joint fav Al Eile was far fom over the hill either and went on to win again at Aintree.
SE won with such authority I sincery doubt if Hardy Eustace of old would have lived with him in what was a breathtaking perfomance.
Every corner you turn points to this crop of hurdles being streets ahead of those you are defending.
My advice is have a right bet on Crack Away Jack for the Fighting Fifth to beat Sublimity. A comparitive novice taking on a Champion Hurdle winner.
This Crack Away Jack is a right horse and I although Newcastle is taylormade for Sublimity who should run really well I think you’ll find he gets outclasssed by his younger rival.
I completely disagree, you weren’t impressed with beating Hardy 8l but were impressed with "the horse". What exactly does that mean? "The horse" was impressive BECAUSE he beat Hardy and co.
Katchit lost to Harchibald because the "dogs were barking". Katchits CH time was unimpressive "because it was windy". (Captain CeeBee obviously never noticed). You say look at the form book then come up with every old school cliche in the book when the form book doesn’t agree with your theories. You cannot have it all ways.
And Hardy was certainly past his best last season – there is simply no arguement to be had about that, its a fact.
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