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Hi everyone,
It’s been a while since I’ve posted on here. I still follow it – there’s still some really good debate and discussion on here – but for some reason I’ve not been as involved as I used to be.
Don’t get me wrong, I still love the game, but does anyone feel a bit, well, cynical about the actual horses these days? It feels like there’s the odd superstar about, but no one who makes me go “yeah, him!”.
I mean, Douvan’s brilliant, but in all honestly he doesn’t give me the thrill that I got from the MEGABEAST. And while Thistlecrack looks pretty bloody special, there’s no getting around the fact that his main Gold Cup rivals this year are an 11-year-old, a crock, a three-and-a-half-miler, a glorified handicapper, and a B-list GC winner (Honestly, take any of the Kauto-Denman-Imperial Commander-Long Run era winners and put them against Don Cossack and its serious beatdown time for the overrated one).
If only Vautour was still with us…
And the hurdlers aren’t much better. I fear that Faugheen isn’t going to come back, there’s something really rather underwhelming about Annie Power, I think there’s a decent chance Yanworth becomes the new Rock On Ruby. Again, no one who gives me the “******’ COME ON!” vibes I got from Hurricane Fly.
Three-mile hurdlers? Meh. Unwhatimeanharry is good, but even then he ain’t no Bucksy.
OK, if the top level isn’t doing much, fine…but there aren’t any handicappers that I’m feeling a lot of love to, either, at the moment.
(You can probably tell by my terms of reference that I’m still relatively new to the game!)
I just feel a bit disillusioned with things. Like I said, I still enjoy racing a lot, I just don’t feel like I’m enjoying it as much. My betting’s doing ok, making a small profit consistenty (and doing most of my winning in the big Irish handicap chases, oddly enough), but it feels like racing’s not getting me mega-excited. It’s not the only thing that makes me feel like that, to be fair.
Does anyone else feel the same way, or is it just me?
FLD
BlueSky @pghenn.bsky.social
So don't run, just like the others always do
I just feel a bit disillusioned with things. Like I said, I still enjoy racing a lot, I just don’t feel like I’m enjoying it as much. My betting’s doing ok, making a small profit consistenty (and doing most of my winning in the big Irish handicap chases, oddly enough), but it feels like racing’s not getting me mega-excited. It’s not the only thing that makes me feel like that, to be fair.
Have you perchance just stumbled into your fifth long decade Fivelongdays?
That’s life
Have you perchance just stumbled into your fifth long decade Fivelongdays?
That’s life
Hey Mr. Drone, I’m 46 (and a half) now…
Is there something I should be worried about?
spill…..
I share some of your deflation; this yr’s Gold Cup + Champion Chase already seem a walk-over ( esp the Champion Chase, Douvan has never even been extended), the Champion Hurdle is devalued if Faugheen and Annie Power don’t make it, and the Stayers Hurdle is meh at the best of times. We need competition, like the golden era of hurdling (Nught Nurse, Sea Pigeon, Monksfield) and 2-mile chasing (Moscow Flyer, Azertioup, Well-Chief)
If you can’t get excited by a novice who, in his fourth steeplechase and with his rider sitting still, shows the NH equivalent of a Frankel burst to put a King George in the bag fully four out…it’s going to be a long, long year for you.
Hey Mr. Drone, I’m 46 (and a half) now…
Is there something I should be worried about?
spill…..
Not you Prancer, Ferrari’s mature but never grow old, even those with an aberrant e and missing l
However, your recent less-than-enthusiastic missives on horse racing’s bright new future on something that no one has heard of called ITV4 has displayed an inkling of curmudgeonly middle-age
Having recently crawled into my seventh short decade (a remarkable feat in itself) comforted by witticisms from the well-meaning along the lines of ‘don’t worry Drone, 60 is the new 30/40/55/59′ and remember to get your old gits railcard’ I’m glad to say I’ve grown out of middle-age and will now leaf through my back pages following the maxim of a well-known groaning Nobel Laureate from Minnesota:
I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now
Ain’t life and Ed Chamberlein great
I share some of your deflation; this yr’s Gold Cup + Champion Chase already seem a walk-over ( esp the Champion Chase, Douvan has never even been extended), the Champion Hurdle is devalued if Faugheen and Annie Power don’t make it, and the Stayers Hurdle is meh at the best of times. We need competition, like the golden era of hurdling (Nught Nurse, Sea Pigeon, Monksfield) and 2-mile chasing (Moscow Flyer, Azertioup, Well-Chief)
When we do get stars like Thistlecrack or Douvan who can dominate fields with their brilliance… that’s wrong because it’s less competitive.
When we have NO stars racing is more competitive… and yet that’s wrong too because the quality isn’t there.If only getting exited when we have at least three of the very very best fighting it out, then you’re in trouble because it’s only going to happen occasionally. Only last season we had three of that quality racing in the King George, Cue Card, Vautour and Don Cossack. Can’t happen every year.
Be fair, you’re expecting too much.
Value Is EverythingI share some of your deflation; this yr’s Gold Cup + Champion Chase already seem a walk-over ( esp the Champion Chase, Douvan has never even been extended), the Champion Hurdle is devalued if Faugheen and Annie Power don’t make it, and the Stayers Hurdle is meh at the best of times. We need competition, like the golden era of hurdling (Nught Nurse, Sea Pigeon, Monksfield) and 2-mile chasing (Moscow Flyer, Azertioup, Well-Chief)
When we do get stars like Thistlecrack or Douvan who can dominate fields with their brilliance… that’s wrong because it’s less competitive.
When we have NO stars racing is more competitive… and yet that’s wrong too because the quality isn’t there.If only getting exited when we have at least three of the very very best fighting it out, then you’re in trouble because it’s only going to happen occasionally. Only last season we had three of that quality racing in the King George, Cue Card, Vautour and Don Cossack. Can’t happen every year.
Be fair, you’re expecting too much.
You are right Ginger; mea maxima culpa
Nah, I don’t think it’s too much to want a little bit of competition. No matterhow much of a Phenom Thistlecrack is, it’s oddly dispiriting to see a novice that’s dominating more experienced horses. Like, I get that he’s really good – the best since The King, easily – but it says a hell of a lot about how piss-poor last year’s RSA was (and how ‘meh’ the three-mile chase division is in general) that this has happened. I’m still looking forward to him winning the Gold Cup though.
Logically, I also think Douvan is excellent (and, again, I hope he wins the QMCC), but I can’t feel the same way about him as I did the MEGABEAST, or even dear old Twisty or Master Minded. A big part of that is Willie Mullins and Rich Ricci are everything that is wrong with racing. (NB this NEVER applied to Vautour)
There’s part of me that misses the 2012/13 season, where there were very good horses in the three-mile chase division, but no proper superstars. And IIRC The Pink And Green Machine Of Evil was nowhere near as big a thing as it was.
I’m just hoping that SOMEWHERE (preferably not at Closutton!) there are a bunch of horses that perk me up and give me a buzz. Just something to make us all think, and debate, and dare to fricken’ DREAM again.
(As an aside, I was feeling much the same about music 12 months ago. Then last year I discovered the likes of Creeper, PUP, The Dirty Nil and Modern Baseball and am feeling much more optimistic about things. Let’s hope the same happens in racing this year).
BlueSky @pghenn.bsky.social
So don't run, just like the others always do
(As an aside, I was feeling much the same about music 12 months ago. Then last year I discovered the likes of Creeper, PUP, The Dirty Nil and Modern Baseball and am feeling much more optimistic about things. Let’s hope the same happens in racing this year).
Yes FFD, the horses are here, you’ve just got to recognise them.
Value Is EverythingIts not the greatest username…
I’d be very happy to be shortened up to Cav at this stage, if the Dear/Great Leader consented from his Borders lair??
I’m all for populism in racing these days, Drone. I’ve no problem with bands, booze, tangerine girls, weather girls or whatever. There are a myriad of ways to engage with the sport on a more meaningful level if your so inclined, but the initial hook for most it seems came through watching the thing on telly. The main telly. Not ITV 4, with its 0.86% of UK audience share.
Its a scandal that the second most watched, and most bet on sport in the land, will play fourth fiddle to “The Kindergarten Kid” tomorrow afternoon. Will be the first time in living memory there will be no racing televised on a terrestrial channel in Ireland on a Saturday. A wretched denouement.
I wonder what effect this will have on betting turnover over the longer term. Cant see that as a positive either. I’m reading Ascot and Epsom were growing increasingly alarmed at their Derby and Royal viewing figures, and strongly supported the switch. I hope Racing hasn’t shot itself in the foot in appeasement.
Very reassured to read your growing younger…I’m on the same plan!
Life and Ed Chamderlane and Lucy Versace are also great.
I wonder what effect this will have on betting turnover over the longer term. Cant see that as a positive either. I’m reading Ascot and Epsom were growing increasingly alarmed at their Derby and Royal viewing figures, and strongly supported the switch. I hope Racing hasn’t shot itself in the foot in appeasement.
Good point Cav,
Tracks with ITV1 coverage would be in favour of ITV, doubt those covered by ITV4 are that pleased.Value Is EverythingAnd IIRC The Pink And Green Machine Of Evil was nowhere near as big a thing as it was.
I’m just hoping that SOMEWHERE (preferably not at Closutton!) there are a bunch of horses that perk me up and give me a buzz. Just something to make us all think, and debate, and dare to fricken’ DREAM again.
Isn’t racing just reflecting society in that the rich (or Riccis) get richer and the rest are fed scraps? The same thing is happening on the flat, with Coolmore cementing their place in an elite of, erm, one.
Furthermore, horses just aren’t part of the public psyche as they once were. A hundred years or so ago, everyone could identify with the horse; now, cars have replaced them in our everyday lives and horses are seen as anachronistic by many.
I think your being grossly unfair on Mullins and Ricci. Its not their fault they are good at finding top class horses. Nor is it their fault that people lose money betting on their horses anti post.
My interest in horse racing always stemmed from gambling and I always loved the RESULT rather than the protagonist. I could wax lyrically about the beauty of a well-planned coup regardless of location in Cartmel, The Curragh or Cloyne (p2p).
My regular travelling partner to Cheltenham would always be blown away by the three annual Champions (and he’d inevitably buy me all the prints on the way home) – my reaction to the level of my “enjoyment” related to how well all my hard work had paid dividends, or not. I followed that Maurice Camacho horse over many, many a cliff.
Give me Charles Byrnes (Mask Of Darkness) over a Denman any day.
So we are all motivated in this game by different factors but I will admit to a serious romance with the Tom Foley’s and Danoli’s of this world.
The present scene of ownership and domination, especially in Ireland, leaves me utterly cold I must say. Ruby’s performance on New Year’s Day when not in the spotlight was abominable and I have ZERO interest in MacManus, Ricci’s, Potts or Gigginstown successes as money is now the sole arbiter. They used to say you had a chance in the NH game but those odds are now entirely stacked against you too and you will be unable to turn down stupid offers because they can and you can’t.
The domination of Mullins and now Elliott is a blight on the sport in Ireland and it is a shame how many trainers – many of whom I know – are struggling without the big four/five in their yards. can you tell me that Eddie O’Grady, Pat fahey, Michael Hourigan, Pat Flynn etc etc have suddenly lost their inherent ability to train a good horse? I thought the Mullins/O’Leary divorce offered some sanity but it has, if anything, now made matters worse by promoting Elliott as the (virtually) sole competitor.
I would prefer to watch a 7yo adjacent maiden in a (literally) ploughed field in Dromahane than offer any view on the likes of Douvan, Annie P & Faugheen. The fact that these great horses are cotton wool- balled and avoid competition is an insult to this great game of yore.
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