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2nd Unlike it happening in the Grand National, the general public will be unaware of this as no papers will report it, or print it in their racing pages at least.
Not too sure about that – the BBC News Channel have been giving it prominent coverage in their sports bulletins and it is also appearing on the "latest news" strapline on the BBC News website since it happened.
I would be surprised if the Daily Fascist, sorry Mail, don’t have something about it tomorrow.
Mine was merely a token gesture, Ginge. Wouldn’t ask you to justify anything either, although I’m sure you’d have no problem in doing so if I did…
I mean, feeling like taking a swing at someone in a betting shop for not showing due compassion/not giving a toss about a horse that had just fallen? Give me a break!
That
is what I’m talking about.
I know exactly how THM feels. On a visit to Cheltenham a horse fell and ran off with half his leg flapping loose. The four people behind me started laughing. I turned around and shouted "that horse has paid for your enjoyment with its life"! Later, two of them searched me out. Told me it was their first visit racing and did not realise the horse had died. Only laughing because one of them had lost his money (again).
The people in the betting shop should know better OTS.
Value Is EverythingIf some of your were half as distraught as you make out, you wouldn’t be betting on horses. So much sanctimonious bollocks it’s unreal. Still, if it makes you feel better or gives you enough strength for the next ‘click’, it’s all good, innit?
R.I.P. Darlan.
Welcome back old boy,I do hope you weren’t including me in that general swipe across the bough there! I still haven’t looked at my photographs from today and I left the course straight after,is that sincere enough for you?He was my Number 1 horse to go to battle with,a real athletic powerhouse of a horse,a horse I have spent the past year writing about on here and he proved every word about him was correct!
Desperately sad for the horse and his connections. What might have been.
"this perfect mix of poetry and destruction, this glory of rhythm, power and majesty: the undisputed champion of the world!!!"
OnTheSteel, you’re a hypocrite. I can use the same logic and imply that you don’t care as muchb as you preach, given you watched it. You’ll probably watch more horse racing this week.
Maybe before you start spouting nonsense, make sure the logic you employ doesn’t light up the room like a disability.
Mine was merely a token gesture, Ginge. Wouldn’t ask you to justify anything either, although I’m sure you’d have no problem in doing so if I did…
I mean, feeling like taking a swing at someone in a betting shop for not showing due compassion/not giving a toss about a horse that had just fallen? Give me a break!
That
is what I’m talking about.
I know exactly how THM feels. On a visit to Cheltenham a horse fell and ran off with half his leg flapping loose. The four people behind me started laughing. I turned around and shouted "that horse has paid for your enjoyment with its life"! Later, two of them searched me out. Told me it was their first visit racing and did not realise the horse had died. Only laughing because one of them had lost his money (again).
The people in the betting shop should know better OTS.
When I wrote that post I was still absolutely gutted and fuming to be honest. To say I felt like taking a swing at someone was probably an exaggeration and I regret typing that.
However, it was plain for all to see in the betting shop that the poor horse had died, yet all they could do was laugh at his expense and celebrate that their 2 bob bet came in first. Frankly, people like that really **** me off
There’s something quite lugubrious yet morbidly fascinating about watching quarrels at a funeral…
Gloria Victis, Valiramix, Wichita Lineman, Synchronised and now Darlan! All seems a bit too familiar. Can’t put my finger on it but there’s something about this jockey’s riding style that doesn’t quite gel with me. Maybe he’s just damn cursed!
Go on, slag me off now. I can take it.
I’m not going to ‘slag you off’, GoRV, but have to highlight some things about those horses. McCoy can hardly be blamed for most of their sad deaths.
Gloria Victis was a novice who jumped violently right-handed throughout the Gold Cup. Owner/trainer error for entering the horse.
Synchronised had a strange style of jumping. After seeing him blunder around Cheltenham, goodness knows why JP and Jonjo went for the National with him. In any case, the horse was injured while running loose after losing McCoy.
Valiramix was six of one and half a dozen of another. Ansar was weakening, while Valiramix carted McCoy into the back of him. Debatable.
Witchita Lineman got unsighted at the back of the field in the Irish National. Again, arguable whether he could have been better placed, or just a freak accident.
Let us not forget that AP is the man who managed to get Iris’s Gift around in one piece in the Gold Cup and won the National on chancy jumper Don’t Push It!
Tis a a truly sad day for racing. Such a strange end – he just didn’t jump the last at all, and he was cruising – he really must have been some machine. Nothing to look at IMHO, but his engine would surely have taken him close to winning the Champion crown, I’d certainly have had him over Hurricane Fly.
To have Desert Vision be destroyed at Wolves on the same day is very morbid. An even odder fatality, that one. He was travelling well in front and then just broke a leg and it was horrible to watch him suffering.
No doubt this will be grist to the anti-racing mill.
Deaths don’t happen very often AFAIK, but two in a day of only two meetings.
Zip
Gloria Victis, Valiramix, Wichita Lineman, Synchronised and now Darlan! All seems a bit too familiar. Can’t put my finger on it but there’s something about this jockey’s riding style that doesn’t quite gel with me. Maybe he’s just damn cursed!
Go on, slag me off now. I can take it.
I’m not going to ‘slag you off’, GoRV, but have to highlight some things about those horses. McCoy can hardly be blamed for most of their sad deaths.
Gloria Victis was a novice who jumped violently right-handed throughout the Gold Cup. Owner/trainer error for entering the horse.
Synchronised had a strange style of jumping. After seeing him blunder around Cheltenham, goodness knows why JP and Jonjo went for the National with him. In any case, the horse was injured while running loose after losing McCoy.
Valiramix was six of one and half a dozen of another. Ansar was weakening, while Valiramix carted McCoy into the back of him. Debatable.
Witchita Lineman got unsighted at the back of the field in the Irish National. Again, arguable whether he could have been better placed, or just a freak accident.
Let us not forget that AP is the man who managed to get Iris’s Gift around in one piece in the Gold Cup and won the National on chancy jumper Don’t Push It!
Some while ago now, I mentioned that AP rides a chaser towards a fence as though it’s a hurdler. He takes more risks and is an aggressive rider. Watch him riding Gloria Victis in the closing stages of the 2000 Gold Cup … at the third last, the commentator says that GV is "booted into the fence" by AP. The same happens at the penultimate fence and GV comes a cropper. Yes, every jockey falls many times in their careers but, as far as NH is concerned, can a jockey’s riding style be too strong for a horse or can a horse sense what jockey suits it?
I did read somewhere that Mr McCoy has the highest horse fatality count of NH jockeys? Even Clive Smith felt that AP’s style was too aggressive for Kauto Star when he rode him in the 2010 King George.
Regarding Synchronised, I felt that when he unseated AP before the National, one feels that the signs were out there to pull the horse out of the race and the jockey should’ve recognised that Synchronised was spooked and didn’t want to take part. While Synchronised died out on his own during the race, hindsight appears to show that the seed was sewn for the horse’s demise even before his fall at Beechers. Could’ve been prevented IMO.
I hope AP doesn’t ride Sprinter Sacre at anytime in the horse’s career if Barry Geraghty isn’t available. I get often butterflies when AP rides an excellent horse.
Some while ago now, I mentioned that AP rides a chaser towards a fence as though it’s a hurdler. He takes more risks and is an aggressive rider. Watch him riding Gloria Victis in the closing stages of the 2000 Gold Cup … at the third last, the commentator says that GV is "booted into the fence" by AP. The same happens at the penultimate fence and GV comes a cropper. Yes, every jockey falls many times in their careers but, as far as NH is concerned, can a jockey’s riding style be too strong for a horse or can a horse sense what jockey suits it?
I did read somewhere that Mr McCoy has the highest horse fatality count of NH jockeys? Even Clive Smith felt that AP’s style was too aggressive for Kauto Star when he rode him in the 2010 King George.
Regarding Synchronised, I felt that when he unseated AP before the National, one feels that the signs were out there to pull the horse out of the race and the jockey should’ve recognised that Synchronised was spooked and didn’t want to take part. While Synchronised died out on his own during the race, hindsight appears to show that the seed was sewn for the horse’s demise even before his fall at Beechers. Could’ve been prevented IMO.
I hope AP doesn’t ride Sprinter Sacre at anytime in the horse’s career if Barry Geraghty isn’t available. I get often butterflies when AP rides an excellent horse.
Well, that for me goes down as the most stupid post I have ever seen on this forum.
And that’s saying something! You really have not got a clue "Ghost".Whenever a jockey sees a long stride he is "booted" in to the obstacle.
If AP "takes more risks and is more aggressive" then that would show up on the amount of falls. Please provide the statistics! I suspect percentage-wise AP has fewer falls than most jockeys. Has so few injuries that it has enabled him not just to win so many jockeys titles on the bounce, but to win them by a wide margin. If you are correct that AP has more fatalities attributed to his mounts – then surely that is due to having far more rides than anyone else. Please provide statistics to back your theories up, or are you happy to condemn the man on heresay?
Am sure some horses are more suited to Ruby Walsh’s style and some AP’s, but AP can adapt. It wasn’t long ago that he was criticised by some for a sympethetic ride on Binnocular on reappearance.
Could it be that Clive Smith was looking for an excuse for Kauto Star’s defeat? The horse was below form all season long for whoever rode him. Walsh himself often made mistakes at the last fence on him. One time Ruby remounting is thought to have injured the horse.
"Hindsight appears to show" NOTHING as far as Synchronised is concerned. To think AP should’ve known Synchronised was going to lose his life merely because he jinked going under the starting gate – just proves it does not matter if there is NO evidence what so ever; you are out to get Tony McCoy and will use any unfortunate accident to do so! "Ghost" pretty much sums you up mate, looking for a supernatural reason for something happening.
Value Is EverythingVery sad. I didn’t see it, and I don’t want to.
Regarding the post about the arseholes cheering when Darlan went down. The game is supported by such people unfortunately and idea of ‘purging the game of them’ is highly quixotic; their unflagging addiction to gambling is what the sport is financed by. Most have become de-sensitised by the long and embittering process of becoming a gambling addict and doing business with Mssrs Hills, Ladbrokes etc
2nd Unlike it happening in the Grand National, the general public will be unaware of this as no papers will report it, or print it in their racing pages at least.
Not too sure about that – the BBC News Channel have been giving it prominent coverage in their sports bulletins and it is also appearing on the "latest news" strapline on the BBC News website since it happened.
I would be surprised if the Daily Fascist, sorry Mail, don’t have something about it tomorrow.
Why do you think the Mail is a ‘fascist’ paper, Paul?
Not too sure about that – the BBC News Channel have been giving it prominent coverage in their sports bulletins and it is also appearing on the "latest news" strapline on the BBC News website since it happened.
Wondered if anyone else would spot that on the BBC website.
Moreover, was it only me struck by the site content editors’ need to write the headline as:
Horse Darlan suffers fatal fall in race
rather than just:
Darlan suffers fatal fall in race
?
It beggars a number of possible interpretations. The least harmful one is that they were just trying to disambiguate; to explain, perhaps, to less racing-savvy readers that Darlan wasn’t an ill-fated jockey with a surname that sounded like a South America footballer.
The more worrying interpretation would be that the intention was to place disproportionate emphasis on the fact that Darlan was A Horse. In case you missed that, dear BBC website reader, that’s A Horse. A Horse killed by racing. Isn’t that outrageous. Good job we don’t cover this sport live anymore.
That’s probably written more sarcastically and less artfully than I’d like, but I trust the point is understood. I can’t quite credit that the word "horse" wasn’t included in the headline without some motives, and maybe not the purest ones. Like the Mosey era before it, the Slater era is one in which there is no vested interest in painting our sport in an any way favourable light or even-handed manner.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
You’re probably reading too much into it.
What percentage of the Horse Racing community including general fans watch the BBC news? roughly about 60% upwards a general estimate.
Now if you were to reverse that and say how many of the BBC viewers actually watch Horse Racing? you’d be closer to the 1-2% mark.
It’s worthwhile reminding that Darlan had still a lot of work in front of him in becoming a household name and testament to the BBC who put the story out ahead of many other more pressing issues in society.
I do genuinely believe if a big household name like Kauto Star or Frankel (god forbid) had a similar accident then they would use the term horse as well.
Listen, we wanted more coverage of the sport externally and we’ve got it. It’s no time to start quivering over the word "horse" when someone finally shows us interest.
And that’s saying something! You really have not got a clue "Ghost".
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