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I think David is doing a fantastic job keeping some of the classy older horses in the yard such as Madison Du Berlais, Our Vic, Well Chief, Lough Derg, Tamarinbleu etc. fit and fresh enough to do themselves justice.
Where are the next generation of young horses going to come from? I look through his Cheltenham entries and there is nothing of note even down to run from the younger end, Mamlook and Mr Thriller excepted.
What is going on here?
There’s certainly been a big drop in the number of novices in the yard. Go back three or four seasons and they regularly had 200+ runners in novice hurdles alone – this season to date, that figure is less than 80.
Seems unlikely that this is a policy decision by the trainer, but more the fact that his main owners are either not buying (Johnson), or have moved on (Barr).
It was noticeable the day I spent at Newmarket Sales in October that he was there, but couldn’t compete with the likes of Howard Johnson, Alan King, Jonjo, or even Donald McCain.
AP
The Pipes were over dependant on owner David Johnson and he was over dependant on them. His financial business has been badly hit by the credit crunch and he’s not buying.
Ostensibly more affable and outgoing than his father, David seems to have tried to recruit new owners but that’s not easy in a recession.
He had two good winners on Saturday and Lough Derg ran bravely under a big weight, but Well Chief doesn’t retain anything like the ability he had before injury intervened and Ashkazar and Tamarinbleu looked gone at the game.
Some of Johnson’s are getting on in age. Over The Creek looked finished today.Mr Thriller is useful but not top class.
I like Ronaldo des Mottes for a big h’cap hurdle.
With the downsizing of Johnson’s string, Timmy Murphy is underemployed .
Scu jnr is improved but no McCoy, Dunwoody or even his Dad
With the downsizing of Johnson’s string, Timmy Murphy is underemployed .
Overemployed shirley?
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There are noticeably fewer runners from the yard at the moment, but they are by no means devoid of talent. Seven Is My Number, Mr Thriller, Mamlook (who’s still only six) and Acambo will continue to pay their way and there would appear to be plenty still to come from the likes of Ronaldo Des Mottes, Master Overseer, Qulinto, Leo’s Lucky Star, Sure Josie Sure and the recently impressive British debutant Notus De La Tour.
The balance of financial power may have shifted since his father’s day, but David’s not doing a bad job in the circumstances – Thomas Barr sending Torphichen and Osana over to Ireland can’t have helped matters – and still has plenty of horses capable of winning races. They won’t be top class races, granted, but winning trainers will always attract owners in the long run.
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