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GW ran a lot worse at this festival last year so Mullins can get him right but I don’t think he’d be quick enough on better going at Cheltenham.
Charles Darwin to conquer the World
While Mullins is in he can explain the run yesterday of Ile Antiquue , honestly I reckon the horse has some issue , he’s now 1 in 5 and must be a bookies fav , winner is a solid horse and thought Marine jumped really well , at Cheltenham on better ground he maybe a bet
Does MN always carry his head in that way? It was stretched out but also up in the air from the very start, almost as if something was bothering him or he was struggling to get air.
“No clue what Townend was doing – unless he has been given no feeling from the horse, he was never put in the race and it wasn’t as if he was pushing him along early he just sat with his hands on the horse’s withers.
Stewards need to have a word with him and get an explanation as that looked awful”.
—————————–That was what I was thinking too, LD.
Non-trier in a Grade 1?
I know he ran badly at Leopardstown last year and the track may not suit him. But that’s no excuse not to push the horse along. Seemed as if Townend had lost the use of his arms until rounding the home turn. When the winning jockey is the nephew of Gaelic Warrior’s trainer and is attached to that yard surely the stewards should at least ask some questions?Value Is EverythingThe winner was quite brutal, I mean his time was 5.6 secs faster than the RP standard and also 15+ secs faster than anything else today and he was make the running all by himself.
It was a very impressive performance and proved his Christmas win was no fluke.“Surely the stewards should at least ask some questions?”
Stewards Report:
“The Irish Horseracing Regularly Board Veterinary Officer examined Gaelic Warrior, trained by W.P Mullins, at the request of the Raceday Stewards and reported the animal to have a small skin wound over the lateral sesamoid left fore but to be otherwise post race normal.”
And that, as far as I am aware, is it. No questions asked as to why Paul Townend felt it was a good idea to drop 30 lengths behind and seeming to make no effort whatsoever behind a proven Grade 1 winning front runner.
Gary “The Voice of Irish Racing” O’Brien said nothing on RTV either. Nor did intrepid reporter Nick Luck. Lydia Hislop didn’t mention it much, if at all. And there was no chance Ruby Walsh was going to bite the hand that feeds him.
No doubt someone will come along to defend the ride but in my opinion it looks rancid. The reaction of the stewards and the media only makes it worse.
Maybe there is a perfectly acceptable explanation for why Townend made no effort in the middle of the race, although I very much doubt he could have known about the (by the sounds of it) very superficial injury. But I don’t accept the idea the horse could not go with the pace or was so badly inconvenienced by the ground.
The race going public deserve an explanation at the very least, not radio silence.
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