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Corm,
It could be said that horse looked as if he was having his first sight of a racecourse.
He looked green leaving the stalls and in the race he pulled hard and, after all, he had quite a few outings as a 2-y-o.
The horse is, as you say, a real character but there must be doubts of him being able to show his true ability ever again.
If he was gelded he’d make one hell of a racehorse!!:o ;)
Colin
Agree with all you say Colin.
If they do geld him I do think he’d make up into a triumph hurdle candidate?
:)
George Washington imo put up one of those rare performances where a horse earns more praise in defeat than he would achieved in victory. Kinane’s ride was absolutely atrocious, as Ec says, ignoring the pacemaker the race was far from truly run and the first 2 were always those that were best placed.
All the talk has been about George Washington. What about Soviet Song, although the race wssn’t run to suit, to me it was further evidence that she isn’t as good as she was and that she must be taken on in races like the Matron and Sun Chariot later in the season.
When O’Brien was asked beforejhand if he had left anything in GW for the future he said "loads", he hadnt been trained off the bridle since the injury and he’d only had one racehorse gallop, not at full pace. Which kinda gave away the fact that he was going to come on for the race. As for Soviet Song Spencer spent the race watching for GW, despite the fact that Soviet comes best off a fast pace. A poor performance from an overrated jockey in my opinion.
Cormack,
I am not saying that GW was unfit ie underconditioned I am saying the horse is untrained in the sense that he is disobediant or does not follow instructions. It is true that he is the half brother of Grandera who was also very quirky, but GW looked totally in charge rather than the rider. I know that many race horse trainers are frightened to introduce Monty Roberts type obediance training to their charges for fear of blunting their performance but a horse who will not settle, throws its head around and carries it high and to the left has no chance at all of showing his talent.
Monty transformed Lomitas for instance and much of the success of German horses IMO is the great stress placed on "obediance" training since they reason you cannot unlock talent until the horse is both listening to and heeding you.
I get where you are coming from Galejade but I do think it’s a bit harsh to say he looks ‘untrained’ when it seems pretty clear that he’s a nutjob who is, in all probability, untrainable to a degree.
However, you could be correct and they may not have tried to sort him out for the very reasons you describe. Afraid to take his edge off maybe?
I really am getting sick of Kinane leaving his horses with too much to do. He consistently does it. His ride on Karawana last week was typical of him . Last turning for home, with a shortish run in. Pulled the horse wide and it flew home, an eased up third. And yes, I am talking through my pocket.<br>He is putting me off backing any of his mounts. Hes dangerously close to going down the Dicky Hills road in my book. I simply wont back his mounts.
As i said yesterday Kinane did nothing wrong! Fallon wudda done the same he wudda sat chilly and not burst the horse in the 1st 200 yards like a less experienced jockey may of done like ( Danny Grant on Ocean Pearl 2 saturdays ago) It was a flip start he started 2nd last drove the horse for the 1st furlong to sit 2nd horse had no kick left and finished beaten 15 lengths as a 8/13 fav) Its funny how some can change there Mind about a jockey so quickly, On wed He was a genius for his ride on Alexandrova but if he wudda been beat on her he wudda been a cu*t. I feel we all do talk through our pockets sometimes but any regular race fan can see Kinane is in the top 5 tops in Britain and Ireland easy.
If, as I do, you breed racehorses one of the interesting things is the emergence of family characteristics and the choice of stallions to try and enhance the good and suppress the not so good characteristics. I know trainers, too, love training from the same family because they pick up on the family characteristics.
George washington’s half brother Grandera is therefore worth reviewing. A 106+ 2yo (GW118+) who became a 129 3y0 ( the same as GW) Grandera showed no temperment as a 2y0 and was descibed as a fluent mover by TF. At 3 the quirks started to emerge in that he started to pull and carry his head high. By the time he retired he was described by Timeform as a right "sourpuss" and got the dreaded squiggle.
Gw is obviously a more precocious animal than Grandera was and was showing considerable temperment at 2 ( see Timeform who considered it a future worry).
It will be interesting to see if they get GW right or whether like his half brother we are now on a slippery slope . He obviously has talent but 129TF is not historically that great and incidently is the same as Dylan Thomas had before being smashed by his older rivals. All in all it is going to be a very brave man who backs him next time out.
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Quote: from Galejade on 11:45 am on Aug. 29, 2006[br]129TF is not historically that great and incidently is the same as Dylan Thomas had before being smashed by his older rivals. All in all it is going to be a very brave man who backs him next time out.<br>
<br>It must be borne in mind that Timeform’s ratings during the season are usually rounded down for the final, definitive, annual rating in Racehorses. That being the case, George Washington is in line for somewhere around 125 or 126 when the annual comes out, unless he goes on to produce something special in the QEII. As for that race, I don’t think that anyone backing him is going to have to be brave; there is a dearth of talent amongst the milers at the moemnt and GW’s comeback run suggests that there will be much more to come next time. That being the case, he is the one who they all have to beat at Ascot next month.
Will that be because of coolmore money for the horse? I expected him to be a lot shorter given the opposition.. They knew Alexandrova was going to win
I expected him to be a lot shorter given the opposition.. They knew Alexandrova was going to win
Thats my point. They hoped he would win on Sunday but did not expect him to given his preparation. The fact he finished so close was precisely what they wanted. When he lines up next despite taking on stronger opposition I expect him to be much shorter in the betting because the confidence will be there and he will be expected to win by connections.
Provided he doesn’t nut Kinane!! GW would be a chav if he was human!!
I agree though, I think he’ll probably bolt up next time.. It’ll be interesting to see what price he is in relation to the field.. I didn’t back him sunday (thankfully) but did back Alexandrova because she was backed as if defeat was out of the question, which she subsequently proved was the case.. His temperament is a worry though… as would be the ground.. if it’s soft he’d be opposable
I think that making excuses for horses is a fast way to the poorhouse- I thought his display at the weekend was one of a horse who either didn’t want to exert himself or had a physical reason not to be able to, with my money being on the former. I will be laying him anywhere he appears, but wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t see him again.
Perhaps we won’t see him again, but him turning up again is in itself a massive vote of confidence from the yard and Coolmore in general. A defeat was bareable on Sunday, but there can be no excuses for him at Ascot and with stud values on the line he will not turn up unless they are completely happy with him.
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