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Can someone tell how She got in the Christmas Hurdle off a mark of 63 unplaced over hurdles what is going on here? what am i missing ?
Any horse regardless of rating can run in a grade 1. And why not, she will win £1350 pounds, for a horse that cannot get placed in a low grade handicap that is a lot of money.
A monkey very well spent by connections as long as she takes her chance, can’t see any negatives.
Unplaced over hurdles if she messed a horses chance up by making a mistake and brought down a well fancied one what would you thoughts be then ? because that is more likely than her even completing the course.
I wouldn’t worry about her bringing anything else down,she’ll probably by 100 yards behind by the time they reach the first!
Daft rule.
Would an Austin Allegro be allowed in a Grand Prix?
I used to think the same way, but in this case she won’t get in the way. Will be dropped out last and go around in her own time. It’s not as if she’ll be lapped.
Value Is EverythingOk maybe she will be 2 miles behind it just makes the race look stupid 63 !
What if the two leaders fall at the first, bringing down the other three? It won’t look so “stupid” then.
Value Is EverythingIt’s a nonsense. Grade 1s are supposed to be our top events.
Is there another sport that allows utter no-hopers to be in the field at the highest level and who can set off on equal terms at the start? Think F1 again. Would they allow an old banger to putter its way to the front of the grid and try to take off ahead of everything behind?
Racing’s dangerous enough and an animal of that quality is not a competitor, it’s a hazard.
What if the two leaders fall at the first, bringing down the other three? It won’t look so “stupid” then.
It would because she still wouldn’t complete! A 63 horse should not be in this field simple theirs no getting away from it! and if you agree she should be in this field then have a long look in the mirror!
Ok maybe she will be 2 miles behind it just makes the race look stupid 63 !
What if the two leaders fall at the first, bringing down the other three? It won’t look so “stupid” then.
Aye it won’t look stupid because it’ll be dark by the time she finishes.
There aren’t enough opportunities for our better horses, come the cries from certain trainers, and yet when precisely those opportunities come along… penny numbers.
As far as I’m concerned the fact the Christmas Hurdle is already so short on numbers that a completion for Gray Wolf River will secure Richard Harper a minimum of £1,340 (already more than half what she’d have got for winning a Market Rasen seller on Boxing Day) is, as it always is, a damning indictment of top rank trainers’ gossamer campaigning of racehorses rather than an indication of a veteran permit-holder not knowing his place.
There’s a sense of deja vu to the enterprise, of course, Harper having trousered an identical figure in 2013 when the only slightly higher-rated Chapel House popped round for sixth-place prizemoney in another six-runner renewal. The comments in running for that day suggest that Chapel House was vaguely in touch until halfway but never out of last place, and critically never a threat to themselves or others.
Harper is no idiot. He knows that there is an easy grand and a bit going here by instructing his rider to keep the mare out of trouble.
For her part, Gray Wolf River should prove incapable of getting herself into trouble on the day anyway; on only one of thirteen Rules and Pointing outings to date has she front-run, and that was notably on soft ground in a 0-100 stayers’ handicap when nothing would have been going especially fast. I can’t quite buy the idea that an animal with a career-best Post Topspeed rating of just 45 is suddenly going to possess the sustained race speed to make a nuisance of herself.
Unlike, I suspect, many on here, I’ve seen her in action between the flags, as I was racereading for the Loose-Leaf Update at the meeting at Sheriff Hutton (Mick Easterby’s course) last January where she won a 2m4f Maiden for Neil Mechie.
It behoves me to mention that she won that Maiden despite briefly thinking about putting Robert Hogg through the wing at the last, but there was plenty of distraction to tempt a green mare to do so; the rider wasn’t as strong as most of those she’s been paired up with since returning to Rules; and subsequent evidence suggests she’s grown out of that trait.
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.
With a safety limit of 20 if I owned one of the fancied horses the more no hopers in opposition as opposed to good horses the better.
Plenty of no hopers run in novice hurdles every day, must have been at least a dozen today, some of them shouldn’t even be described as racehorses. Don’t recall many problems in the past, you always get one or two scaremongerers in situations like this. The BHA are not going to turn away entry fees for no good reason, nor should they.
Connections of Gray Wolf River should be applauded for showing such initiative.What if the two leaders fall at the first, bringing down the other three? It won’t look so “stupid” then.
It would because she still wouldn’t complete! A 63 horse should not be in this field simple theirs no getting away from it! and if you agree she should be in this field then have a long look in the mirror!
Why won’t she “complete”, Follyhoog?
She’s so far behind the others in ratings/ability that her best chance of winning is to start at the back and hope all rivals get in each others way. She doesn’t need to even try and keep up. Jockey can just go normal 63 rated pace (or even slower). It does not matter if coming home two or three hurdles behind, rules of racing say she can still continue because prize money goes down to last place. Have a look at the form – as Grayson says – Gray Wolf River is a hold up horse. There’s NO chance of her getting in the way.When Moscow Flyer beat Azertyuiop and Well Chief in the Tingle Creek it was rightly heralded as one of THE best races we’ve ever seen. Do you or anyone think it took anything away from the race that two Dr Pritchard no hopers took part?
Value Is Everything
She’s so far behind the others in ratings/ability that her best chance of winning is to start at the back and hope all rivals get in each others way. She doesn’t need to even try and keep up. Jockey can just go normal 63 rated pace (or even slower). It does not matter if coming home two or three hurdles behind, rules of racing say she can still continue because prize money goes down to last place. Have a look at the form – as Grayson says – Gray Wolf River is a hold up horse. There’s NO chance of her getting in the way.
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