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It was a rather disappointingly obvious set of selections by Neesom, although the whole thing did appear to be shoehorned into the programme at the last minute, which possibly meant he had little time to prepare.
Of the four he mentioned, only Amicelli and Burntoakboy would be already qualified for Cheltenham, both Kingscliff and Turthen would have to win another Open, or finish first or second in a Hunter Chase, prior to February 23rd. Impressive as he has been in Points so far, I’d have my doubts as to whether Turthen would be a Cheltenham animal.
With regards to Quotica de Poyans, it’s an interesting shout as he has been very impressive so far this season (although what he has beaten is up for debate). Given his connections it is unlikely he will be asked to do too much too soon (he is only five), but it wouldn’t be a total shock if he turned up in something like the John Corbet Cup at Stratford at the end of the campaign.
In defence of Mr. Neesom, it seems he was given very little notice to come up with these. Both he and Nick Luck were due to be at Huntingdon but when that was abandoned they were obliged to fill in time in the studio and coming up with some hunters-to-follow was one of the way of filling about ten minutes.
Colin
Of the four he mentioned, only Amicelli and Burntoakboy would be already qualified for Cheltenham, both Kingscliff and Turthen would have to win another Open, or finish first or second in a Hunter Chase, prior to February 23rd. Impressive as he has been in Points so far, I’d have my doubts as to whether Turthen would be a Cheltenham animal.
Turthen could cement that position if he wins the Ladies at Larkhill on Saturday. Kingscliff, meanwhile, holds entries in the Mens at Larkhill on Saturday and the Mixed at Chipley Park on Sunday.
If memory serves, the Larkhill entry looks the easier, but given that he absolutely murdered a very decent field at Dunthrop in mid-December, I’m sure he could cope with either.
Amicelli, incidentally, holds his first engagements of the season this weekend as well, with one in the Mens at Alnwick and one in the Mens at Bangor-on-Dee PTP (inside the Rules track). Before anyone gets overly excited, though (that’ll be you and me, AngloGerman!!), it might only be 50-50 that he turns out at either – Cherry Coward is also eyeing up a hunters’ chase next weekend and that appears to be the preferred option at this remove.
Jeremy
(graysonscolumn)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.
PS I’d have had Caveman in that list myself – unlikely to be flown too high by connections and a lover of right-hand tracks with stiff uphill finishes, he destroyed the opposition at Ampton last Sunday and is likely to target whatever hunters’ chases they run at Towcester this season. He gets on fabulously well with George Greenock and is not short of a few gears.
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.
Oh yeah, and him too!
Grand old boy.Mind, he’s still got to find two races p.d.q, Zome, otherwise you’ll have to wait for him to chase the Aintree or Stratford pots instead.
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.
When it comes to the Foxhunters at Cheltenham Festival, I always ignore any old timer who has run over rules. The trend on this is very strong.
Somebody put some stats up for the Nicholls Hunter Chasers last season (on BF I think) and they made grim reading indeed for "money buying" odds on backers.
We touched upon it on Timeform Radio on a few occcasions during the season as well, although I don’t have the stats immediately to hand and we did get slightly lucky in some respects with Armaturk binning two races that were already his. That didn’t alter the general thrust of the matter that his runners in this sphere are usually reasonably rewarding lay material too much, though.
There’s been a small clearout ahead of this season, with Lou Du Moulin Mas and Le Passing having joined the whole Daresbury / Easterby / Coward axis.
In addition, I’d suggest we’ll be seeing Thisthatandtother and Armaturk in more points than hunters’ chases this season – Nicholls wouldn’t run them in the former sphere last season on account of course husbandry concerns, but they’ve both already been entered in points this season (ion particular PPORA Novices’ Riders races) under Richard Barber’s tutelage.
Jeremy
(graysonscolumn)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.
A "dunno" to all three questions I’m afraid, Firefox.
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.
Only worrying thing about Kingscliff at this point is comments I recall being made by current connections in a recent Weekender.
I can’t recall the precise wording but I believe it said something to the extent of they are trying to keep him in a good frame of mind day to day by taking him out doing lots of new things and hunting a lot – obviously this worked for the horse before but if connections are admitting it’s a job of work to keep the horse in a positive frame of mind there’s always potential one day things won’t work out and he’ll disappoint despite being so impressive on his return.
Hope the current form continues but not one to have a house on, although that was a given anyway I suppose!
my mind has gone a wandering on this one with the thought of connections deciding what to do with Kingscliff each day to keep him occupied! well, we went to the zoo last week but how about a trip to Alton Towers tomorrow….whereas dear little Ballycassidy sits in his stable at night repeating to himself ‘I must try harder….’ [he IS going to win at Aintree…I just know it…]
When I saw Kingscliff was favourite for the Foxhunters I laid everything there was on Betfair at a reasonable price. If he wins I’ll streak naked through Prestbury after the last.
Just a note about Thisthatantother. He is now under the care of Richard Barber’s grandson as a schoolmaster and apparently hacked up in the novice rider’s race at Barbury Castle on Sunday (picture in Horse and Hound). It might be that he will stick to this sphere for a while and appear in a Hunter Chase later on at somewhere like Wincanton or Exeter. Don’t know though and might be wrong, just looks that way.
Only one hunter chaser/point to pointer worth watching – the legendary 25 time open point scorer Arctic Times. Hope he comes back for one more year at Cheltenham and Aintree
Good luck to you, but surely it is more conceivable than it was for Earthmover to win it again with a zimmer frame? I wouldn’t want to be laying him till he shows in his qualifying races he is incapable of competing at this level.
I’m more in the Carvillshill camp, although it’s an interesting argument. I’d argue that Earthmover never really lost his way but had one poor year after a near fatal fall which should have seen him signed off for the season. I believe that Nicholls campaigned him poorly by continually running him in the wrong races (his desire to win the Grand National was a feature); it’s only when he reverted to a sensible programme (and was ridden by a talented lady) that the horse fully regained his confidence, and blossomed once again.
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