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Calm down, i dont actually mean it!!!! I just want to see the general feeling about iris’s gift winning the gold cup – which i predict will be quite negative. Is 25/1 any value at all???? Is 250/1 any value?!?!?!?!?!?!
Even in a dismally weak renewal I predict that there is only one place that IG will end up – on the floor.<br>His jumping will not hold up against experienced chasers and there will be pace on in the GC
Iris’s Gift was owned by Halcon Genelardais at Warwick and as soon as he had a horse alongside him jumping at pace he fluffed his lines.
The same thing will happen in the Gold Cup.
And just think how many runners there will be in the Gold Cup just thinking about how open the race is. I think even Dr R Pritchard may be tempted to have an entry and go for a bit of prize money!!!
Must admit I have a sneaking regard for the good doctor who targets races which have cut up for his slowboats and sometimes collects place money down to 6th etc.<br>Generally he keeps out of the way, either because his mount is too slow to keep up anyway or out of good sense , though he did feature in a X country chase at Chelt this year when his horse tried to run out (or else he nearly took the wrong course!) when up front.
<br>People can say what they like but at the end of the day he’s only fallen ONCE in SIX chases. He may not be a natural jumper of fences obviously but much stranger things have happened than him putting in a clear round on the day.
And if he does put in a clear round, I just can’t see him finishing down the field as I think he’ll be right there in the mix.
Having said that, I won’t be having a bet on him ante-post but I like to back one at a decent price in the Gold Cup alongside my main selection so if he’s around the same price as he is now on the day as seems likely, I will probably have a small ‘fun’ bet on him.
I watched iris’s gift debut chase this morning again, and was quite incredible how he stayed on all fours!!! He was all over the place. That was the start of his luck – getting beat by Darkness was the luck run out. And it ain’t coming back.
I’ll be disappointed to see Iris’s Gift line up for the Gold Cup.
He’s a Cheltenham Festival winner and given connections an amazing time, but his form this year simply is not up to the job and the horse’s welfare IS an issue given his jumping style.
Obviously I can’t speak for the owners and have never been in their situation, but I hope that in the same position I would be grateful for the great times I’d had and not overface the horse.
Don’t know him personally but have friends in the good Doctor’s yard and must say it is a tremendous place, have a real soft spot for all of his horses but especially Alderley Girl who’s tiny and also Happy Hussar.<br>Will be good when he does have a big race winner, a lot of the horses in the yard would be serious tools in class D or E races but the handicapper murders them for finishing so close up in some cases (ie. Happy beating Marlborough) behind class horses.
It strikes me that Robert Lester the owner is not the smartest bloke and doesn’t know a lot about racing!!! He should be happy with what he’s got – a world hurdle winner. Had iris’s gift stayed over hurdles, he’d be a dead cert to win the world hurdle again.
And how stupid can you get – he falls in a SCHOOLING session, yet connections still run him 10 days later.
We’ve had this debate before Irish, you can’t go pot hunting for prize money and not expect to bugger up their handicap mark.
Top prize of the week goes to B. Johnson who’s Alph had a BHB mark of 117 prior to his weekend run. Was it worth splitting Royal Shakespeare and Mister McGoldrick for £6,000?
Was also very lucky to get that second – Mister McGoldrick had to swerve to avoid Robert Thornton which buggered up the momentum and could easily have got 2nd.
While I do not actually believe IG will win the GC I have to admit I put a few quid on e/w recently. Don’t know why really but the debate on this forum has been so anti IG winning I would in true Keven Keegan style "love it" if IG trotted up.
Horses make fools of us all and the way the festival is cutting up at the moment you never know. The horse has a good engine and if, just if, they can sort out the jumping then who is to say IG is not good enough.
I think the humble pie thread on this forum would be the longest yet. :wink:
<br>I think the ‘humble pie’ thread would be as big as one that we had for a certain O’Brien horse a few years back;)
As a fan of Iris’s Gift it’s been a bumpy road all through his career with various setbacks but I’ve always kept the faith and it would be great to have a Gold Cup winner with class rather than one of the many good handicappers that will be lining up on the day.
EC
For a nine-year-old the horse is still quite progressive and whilst I’d be surprised if he’s a 150 horse there’s plenty of reason to believe it is better than a 117 horse. It strikes me as extremely poor placing to go for a prize worth about 17 grand that if he was placed in would completely bugger his mark up. There was a thirty grand handicap at Musselburgh today he could have contested, won by 7 lengths like Crow Wood did and still only go up to 130 ish!
Quote: from jackane24 on 9:36 pm on Feb. 5, 2006[br]It strikes me that Robert Lester the owner is not the smartest bloke and doesn’t know a lot about racing!!! He should be happy with what he’s got – a world hurdle winner. Had iris’s gift stayed over hurdles, he’d be a dead cert to win the world hurdle again.
And how stupid can you get – he falls in a SCHOOLING session, yet connections still run him 10 days later.<br>
Thanks for supporting my point there.
Even if he did get a lucky third place, which I don’t think he will, it would still have been a huge risk to take with a horse who does not jump fluently at speed. Gloria Victis COULD have won a Gold Cup and he jumped beautifully – but the Gold Cup in my opinion overfaced him. I saw Iris’s Gift’s first run this season and thought it was a seriously bad sign – he was slow and clumsy in my opinion – and the truth is he is NOT a Gold Cup horse when jumping at speed. He travels well but I think he has become to used to brushing through obstacles. He was a wonderful hurdler to watch as he had a great attitude and still does, but I think that also could be affected by persuing chasing with him. I just hope that he or the jockey get up again in the GC. It’s asking too much, this season at least. I wouldn’t ask a horse of mine to do the same thing.
(Edited by Zoz at 9:53 pm on Feb. 5, 2006)
Class can come in different forms though – hurdling and chasing. While iris’s gift is a quality hurdler, the chasing quality is not there, and now connections and everyone has realised this, he can’t even go back to hurdling cos it’ll ‘ruin’ him.
A couple of good horses can do it, ie. Stormez and Mister McGoldrick, but Lord Sam and iris’s gift can’t.
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