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Not sure about lustre but a bit uneasy re all the focus on Rachel Blackmore. She’s a top jockey end of. Willie mullins five timer is incredible yet way down the headlines. Ridiculous IMHO but it’s the world we live in and far worse for it. Surely its all about the wonderful racing or am I an old dinosaur.
Whoever you are
Whatever you weigh
Mickey
( Sounds like a song )
The good racing is not guaranteed at Cheltenham or at any meeting, but, bring the best horses together and it’s more or less guaranteed, but its goodness relates to how each person views it. Good racing can be evaluated by stats – women jockeys’ successes and trainers comboes. Its a bit like hydrocarbons produce gas and oil and their importance is evaluated differently by different users or consumers.
Women may view Blackmore’s achievements in a different light than a trainer who will view Mullins five timer with a higher appreciation most probably. Whatever rocks your socks or boat.I relate more to a dinausoar scratching his chin in the corner of the shop than a hip sharp suited guy that flashes his cash at the pick up window
As Noel Gallagher sings it…
Don’t look back in anger
We aint the BEATLES
We aint the eggmen
We aint the warlus
But enjoy the bends
Dig the racing
We’re all you f**kin got !!!As I fell out of love with NH racing sometime ago I have not seen much of the racing but I’d be interested in to know how the average jump fan felt the meeting went. the weather on the second day seemed dire, lots of favourites winning, Ms. Blackmore doing the biz and Mullins just about owning the final a day.
Could the meeting be judged a success, did you all make a profit, will it ever go back to a three-day meeting?
Wonder what Disneyland Dans owners think about the stable policy of neglecting to race post Christmas to focus on Cheltenham.
BUY THE SUN
Don’t get me wrong Rachel is great for racing and like bryony gets folk interested in the game but surely on such an easy winner it should be just as much as about the horse and trainer. Danny mullins ride on flooring porter was unbelievable yet very little said of it in comparison. Rachel,like Holly Doyle, is very much the equal of the guys and I look forward to the day when the jockeys sex hardly gets a mention. Old fartness has spoken.
I’m in the minority in that I like the handicaps and, what I like about them is that you know every horse is in it to win it. So, from that aspect I did still enjoy it. But I do miss finding a Jonjo horse sneaking in at the bottom of a race. The nearest I got to that this year was that Ian Williams horse on the last day that unfortunately got hampered. Still placed, though. I used to get fed up of Nichols winning all the big races so I obviously find the Mullins dominance even more boring. I don’t know what the answer is. And Henderson, the only competition from England, can’t go on forever.
I can only see the domination getting stronger. De bromhead getting huge purchases sent to his yard and he could become as strong as elliot and mullins. Not looking good for GB trainers. I don’t bother where horses are trained and as most of the top horses in gb are Irish owned does it really matter. Henderson is indeed the only thing stopping a total domination.
I think, as well, the difference between racing in Ireland and England (I don’t mean to miss out Wales and Scotland but I don’t know what the attitude is there) is that racing is still probably popular in Ireland. I no longer mention racing to anyone outside of forums these days as I just get accused of supporting a cruel sport. I don’t know if it’s different with men and their friends and colleagues. Before I retired I used to talk about racing at work but I wouldn’t now.
Trainers with exposed handicap hurdlers are up against it at Cheltenham. Of 8 placed horses in yesterday’s handicap hurdles only 4 had run in handicaps previously and they only had 7 handicap runs between them. All credit to the likes of Willie Mullins for exploiting the system, but the sytem isn’t fit for purpose as things stand.
As an aside, looking at my figures in the main it seemed to me that the GB and Irish handicappers were more closely matched this year. Bit soul destroying to plough through the cards compiling ratingsc only to be done by a horse that has only contested an Irish maiden hurdles. Wouldn’t be unreasonable to say that horses should have run in a couple of handicaps before contesting a Grade 3 handicap.
I’ve bemoaned the Festival in the run up to it, and I still think that. However, I enjoyed it, and we saw some fabulous performances, some disappointments, and some head scratching things.
I think it’s noticeable that the UK simply doesn’t have that many top quality horses – and this is seemingly not going to go away. I think the top lots at the Cheltenham sale went to Ireland. Where are the UK trainers/owners. The big 3 races all owned by British owners, yet trained in Ireland; I’d say that’s pretty damning.
It all seemed to start with Graham Wylie moving his horses to Ireland. Ferdy moved to France. You could always count on him to do well in the handicaps. I have been thinking recently that maybe adding another day to Cheltenham wouldn’t be a bad idea if we had a few more handicaps. Maybe with qualifying races in the U.K.?
Totally agree with robnorth today and was arguing this point at Kempton today
No blame for system being exploited but it doesn’t feel right at all
Tom Hanks could likely come up with the correct facial expression – but failing his participation, I suggest it’s like a serious case of botulism.
It’s not good news that Cheltenham are consulting on the five day meeting now. According to RP, it could be here as soon as 2024.
I don’t follow the jumps as much as the flat these days, but I do still enjoy Cheltenham.
This is not good news, and most worrying aspect for me is that the powers that be will be aware of the opposition to it, and that they just don’t care
Hopefully Ed & Co will be along shortly to pour cold water on the idea this afternoon.
I won’t hold my breath though.
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