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“Wasn’t so much she didn’t run Best Mate that often, more she rarely ran anything that often.”
Love this line – perceptive and surely spot on.
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"I never took to Best Mate, probably for the above reasons. Lewis and his scarf / singing got right on my nerves, and I remember being delighted when Jair du Cochet turned him over in the Peterborough.
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“It’s a soft question but the reply renders me grateful HK didn’t train Night Nurse, Monksfield, or Sea Pigeon. Or Desert Orchid.”
100%.
I think the genesis of my deployment of the mute button for televised racing was the way Alistair “Hen” Down used to crawl up her backside with such monotonous regularity.
She set the worst trend in NH history.
I am "The Horse Racing Punter" on Facebook
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"Yes that’s right Andy. There are qualifying standards to even get to the event and even then every event up to the 5,000m has a minimum of two rounds that take at the Olympics itself (only 10,000m and marathon go straight to a final). The 100m final typically takes place only a couple of hours after the semi final, and there’s another round the previous day.
Olympic athletes are training constantly, running at small meetings etc. It’s not a good comparison at all.
“She set the worst trend in NH history.”
I can’t think of a worse one.
Some responsibility should be lie with various owners. I wonder if anyone has ever taken their horse(s) away from a trainer because it wasn’t getting enough races.
I’m just mad about Kondrat.
Kondrat’s mad about me.
I’m-a just mad about Kondrat.
He’s just mad about me.They call me lovin the Fellow,
Quite rightly.
They call me lovin the Fellow,
Quite rightly.
They call me lovin the Fellow.I’m just mad about the Fellow.
The Fellow’s mad about me.
I’m-a just mad about the
Fellow
Kondrat’s mad about me.A love affair between a polish
jockey a french King George
superstar and Francois a suave Cary Grant lookalike posing as an unconvincing adman in North by Northwest
1994 and the Fellow is a far more convincing story
BRING BACK THE THREE DAY LUSTRE“She should be ashamed.”
I dunno. I suppose the ideal is the sainted Arkle or Dessie running in handicaps and whatnot. Some horses it works, some it doesn’t. Best Mate is still the only one since Arkle to win 3. Before that, Cottage Rake. Native River got a traditional tough season in handicaps the year before his win, but that was the only year he ran that hard or often. Sizing John had one glittering triple gold year, then was wrecked.
Here’s the difference….
Best Mate (and so many since, for he set a trend) was campaigned as if the Cheltenham Festival and the Cheltenham Gold Cup are all that matter.
Arkle was campaigned as if the Cheltenham Gold Cup was merely the pinnacle of an exciting season full of opportunity. He won a bewildering number of big Handicap Chases, defying some staggering weight differentials inbetween.
How many big races did Best Mate miss out on and how much was racing deprived of seeing the best staying chaser around at the time? And what long-term damage has it done to the sport since?
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"“I wonder if anyone has ever taken their horse(s) away from a trainer because it wasn’t getting enough races.”
I remember one example of this, concerning a chaser called Mr Pointment. His first two season over obstacles for C Egerton, he ran four times over hurdles in 2005/06 and three times over fences in 2006/07. The owners wanted more action and were unhappy that the horse had missed both Cheltenham and Aintree novice chases. So they sent him to P Nicholls and told the press exactly why.
It didn’t make much difference, as he ran four times in 2007/08 (did win the Becher Chase though) and the same again in 2008/09, after which they sold him.
There’s a horse at 10/1 in the County Hurdle betting I’ve never heard of. One of the traditionally competitive handicaps of the week, should be full of names we all know and a puzzle to solve.
The horse is Top Bandit. I’ve had to look it up. Some Elliott novice who has ran four times and was in bumpers earlier this season. How exciting…I don’t think.
And there we have it. When that wins, and inevitably it will rock up as fave, get backed down to 5/2 and skate home, and will be proof that Cheltenham has jumped the shark.
I’ve never won a bet in a cheltenham handicap, do you chaps have more luck betting them? It just seems like you can’t trust any of the horses form. It’s weird because I’m most profitable betting on big field handicaps on the flat but over jumps I have no hope.
It’s a good point qf
I am largely giving them a steer too (bar the ultima and coral) because of this tiresome boring “targeting”
So dump those and with graded races increasingly dominated by short price certainties, betting starts to lose its buzz
Betting isn’t my main driver but mates in racing are bored with trying to second guess this crap
Thanks clivexx.
On reflection, I only have a good point somewhere in there that is itching to get out in amongst a messy idea. (It’s likely this message only adds to that confusion).
Maybe the established all-age Festival handicaps should have some sort of rule where any horse in it must not be competing in its very first handicap? Or is that too restrictive, I don’t know. It would mean that trainers have to be more careful with plotting these unexposed ones. That would mean that the County, Coral Cup etc include horses that have been more openly campaigned.
I may be talking rubbish, as usual, and probably am. Would love to hear why I am wrong and why a horse running in its fourth-ever hurdle race as favourite in the County would be brilliant. Educate me, people, that’s why I use this forum!!
The horse is Top Bandit. I’ve had to look it up. Some Elliott novice who has ran four times and was in bumpers earlier this season. How exciting…I don’t think.
Quelle Farce, Elliot said he was keeping him away from the 2m handicap at the DRF as they are happy with his mark for Cheltenham. Presumably why, and as we know Elliot is faily decent at the festival, especially in handicaps!
As for why you haven’t heard of the horse, i can’t help you there. I mean, as “dark” handicappers go, he ain’t one? He’s won his maiden hurdle at Cheltenham lol while being an Irish horse?
I’ll leave that part down to you…….
Twitter: Jackh1092
Hindsight is 20/20 so make the most of it!Just watched Henrietta Knight interviewed by Nick Luck.
She seemed to be saying that Irish horses are better trained and more capable of dealing with the big occasion because they are prepared for it from a young age. Then in the next breath she said British horses are put under too much pressure too soon.
Her opinions seemed confused and contradictory but listened to with due reverence by Luck.
Exciting times ahead for any owners who have a decent horse with ‘Disneyland’ Dan Skelton, who has stated its not possible to win at the Cheltenham Festival having run in the same calendar year. Value for money right enough.
If you started listed reasons why he is wrong, you’d never stop.
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