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http://www.racingpost.com/news/live.sd?event_id=4925824&category=0
And thus the reason for Keiran Burke’s parting of the ways with Anthony Knott. The latter has shown himself to be a somewhat childish individual, concerned with the allure of sudden fame and wealth that Hunt Ball brought him, rather than the welfare of the horses he’s connected with. Accepting Paddy Power’s obnoxious “PP” logo printed onto Hunt Ball’s quarters was a tawdry example.
One thing that genuinely surprises me about these ridiculous Betfair coups (most of which are signalled like a big flashing red light on your head) is how piss-poor the ambition behind them is.
This guy Callow manage to wrangle a modest £7000 out of the affair before being nailed, but some of them are truly pathetic. The high-profile Andrew Heffernan case in cahoots with various footballers, including the well-known Michael Chopra, was an example of this.
Heffernan, 24 at the time and building a decent career, threw it all away for what was a share of just a few grand. He revealed that he hardly received what he was promised anyway. There must be a psychological reason why jockeys, trainers, owners ets are prepared to lose everything for minimal gain and nowadays, a very high likelihood of being caught.
Maybe they can be dismissed as just plain stupid, but I feel there’s a desire to ‘control results’ that plays into some sort of laddish, James Bond-type macho cultural concept.
Blimey, I’d want a million at least!
Mike
It’s all gone horribly tits up for Anthony.
One thing’s for sure is he wont be having his ‘lump on Hunt Ball’ scarf he gave me back anytime soon or not.
Gaelic Warrior Gold Cup Winner 2026
I find the rules a bit strange. For example, it’s ok to pass on inside info that your horse is running 50 lengths better than past form would suggest, it’s ok for Nicky Henderson to lay his own horses as ‘insurance’, but it’s not ok to tell your friend that your rag has no chance of winning.
Didn’t Andy Stewart say that Nicholls told him not to back Rocky Creek at Down Royal as he was only there to get fit (I paraphrase slightly)?
I backed rocky creek at down royal.
How nice to read this week his owner state his trainer had advised him the horse was running to improve his fitness and not to "trouble the judge".
How on earth is this right in any way shape or form?
Then again connections of Rocky Creek haven’t had the temerity to be involved with Paddy Power so I suppose it’s ok eh Mike? Never had you down as a snob.
I agree with Kasparov it’s all either very wooly, or a bit of a boys club.
Just before the Charlie Hall a few weeks ago, Mick Fitzgerald said he had been talking to Paul Micholls regarding how fit you would have a horse on his first run of the season.
Mick informed us that Nicholls had told him you can’t leave a horse much short of peak fitness in top class races, because it would have a counter-productive effect competing against good horses when not fit enough to oneself justice.
As we saw, Silviniaco Conti ran no sort of race in the Charlie Hall but then came home in good style in The Betfair against several of those who had bested him in the former race.
Now we hear Rocky Creek wasn’t going fully tuned up in the J N Wines at Down Royal and that would make his performance in beating First Lieutenant and Boston Bob all the more meritorious when it was considered that those two horses were the ones who needed the race.
I suppose the moral of the story is to wait and judge how fit a horse looks for yourself, rather than listen to what the trainer is warbling on about to the press.
Thanks for the good crack. Time for me to move on. Be lucky.
Call me old fashioned but I want my selection troubling the judge at every opportunity, it’s called racing. Getting fit in public should be an offence like schooling in public.
Light touch regulation is becoming don’t touch regulation.
I am no trainer, but a question has always occurred to me – If a horse needs to run 3 miles to get fit, why can’t trainers run them over 3 miles at home prior to racing them under rules?
Or am I being terribly stupid, not understanding these genius’s?
The fact that the Rocky Creek was just reported in the press as a normal story is surely disturbing. If we cannot trust someone at the top of the tree like Paul Nicholls to be trying to win, who can we trust?
These days trainers can easily recoup losses incurred in entering a horse in a race, transportation costs an so on by simply laying the animal.
Happens all the time. I listened to a large Newmarket trainer telling a jockeys young lad "Mine isn’t going to be doing much I just want him to get used to going past the crowd" before a maiden this summer. Said and received as if it were no more unusual or secret or underhand than saying "your did rode well last night".
Said horse was 2nd favourite, looked very well, went to post relaxed and powerfully, cantered back near last rider did nothing.
Happens all the time. I listened to a large Newmarket trainer telling a jockeys young lad "Mine isn’t going to be doing much I just want him to get used to going past the crowd" before a maiden this summer. Said and received as if it were no more unusual or secret or underhand than saying "your did rode well last night".
Said horse was 2nd favourite, looked very well, went to post relaxed and powerfully, cantered back near last rider did nothing.
Which horse was that?
Mike
It’s certain rules for certain people. Nicholls on Channel 4 after Silviniaco’s Betfair win at the weekend said about Silviniacos run at Wetherby about’the ground was too quick but i knew we had to get a run into him and
there was no point having him ready to win that day
‘ I’d safely say if some smaller trainers said that they’d get asked a question or 2.
Another point of interest for me is will there be any investigation into the Tingle creek antepost markets(Sprinter sacre) over the past week or so
.These days trainers can easily recoup losses incurred in entering a horse in a race, transportation costs an so on by simply laying the animal.
1. Errm, Trainers would lose their license if they were found to be laying their horses.
2. Trainers don’t pay for entry fees, their Owners do.
3. Trainers don’t pay for transportation costs, their Owners do.
That’s 0 out of 3 so far. Any more gems of wisdom that you can pass on to this Forum?
These days trainers can easily recoup losses incurred in entering a horse in a race, transportation costs an so on by simply laying the animal.
1. Errm, Trainers would lose their license if they were found to be laying their horses.
2. Trainers don’t pay for entry fees, their Owners do.
3. Trainers don’t pay for transportation costs, their Owners do.
That’s 0 out of 3 so far. Any more gems of wisdom that you can pass on to this Forum?
For trainers read connections.
Banned for three years.
Seemingly incapable of being happy with what he had and saw a corrupt way of making a few quid on the sly.
When you look at the risk/reward ratio of their activities, I sometimes think these people are quite deranged.
What a ‘character’ eh?
Mike
In fairness, the Hunt Ball story was good while it lasted. Probably one of the best of recent years.
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