- This topic has 16 replies, 12 voices, and was last updated 17 years, 9 months ago by
.
- Posts
Yes, I just watched that race and the interview afterwards too and was surprised as he won well. It does seem strange that he is being sold.
I expect the Nicholls team are expecting difficult placing with this horse in the future given that he’s not quite top class and yet he’s had a cracking novice season and will end up being grabbed by the handicapper pretty shortly. Thats the only reason I can see for them wanting to cash in.
Marodima was always going to win today that was buying money and 6/4 was an amazing price, should’ve been even money.
Connections obviously don’t think he will be effective in open company off a mark somewhere close to 150.
My gut reaction to the above was that they could have put him in one of the claiming chases which I’m delighted to see have made a reappearance in the racing programme this season (another at Chepstow tonight); but on reflection the maximum claiming price they could put him in for one of these (not much more than £30,000, usually is it?) would probably fall some way short of what I presume he was offered for at Doncaster.
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.
The reserve on him last week was 75,000gns. Rather surprised he didn’t make that much, but the bulk of the sale was for untried horses so perhaps the right sort of buyer simply wasn’t present.
AP
I have to admit I’m slightly surprised he didn’t make the 75,000 gns as his previous form looked decent. Today he jumped precisely and quickly and confirmed his quality. The falls of Nevertika and Cebrus Libani both came about because they tried to chase the pace, the former trying to move up to challenge and the latter tiring having tried to chase. The outsider Hush Tiger got second because he wasn’t hurried up to chase a pace he couldn’t go with.
For a potential buyer, the fact that he’s rated just 125 over hurdles would offer an alternative if he proved unable to cope with his chase handicap mark.
But given he’s only five and thus open to further improvement, he’d surely pay his way over fences, even if he couldn’t recoup the purchase price.
AP
I think the fact they want to sell says a little bit about the future. Personally I think they have performed miracles to get the wins out of the horse. He is headstrong, has a poor jumping technique and needs to have his own way. Will be very difficult to place successfully in handicap chases.
What surprises me about the keeness to sell Marodima is he’s bred to appreciate a step up in trip. Given his sires progeny have had more success over two and half and his damsire is certainly known for producing staying chasers there could be potential improvement to come. Also Paul Nicholls has proven pretty adept at stepping his sort up in trip to win nice races in open company. So my take on him would be that everything he has done over two miles so far is a bonus. His mark over hurdles is more than workable and again improvement would probably come for a step up in trip.
And as Alan also rightly says there are very few horses in training go through the ring at Cheltenham’s Brightwells Sale so there was probably a lack of the ‘right type’ of buyer which means there was little competition on the floor for him. He’ll more than likely fetch his reserve at Doncaster though I would have thought, but if I were interested I would probably offer DJ 70k direct before he went to the sale.
The fact that they are selling at all does make me wonder whether he isn’t altogether straightforward to train though.
Maybe so, maybe so – it’s noticeable that Nicholls has had a couple running in claiming chases lately as well, albeit without either a win or a successful claim resulting.
I suspect they’ll be delighted to have offloaded Pepporoni Pete, who looked a fine prospect when I saw him win a chase against penny numbers of opposition at Sandown in November, but who otherwise didn’t want to know very often last term.
Has Timeform besquiggled him yet, incidentally? He’d be a borderline candidate, to my mind.
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.
Paul Nicholls generally has a clearout at this time of year – and I think he alluded to it in his Racing Post column on Saturday.
I don’t recall him running so many in claiming races before, though – the ones who are going usually end up at the Sales. Maybe in the current economic climate they think it’s a more efficient way of doing it, I dunno! I was surprised to see Cerium running in a claiming chase.
I think the fact they want to sell says a little bit about the future. Personally I think they have performed miracles to get the wins out of the horse. He is headstrong, has a poor jumping technique and needs to have his own way. Will be very difficult to place successfully in handicap chases.
Very true – if he was any good Johnson would have kept him with Pipe, the fact he’s at Nicholls (see what happened at Aintree 2007 for why) speaks for itself.
Just because Timmy Murphy the ‘hold up and creep into it’ merchant gave up, it means the horse is difficult?
The fact is, whilst pedigree may say Marodima should stay further, all racecourse evidence suggests that he only just gets the minimum trip – and only when he’s allowed to dictate.
He looks to have plenty of ability though, and would still be a nice one to own. But is it not a worry that David Johnson has kept some relatively poor his horses in training, but is prepared to offload this one so quickly?
I think the fact they want to sell says a little bit about the future. Personally I think they have performed miracles to get the wins out of the horse. He is headstrong, has a poor jumping technique and needs to have his own way. Will be very difficult to place successfully in handicap chases.
Very true – if he was any good Johnson would have kept him with Pipe, the fact he’s at Nicholls (see what happened at Aintree 2007 for why) speaks for itself.
The horse never was with Pipe. It was trained last season by Oliver Sherwood for Milion In Mind and was bought last spring at Doncaster Sales.
Just because Timmy Murphy the ‘hold up and creep into it’ merchant gave up, it means the horse is difficult?
Are you saying the horse isn’t difficult then? Irrespective of what you think of Murphy it is rare for any jockey to turn down a possible pay day on a relatively high profile horse.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.