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Just returned from an enjoyable day at Ayr races.
I was particularly interested to see what would happen with My Tent Or Yours in the Champion Hurdle. I was against him today as I thought it was a bit of desperation by Nicky Henderson trying the hood and a new bridle and didn’t think he was value at 6/5. Despite this I did think the Champion Hurdle runner up should be well up to winning the race and wouldn’t have been surprised if he sluiced up. Passing the stands on the first circuit McCoy was taking a keen hold and down the back straight the commentator said "My Tent or Yours is chugging his way to the front". Coming to the last he was still in with a shout but ended up beaten 4 lengths into 3rd.
I must admit that although McCoy has ridden thousands of winners i’m not his biggest fan. Don’t get me wrong, i’m not blaming McCoy for the defeat today. Now that this latest attempt to get the horse to settle clearly failed, do you think changing the jockey could help, someone like Barry Geraghty maybe?
He’s a class act but the trouble is he knows it, he walks around the paddock like TAPK walks around his living room after pulling off yet another yearly coup like the cock of the north. He shows no respect to McCoy he’s thinking ‘Tony, I’m faster then these donkeys stop pulling me back and that me run’. To be fair to the horse he’s a flat breed and wants to go alot quicker, the weight stopped him today.
I’ll have to take a look in my lock up for Richard Hughes’s autobiography as he talks about Canford Cliffs in his early races upto and including the guineas where he was pulling his chances away and Hughes had to show him who was boss one morning on the gallops.
Blackbeard to conquer the World
We learned today that this horse is a Chaser,he cant run over hurdles anymore like that so its all roads to the Arkle now.
I was thinking Royal Ascot Gold Cup un-route Gord?
Blackbeard to conquer the World
Hi Nathan,
Would be interested to read how Richard Hughes settled Canford Cliffs? However, when listening to Mick Fitz on Channel 4 yesterday morning i’m sure he said the hood had the desired effect on the gallops that’s why I suggested a possible change of jockey.
Hi TAPK,
If he were to go chasing my fear would be that he would not have learned anything and continue to pull and burn himself out. If no change of jockey do you think they should try just letting him bowl along in front to see if he would settle any better?
I thought the horse was hugely disappointing. Despite the weight given his level of ability he should have won. He ended up being run over by a horse who had looked beaten.
I had to laugh at someone on another forum who had suggested he had somehow been the victim of a long, hard season. What, four runs including an all-weather bumper in which he had a ton in hand?
The bottom line is you simply cannot have a horse dictating to the jockey time and time again. Just about everything went wrong yesterday as he hardly took any flight smoothly and he eventually curled up under pressure.
McCoy is one of the worst in game at getting a horse settled and jumping. If he wasn’t tied to McManus you wouldn’t use him on a relatively difficult ride.
As for the future the horse has too many flaws to be a serious punting proposition. Personally, I would try and win a race or two on the Flat. Perhaps that might help him in the long-term.
This was so obvious yesterday. CS 3 lengths behind last November with 7 lbs in hand. Yesterday nearly 2 stone to the good with the claimer on board.
And I still bleeding missed it
I did back MTOY because I thought he had the class even with the weight. Don’t know what the answer is, even NH doesn’t at present.
Maybe a chasing career beckons
From a time perspective,
My Tent Or Yours
produced the top speed figure of
142
from the two day Ayr Scottish National meeting.
Even the mighty
Arkle
would have been hard pressed to concede
27lbs
to a good horse.
Then what do I know, I am not a professional racing Pundit
Hi Nathan,
Would be interested to read how Richard Hughes settled Canford Cliffs? However, when listening to Mick Fitz on Channel 4 yesterday morning i’m sure he said the hood had the desired effect on the gallops that’s why I suggested a possible change of jockey.
I’ll post it up tonight SYT as I’m off to Wincanton soon for the races then I’m visiting dad in hospital this evening.
Blackbeard to conquer the World
I favour TheBluesBrother view of things, it was after all a handicap.
8 wins, 5 seconds and one third in 14 runs isn’t too shabby in my book and it was plainly ridiculous of the RUK presenter to say he was becoming an expensive horse to follow after a close second in the Champion Hurdle and a 3rd in a handicap under a big weight.
What a tool he would be if he settled a bit better.
I favour TheBluesBrother view of things, it was after all a handicap.
8 wins, 5 seconds and one third in 14 runs isn’t too shabby in my book and it was plainly ridiculous of the RUK presenter to say he was becoming an expensive horse to follow after a close second in the Champion Hurdle and a 3rd in a handicap under a big weight.
Try telling that to someone who backed him in the Supreme, Champion and yesterday. He may well have been lucky in the Christmas Hurdle and plenty of his other wins were not much more than penalty kicks. On the big occasion he has come up short so the RUK presenter was a long way from being ridiculous.
What is ridiculous is to throw Arkle into a discussion about a horse running in and being comprehensively beaten in a limited handicap. My Tent Or Yours would almost certainly already be a scrapheap job had he run off big weights in proper handicaps like the hurdlers of the 60s and early 70s.
Hi Nathan,
Would be interested to read how Richard Hughes settled Canford Cliffs? However, when listening to Mick Fitz on Channel 4 yesterday morning i’m sure he said the hood had the desired effect on the gallops that’s why I suggested a possible change of jockey.
I’ll post it up tonight SYT as I’m off to Wincanton soon for the races then I’m visiting dad in hospital this evening.
Extract from Richard Hughes – A weight off my mind
Dick Turpin again had his measure in the guineas, and so did 33/1 winner Makfi. Canford finished third, his performance solidifying in my mind how I viewed the horse. He did not run a bad race, far from it, but he did not run the best race he was capable of running. From what turned out to be a nightmare draw towards the far side of the track, I struggled to get cover.
He took a fierce hold, the strongest hold he had ever taken.
To make matters worse, the early pace was ordinary, but that should in theory, have suited a colt with such an explosive turn of foot. When I asked him to deliver it, he declined. This time he shifted right. He had shirked it.
I knew what was wrong. The fire was no longer in his belly. We had mollycoddled him all winter and had been too easy on him in the spring. He had become accustomed to having a relatively easy life and had developed a taste for it.It goes on a bit more then
Something had to be done, and in the build up to the Irish guineas I did it. Canford needed to be put in his place and informed who was boss. He had to be taught that while he might be living in a five star equine hotel, he had to pay for his keep. One work morning I took him to the bottom of the gallop. Then I steered him round in circles and taught him a few home truths. The air cushioned whips we use do not hurt horses, but I still used mine enough to make my point clear. This might sound cruel, but it was not. Canford was bred to be a racehorse. He had a job to do. By issuing a few smacks I was sparing him what would otherwise have been many more smacks in future races. I was being cruel to be kind, and my actions had the desired effect. He accepted straight away the party was over. When he went up the gallop he was like the Canford of old.(
pre Coventry)
Blackbeard to conquer the World
Thanks Nathan,
Perhaps NH should hire Hughsie for a morning session with MTOY
That might just be the making of him!Even the mighty
Arkle
would have been hard pressed to concede
27lbs
to a good horse.
yes, good one !Gambling Only Pays When You're Winning
Interesting to watch My Tent Or Yours and The New One this season. Jointly hailed as the new kids on the block and Champions elect, it hasn’t quite worked out that way. Excuses keep being made for My Tent Or Yours failing to settle, and The New One being touted as unlucky in the Champion Hurdle.
Watching both horses in their latest races we saw My Tent Or Yours come up short at the business end of the race, and The New One scrambled home when long odds on at Aintree.
Looking at the betting for next year’s champion hurdle we see them at 4/1f The New One and 5/1 My Tent Or Yours. I’ll lay the two of them till the cows come home at those odds, because it looks like you could pool the resolution in a finish of the pair and still not qualify for a Blue Peter Badge.
Thanks for the good crack. Time for me to move on. Be lucky.
MTOY has 3 problems: he can’t jump: he won’t settle and he can’t or won’t battle.
I’ve heard a few racing professionals call him a fine jumper (many said the same of Menorah, who was a lousy jumper). Horses like these throw the occasional great leap and that’s the one that seems to stick in the minds of the King’s New Clothes people.
If he hasn’t learned to settle by now, what’s to be lost in giving him his head and letting him get on with it? It’s worth a try.
Many saw his Kempton victory as proof he was a battler. He’s not and never has been and the Kempton race was simply badly read by those who claimed he’d proved himself. He got the run on TNO at a crucial point and managed to hold on before TNO could get back to full speed. He was lucky, not brave.
Given the Mullins hotpots awaiting him next season, chasing might be the best option.
Agree with Joe that his jumping and his failure to settle are major problems – funny how the jockey gets the stick for this, but Teflon Henderson is allowed to do his bemused upper class twit routine on Ch4 without any suggestion that he ought to be sorting out these issues.
But I reckon the lack of fight in a finish is more likely down to a lack of stamina – i.e. rather like our old friend Harchibald, he barely gets the trip over hurdles and once off the bridle, finds little extra.
If you look at his breeding, he’s by a miler out of a 10F winner and Desert Prince hasn’t produced much that wins over further than 2 miles – a rare exception being the one time stable companion Ainama, who is from a proper staying family on the dam side.
But whatever you think of MTOY, punters that were happy to back him at Ayr were effectively saying that they knew much better than the official handicapper what he was capable of, and were taking a very short price about their opinion.
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