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“It looked pretty desperate ground Ian.”
It was better than yesterday – as Mike says the Handicap was quicker at 5.51s slow for 1m2f which suggests it was no worse than Soft.
Blue Rose Cen has won two Group 1s on equally-testing ground in France so I can’t make it an excuse for her.
I agree with Mike she might have won had she led at a stronger pace – the jockey wasn’t alert to the slow tempo any more than he was alert to getting boxed in.
It really was a poor ride, I’m afraid.
But for all that she’s beaten Never Ending Story further today than she did at Chantilly, the French fillies’ Classic form hasn’t worked out and I just think Blue Rose Cen is a decent filly, but lacks tactical speed and is simply not as good as she perhaps looked when beating not a great deal at Longchamp and Chantilly.
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"It was a very poor ride and I agree Blue Rose Cen isn’t the superstar many thought. The ground was definitely quicker today, but that sort of drying ground can be hard work and very difficult to quicken out of. I still wouldn’t necessarily expect the result to be repeated
I was out on Thursday and only got round to watching a replay of the Nassau now.
I know it is very easy to be wise after the event but was it wise to have the favourite ridden by a jockey having his first ever ride at what is a notoriously difficult track? No disrespect to him but there are plenty of better and more experienced jockeys than him who still find Goodwood difficult to ride.
To be fair, CAS, the lad had ridden her to three Group 1 victories and hitherto hadn’t put a foot wrong.
For me there are three key things from a personal point of view – two mistakes by him and a mistake by me as a punter.
Blue Rose Cen is not a filly with an instant turn of foot, far from it.
She led 1.5f out in the Boussac on Very Soft ground and forged clear; she made all in the La Grotte, she was always handy and led 1.5f out in the Pouliches and in the Diane she led fully 2f out after having the run of the race with her pacemaker letting her up the inner.
Her jockey should have gone to the front in the Nassau as soon as he saw Moore setting a slow pace.
That was his first mistake.
His other is well documented – he let himself get trapped.
If he sets a good pace and kicks on 2f out, it might have been a different result.
But I only say might because it’s now clear to me she’s nowhere near as good as I thought she was.
The Pouliches and Diane form hasn’t worked out – the Diane fifth winning in Saratoga last night being the only real exception so far – and the bottom line is, for all the jockey’s tactical ineptness, Blue Rose Cen finished further in front of Never Ending Story at Goodwood than she did at Chantilly.
Cracking filly, who has done me two handsome ante-post good turns, but she ain’t Miesque reincarnate.
And I thought she might be!
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"I accept all that, ID. And I know it would have looked harsh to jock off a rider who had hitherto done nothing wrong. But as you said above, there is no room for sentiment in this game and you have to give yourself every chance of winning.
I know French horses seldom run at Epsom now. But say a French stable had a high class 3yo colt and they announced he was going to run in The Derby. Would it be sensible for the horse’s jockey to have his first ever ride around Epsom in the Derby itself?
I believe Goodwood is just as difficult a track as Epsom, maybe more so. There are plenty of hard luck stories. I just don’t think it was sensible for the lad to have his first ride there in a Group 1.
Kieren Fallon said he always found Goodwood difficult and he never felt happy riding there. No disrespect to the lad but he is no Kieren Fallon.
I don’t want to come over all “well I told you so”, but
then again I did, I just couldn’t believe my eyes when
Bet365 were offering 16/1 on a Al Husn, a horse that had
only been beaten once in his last 8 by Via Sistina, who
then ran the field ragged in the Group1 Pretty Polly Stakes
at the Curragh next time out.I think their odds compiler should have been given a cell
phone and told to report from the rails at Goodwood for the
rest of the meeting wearing a pair of Bermuda shorts and nought
else.
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