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Sporting Life website reports Johnny Murtagh’s agent as saying his client has been appointed Coolmore number 1 rider. A certain inevitability?
Why not use Kirsty Milczarek, shes been riding well.
Cant see Johnny doing it but maybe J Heffernan as he deserves his chance and knows Ballydoyle better than anyone or maybe have a crack at getting Kieren McEvoy.
It looks as though pen has been put to paper with Murtagh, but I’d have loved to Soumillon trying his oh-so-cocky riding on the likes of Red Rock Canyon.
Sporting Life website reports Johnny Murtagh’s agent as saying his client has been appointed Coolmore number 1 rider. A certain inevitability?
…until the great one returns
How fortunes change- wasn’t long ago Fallon was God and Johnny was almost packing in because of weight problems…
Good luck to Johnny – I think he’ll do well. He’s had a lot of good wins on Ballydoyle horses but I was particularly impressed with his riding of High Chaparral in the Derby.
I think murtagh deserves the job as hes took every ride going for them, any time hes been needed for some time, but I dont think he’ll ever replace fallon. Every once in a while a jockey will pull off a superstar mega ride, fallon could do 3 or 4 a week. Spencers inability to do that, combined with a lacklustre year for coolmore’s horses made him stand out like a sore thumb. It will make interesting viewing and ive always liked murtagh (hes one of the many jockeys i would think of as fully competent without ever thinking he was a stand out jockey).
I’d also like to see alan munro get back to his best this coming season, he looked to be getting right into the swing of things before his convulsions and he’s missed such a year for chapple-hyam, where he should have really authorized, dutch art and tariq amongst others.
Well My Boy Charlie has a rather ironic ring too it…..
Fallon is one hell of a rider but he has more floors than a cheap diomond, will he come back, god knows, he needs too get rid of his hangers on, get some drug treatment and try get his personal life sorted in terms of mistresses and children.
Will coolmore retain him again?
Coolmore is a business, fallon in his reletively short time at coolmore (whilst working around a ban in the uk for over half his time there and later one all over aswell) rode a 1000 guineas winner, two 2,000 guineas winners, an oaks, two irish oaks, two irish derbys, two irish champion stakes, a grand prix du paris, two arc de triomphes, an arlington million, an irish leger, two phoenix stakes, a futurity stakes, a national stakes, two grand criteriums, a criterium des pouliches a moyglare and a fair few other group 1s, 2s and 3s. Thats just the ones that spring to mind, not the worst of records really when you compare him to spencers record, and its some shoes for murtagh to step into.
Yes, Bulwark, but look at the ammunition Fallon had in comparison to Spencer (the fact that the latter isn’t all that great anyway is immaterial when he’s invariably on the second, third, fourth or fifth best horse).
But I agree with FOF (god that was more painful than I expected
) that there’s no chance of him returning to Ballydoyle/Coolmore – unless he, per recent IAAF reports, pulls a Dwayne Chambers.All the luck in the world to Murtagh though – he’s battled his problems, overcome them and remains one of the best around on his day.
I think you’re going a little over the top in saying that the likes of Holy Roman Emperor, Rumplestiltskin and Footstepsinthesand only achieved what they did because of Fallon, TC. The latter didn’t win a brilliant Guineas, but he didn’t exactly scrape home, did he? And the former’s top flight victories – Phoenix Stakes and Grand Criterium if memory serves – were impressive to say the least.
Fallon picked footstepinthesand (who I can remember being an antepost40-1 over the winter that year) out of nowhere and decided to run him over oratorio, it was a brilliant ride I think but nothing compared to Virginia Waters the next day, I backed her that day at 14s and she looked well beaten about 2f out, but fallon was just holding her really far off the pace and came flying to win easily that was one of those "no other jockey" rides that only he seems to do regularly.
Overall fallon did have a stronger stable than spencer but there are still some rides that spencer would just not have won on, dylan thomas vs ouija board would have been a reverse if spencer still had coolmore job and he was up against fallon on ouija. Plus powerscourt looked stronger to me when spencer messed him up in the arlington million than when fallon won it on him the folowing year. Antonius Pius in the poulains was the most in disbelief ive probably been left in at the end of a race ever, I was practically counting my money (saying that he hated fallon, perhaps he could truly sense evil)
Id say fallon has probably pissed off coolmore but in 18 months he’ll be the best freelance jockey in europe and coolmore will still have a financial interest in getting him back on their horses, losing doesnt pay for them
) that there’s no chance of him returning to Ballydoyle/Coolmore – unless he, per recent IAAF reports, pulls a Dwayne Chambers.- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.