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Why all the doom and gloom. Classics are early season form….hard to keep them on the go all year. The Irish and French classics were not exactly boosted today either.
The King George (slated all year) got a nice boost today.
The 1000 Guineas winner has been overraced and, besides, was running over 1m2f not 1m. She should have been retired (or put away for the season) before today.
The Oaks winner has proved to be disappointing, and nowhere near as good as Peeping Fawn anyway (The Oaks second).
The Derby winner either had an off day or was given a bad ride (the trainer thinks the latter).
Generally, I think British/Irish form is not upheld at the Arc meeting due to the horses not being aimed at the meeting and only going as an afterthought after the big British/Irish races. So they rarely run upto their best form due to tiredness, etc – its not that their form itself is bad.
Horses are not machines,they have off days too.Apart from Dylan Thomas! Thats what makes it interesting or infuriating
Just a point – Dylan Thomas has been on the go all season yet he still won the Arc. Just goes to show that it can be done so next year when trainers start dodging the King George I’m likely to get quite annoyed.
All this "have to be trained for the Arc" is rubbish, horses don’t win Derby / King George / Arc often because each of those races is very difficult to win you have to be bloody good to win one and with the amount of competition, good competition thats always around its never going to be easy to win everything.
Plus the French have a good record in the Arc because the Arc is run in France their own backyard the same as the Brits have a far better record in the King George than the French do.
I’m amazed we’ve heard nothing about the weight-for-age scale this year. Today’s result clearly shows that older horses are favoured at this time of year, doesn’t it? It’s time the three-year-olds were given a chance.
What cheeses me off most is when horses are retired at the end of their third year and go to stud. Horses seem to be better performers as four year olds, are more hardened and have the chance to improve their form.
For example, could you imagine if Dancing Brave would’ve stayed in training at four? Try and visualize a clash with him and Reference Point and think what the form would’ve been like.
When horses are retired at three, it really doesn’t give the form much chance to work out to see how it compares and links up the following year to give a more accurate indication with the younger and older generations of horses.
Cockney Rebel’s 2000 wasn’t the worst renewal ever – even if the race was cruelly robbed of two leading contenders – and he was doing fine until the injury. Fisceal Beo was fantastic on 1000 day but has almost certainly suffered because of what has been asked of her since. The Oaks contained an outstanding filly, just that she finished second. Authorized was the best Derby winner for a little while and managed to win a top race after Epsom , beating the Arc winner , even if he did run below his best at Longchamp . He wasn’t the first Derby winner to underachieve in the Arc. And the Leger winner was up to standard for the race.
Not a bad year, imho.
I’m amazed we’ve heard nothing about the weight-for-age scale this year. Today’s result clearly shows that older horses are favoured at this time of year, doesn’t it? It’s time the three-year-olds were given a chance.
Gus, are you on the wind-up?
I’m amazed we’ve heard nothing about the weight-for-age scale this year. Today’s result clearly shows that older horses are favoured at this time of year, doesn’t it? It’s time the three-year-olds were given a chance.
Gus, are you on the wind-up?
The 3-Y-Os have had a great record in the Arc in recent years, and it could be agrued that the 8lbs they receive from the older horses at this time of year is too much. In the BC Turf they get 5lbs.
Clare Balding said yesterday that Peeping Fawn had gone wrong; I thought that she was going to be brought back for the arc next year. Does anyone know what is happening with her, was really looking forward to seeing her next season.
couldnt agree more about keeping 3 year olds in training. Really frustrates me when you have decent horses sent to stud with just 2 years of racing. The standard of racing would be greatly improved if more 3 year olds were kept in. Would love to see Authorized back next season but it wont happen.
I also thought Peeping Fawn was being kept on? anyone got any info on this?
I think Clare somehow got Peeping Fawn mixed up with Alexandrova because there’s nothing wrong with PF.
Just a point – Dylan Thomas has been on the go all season yet he still won the Arc. Just goes to show that it can be done so next year when trainers start dodging the King George I’m likely to get quite annoyed.
All this "have to be trained for the Arc" is rubbish, horses don’t win Derby / King George / Arc often because each of those races is very difficult to win you have to be bloody good to win one and with the amount of competition, good competition thats always around its never going to be easy to win everything.
Plus the French have a good record in the Arc because the Arc is run in France their own backyard the same as the Brits have a far better record in the King George than the French do.
Not ALL horses can be kept on the go all season long.Like humans,some love going to work,some dont i guess.Tabor said it was touch and go whether DT would take his chance in the Arc as they had Soldier Of Fortune but Aiden told him the horse NEEDS to race! Some nags take their racing better than others.This also made a mockery of Fabres claim that to win an Arc,’you need a fresh fresh horse’.Who’s to question Aiden though?
Just because Dylan Thomas won after a long campaign doesn’t mean it’s easy. As Alastair Down said today in the Post, he’s the first horse in 35 years records have been kept to run monthly in April to September to then win the Arc.
As I said earlier, it is a superb acheivement by Aiden and Ballydoyle to keep him sweet all year.This also made a mockery of Fabres claim that to win an Arc,’you need a fresh fresh horse’.Who’s to question Aiden though?
Not really…
I agree that it is an excellent achievement by AOB (but no "genius" guff please….. otherwise we will have to call Ed Dunlop a master for ouija Board’s consistency), but he scraped this race and the form is surely some way off his best.
The good thing is that this might stop trainers from taking over cautious but Fabre is usually right…as records have shwon
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