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"how many training centres are there left in the country where his burgeoning reputation as flawed goods won’t arrive before he does? "
Wellllllll, Christian Williams is getting rides for Alan King.
Adoptive father of two. The patron saint of lower-grade fare. A gently critical friend of point-to-pointing. Kindness is a political act.
Don’t know anything about the guy but I thought his reactions at Haydock and Aintree (you know the ones) were great. Totally harmless and brings a much needed bit of colour and character to the sport.
aparently apologised and back there, just needed a break and a think accoding to the paper, watch the space util the nxt tantrum…………………
Hope I’m wrong but all the signs are there that he’s going to let his temperament compromise his talent.
Best thing to do is keep his head down and become a hard working and humble fella until his reputation is restored.
I thought his interview with Sir Bob was quite interesting.
It was more like a chat between a bolshy teenager and a kind Uncle.
My initial reaction from watching the interview is he sounds like an immature, spoilt brat. Then again I suppose most of us have been there at some stage or another. Hopefully he will grow out of it.
I think he needs some senior jock to take him under their wing.
I think you’re being a bit harsh- immature, yes. Slightly chastened by the whole thing- hopefully. He’s got talent, let’s hope he cops on to himself in order to use it. It seems that a lot of talented jockeys have issues (KF!)
Paddy Merrigan has gone back to Ireland this weekend. I guess he’s hoping his reputation is not quite as bad back home and he can pick up some decent rides.
One more episode and his career will surely be over, so I reckon going back home is the sensible thing to do.
Actually, for the time being he has called it a day. I’d like to think that after a year or so, after a great deal of soul searching, he will come out of retirement and use his undeniable talent with a new attitude.
Oops not a happy return.
From the RP:-
Merrigan hit with seven-day ban on first day back
Will O’Hanlon
PADDY MERRIGAN, on his first ride back after a self-imposedabsence of nine months, was suspended by the Uttoxeter stewards for seven days for an ill-judged ride on Bill’s Echo in the 2m5f handicap chase.
Merrigan produced Bill’s Echo with a strong late run to finish a length third to Alphabetical, having trailed his field by many lengths on the Alistair Whillans-trained runner for over a circuit.
He did not begin to ask Bill’s Echo for an effort until the third last, and was then unlucky that the horse made a mistake at the next fence when closing; but for which he might well have won.
The jockey accepted he had ridden an ill-judged race, but was furious at the ban and indicated that he will be appealing. "I know I left it too late," he said, "but if every jockey who ever got something wrong was banned then racing would be a joke. The whole thing is bullshit."
The horse’s joint owners, Charlie Byers and Michael Healy, were also upset with the stewards’ decision to penalise Merrigan. "Ours is a hold-up horse who needs to be ridden like that and when he won at Huntingdon a couple of years back he came from 50 lengths off the pace," said Byers."I’ve backed the horse each-way today, as has Michael, and but for that mistake he made two out everyone would be saying what a brilliant ride Paddy had given him."
That mistake prompted the stewards to show some leniency towards the jockey, as stipendiary steward Ashley Bealby explained. "The entry point for an offence such as this is ten days," said Bealby, "but we’ve taken into account that the horse made that mistake and have therefore imposed just a seven-day ban.
Merrigan is stood down for October 5, 8 to 11, 14 and 15.
A bit of common sense,why not have a quite word,the guys first run back and they hit him with this poor show.
I’m with GoTF here. A cautionary word from the stewards was the very most that yesterday’s ride warranted, if even that.
To this pair of eyes the pace of the race was a bit quicker than the Post‘s comments writer seems to credit, as evinced, perhaps, by the way all the front-runners barring the winner were swamped by the more patiently-ridden late on; and as such I can’t really fault Paddy Merrigan too much for opting to keep Bills’ Echo away from the worst excesses of that pace.
The gelding had shown stuff all in four runs back from quite a lay-off, so was hardly a bang-in-form horse being given a conspicuously quiet ride round.
Keep in mind also that Bill’s Echo had only once raced over further than 2m4f before yesterday, pulling up over 3m at Aintree in May; and whilst he had admittedly won over 2m4f at Uttoxeter 18 months ago, that was in a more muddling, small field contest when at the height of his powers for Paul Nicholls, rather than a big-field speed-fest when at a lowish ebb.
No, there are too many mitigating circumstances to consider for me to be in any way comfortable with the stewards’ decision on this occasion. I’m not sure I’d quite describe their actions as, um, agriculturally as Mr Merrigan has, but they are injudicious at the least.
Jeremy
(graysonscolumn)Adoptive father of two. The patron saint of lower-grade fare. A gently critical friend of point-to-pointing. Kindness is a political act.
I felt sorry for him,Alphabetical hung on a lot better than usual,he has had a wind operation since his last run according to the Racing Post analysis.
If you go to back a certainty always buy a return ticket.
Didn’t see the race and while he may have been harshly treated surely the better course would have been to do his moaning in private rather than gobbing off to the press.
The stewards think (rightly or wrongly) that they have been lenient and I would have thought that he needs to show a more mature attitude if he’s to make a go of it this time round.
That is the bloke’s character though – wears his heart very much on his sleeve. I’ll never forget his reaction to falling at the last on Special Envoy last year at Haydock. He’s come back after months out the saddle and been collared with what is in my mind an unjustified penalty, explained brilliantly above by Jeremy.
Can’t fault Merrigan for voicing his frustrations.
Yes hes all guts and glory,speaks his mind and i like that.
If he sorts himself out he could be one hell of a jockey
But surely he needs to to take a more considered approach to things or he will just end up back where he was as the biggest waste of his undoubted talent on the scene at present.
Just saying that "that’s how he is" is not helpful to his career prospects. He must aspire to harnessing his gift and not making life difficult for himself.
Others have done it, so must he or he’ll never fulfill his promise.
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