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Does anyone know what happened to pressgang today in the 2.35@sandown?
is the horse ok or did it have to be put down, looked like he broke something in his leg to me…
cheers guys.Hi there
I think he may have been put down according to a post in the forum
– read – horrible stats. Hope he is ok- Total Posts 60
he did get put down,
- Total Posts 60
he did get put down
condolences to all connections.
RIPPoor sods, the lads and lasses who do him must be gutted, the owners will feel like crap.
Paul Webber appears to be jinxed, whilst Pressgang has sadly been put down he has also lost One Gulp, Swaythe,Patricksnineteenth to racing in the past 9 months!
Pressgang broke his right foot cannon bone before jumping the downhill fence.
With regards to ONE GULP, she`s visiting KAYF TARA in the coming weeks, lets watch out for this offspring on heavy ground!!
just as when blue splash collapsed and died in front of the stands on tingle creek day, it seemed to take ages for the vets to attend to the stricken pressgang at sandown yesterday. very sad and ruined the days racing for me
Its interesting that you say Pressgang broke his cannon bone before he took off, Tony. In the RP blurb that Webber wrote – he mentionned that the horse had been jumping left in his previous race but they had schooled him and he’d jumped fine. I wonder whether there was an underlying problem which is why the horse was reluctant to land on that right leg. Sadly the only way you would find this out beforehand is by scanning the bone to see if there are any shadows present in the bone.
Jumpers are so chuffing frail. If the down hill fence causes problems then why not move it too more level ground?
I dont care where you are racing, surely jumping down hill hill is asking for trouble. People wonder why the RSPCA go ape, well when you have fences that are pontelly dangerous then know wonder! Plus i doubt owners are happy having their horses crippeld or killed by badly placed fences.
A slightly disproportionate reaction, YP. As stated in another thread, the downhill fence at Sandown probably has the greatest propensity to maim or kill of any at the course, by simple expedient of it
being
downhill, but its attrition rate has still remained mercifully tiny over the years.
It being – like all fences at the Esher track – a well-presented obstacle probably has a lot to do with that, as, I would suggest, the downward gradient on which it sits being reasonably consistent all the way down.
I would therefore take issue with your assertion that the fence is "badly placed" on those grounds, plus the fact that it is sited long enough after the turn out of the home straight for no rider to be able to claim the obstacle came at him or her too quickly – Tricky Trevor at Ludlow or the first in the straight at Market Rasen it certainly isn’t.
In short, it’s not a "problem obstacle" (if you want to couch it in those terms) in the same way as two out on Cheltenham’s Old Course was pre-modification, though that’s certainly not to make light of Pressgang’s demise or any others that may / will occur in the future.
Nevertheless, it does lead me to repeat a point that I raised at the time of the long debate on here regarding Willyanwoody and Granit Jack’s demise (at the hands of the aforementioned Cheltenham obstacle). In particular now that we have the greater influx of horses into British jumps racing from France, where course undulations are rarely seen, doesn’t it behove all National Hunt trainers to devote appreciable time and resources to training their charges to jump downhill at speed, rather than hoping they’ll be able to the first time they roll up at Prestbury Park?
I know of at least one trainer who has a simulation of the run from three out at Cheltenham – complete with downhilll topography and obstacles – incorporated into his gallops. There are clear problems with making something of that nature mandatory at all training establishments, naturally, but I can’t see how having similar mock-ups wouldn’t serve the best interests of any trainers of Festival aspirants at the very least.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
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