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This sport is a learning Curve i feel a bit silly asking this…
Can someone tell me how rivet escapes a penalty in the Craven today is it because he won a group one as a 2yo??Thanks
No penalties in the Craven Stakes.
Race conditions courtesy of RP Website:
‘Race conditions £60,000 guaranteed For 3yo colts & geldings Weights 9st’
Cheers i looked on the RP website for the info but could you tell where to find it please
There used to be penalties in the Craven. I think last year was the first renewal since they dropped the penalties.
No horse in the last 37 years had won the Racing Post Trophy and then won the Craven the following spring. Perhaps they are looking to reverse that trend by doing away with the penalty.
Rivet is weak in the betting this morning, as War Decree is the one for cash. Perhaps this indicates another year without a Racing Post Trophy winner lifting the Craven?
Thanks for the good crack. Time for me to move on. Be lucky.
I dunno it must be the War Fronts 3yos don’t train on myth was destroyed this week i think Rivet is a serious horse the course is the only worry.
Most War Fronts do fail to train on, Folly. There are exceptions but you can’t use one result to discredit a pretty good rule of thumb.
Good to see the BHA are experimenting with some of their race conditions, though. The weight-for-age scale on the flat needs urgent review (far too easy for 3-y-os against older horses at the top level right now) so perhaps this is a precursor to a few more tweaks.
Nick Rust proposed a ‘generational median’ scale and I think that is the way forward.
No 2 3yo War Fronts won yesterday both looked very smart Middle Kingdom / Whitecliffsofdover
Cheers i looked on the RP website for the info but could you tell where to find it please
Bring up a race card on the Post site, click on Settings (underneath where it says, Card, Pro Card, At A Glance etc)
Tick Race Conditions and Done
Gay Kellaway had an interesting idea on last week’s Sunday Forum that there might be a case for some races to be limited to entries from stables with below a quoted number of horses, eg open to yards with under 35 horses
I think it might be worth investigating for low grade meetings, particularly on the all weather over the winter to give the smaller yards a chance ………….it must be pretty galling for a small yard when they enter a horse for a maiden at Lingfield in November and find Haggas, Johnson and Godolphin have quarter of a million dollar horses entered.
I guess it does go against the grain of meritocracy though …………..perhaps we shouldn’t be worried about protecting small yards with poor horses – let them go the wall if they can’t compete
Whatever……… I’m sure they could be more innovative with race conditions
No 2 3yo War Fronts won yesterday both looked very smart Middle Kingdom / Whitecliffsofdover
Middle Kingdom won a handicap by a neck. That doesn’t really prove anything.
The context I am looking at is the well bred War Fronts who win Group races at two and whether they maintain the high level and can go on to land the Classics that they are sometimes favourites for.
War Command was 7/1 clear favourite after the Coventry in his year and it was opined that bookmakers had underestimated his chance with the odds offered. It never worked out for him and Air Force Blue was generally considered a penalty kick last season but as soon as I read that they very sticking blinkers on him I recoiled and realised that taking the chance he would be the War Front to buck the trend had been misplaced. I watched my 12/1 and 10/1 betting slips curl up and wither on the mantelpiece as I uttered the words ****ing blinkers!
War Decree ran miles below his form today. Roly Poly was given as running 18 lbs below her mark and Brave Anna was rated 35 lbs below her rating in the Nell Gwyn. Even if not fully wound up that’s very disappointing stuff.
I don’t think anyone is trying to say that War Fronts just won’t win at 3yo. The way I am looking at them is the best rated ones as youngsters, Group winners and ones you might think could be Classic winners if they were sired by Galileo (for example) and then wondering why they are not seeming to convert their promise as youngsters.
I ruled out War Decree from the 2000 Guineas based on him not running after July last season and because his sire is War Front. He’s out to 40/1 now and probably highly unlikely to run. That’s not to say I believe every War Front will be useless at 3yo. It’s the top level I am focusing on.
Thanks for the good crack. Time for me to move on. Be lucky.
Coolmore bought into War Front in a big way after Declaration Of War, poaching almost all of his most expensive yearlings and even sending some of their best mares across to be covered by him. They’re desperately looking for the next big thing with Galileo knocking on in years.
What did they get? Unfortunately Declaration Of War was one of the tiny minority who hit his stride as an older horse. Bar a few minor exceptions like Britannia winner War Envoy, lukewarm trial winner Whitecliffsofdover and John Ryan’s Battle Of Marathon, they all go rancid at 3 and beyond. The scrapheap is getting full with War Command, Hit It A Bomb, War Decree, Roly Poly, Brave Anna and Air Force Blue all losing the plot. War Fronts also tend to be hellishly ground-dependent – hardly ideal for an operation based in Ireland.
Coolmore’s War Front crush has understandably lulled in the last year with their attentions turning to the likes of Tiznow, Frankel, Dubawi (!) and even Dark Angel. If Coolmore know War Front can’t produce Classic winners, I’m inclined to take their word for it.
War Fronts are notorious for not training on, particularly the really precocious types, Air Force Blue being the most obvious example. Aidan O’Brien burbled about him being the best 2-y-o they’d ever had, yet as a 3-y-o he was barely Listed class.
Can someone tell me how rivet escapes a penalty in the Craven today is it because he won a group one as a 2yo??
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