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Agree with the Davy Russell comment. Very strong and would never be put off if he was up.
I am not big on stats but pretty sure Un De Sceaux ended a long losing run in Festival chases. Is that pure coincidence or the fact that a jockey is forced to go for a big one more often at the most competitive level? One things for sure it is a whole different ball game to riding long odds on shots in 4-5 runner condition races.
I think Cooldine in 2009 was his last chase winner at the Festival. But apart from that, he only needs to win the Albert Bartlett in order to have won ALL races at Cheltenham at least once. Sitting on 45 winners isn’t too bad. And I also like his arrogance in interviews….
Many of the falls are when the horses are travelling too well, certainly Annie Power, they just seem to get close and momentum takes over. Whether its his fault or not is difficult to debate. There are three scenarios riding into a fence, the long stride, the short stride and the right stride and by the time you are flat out going to the last, statistically you will end up with the short stride on some occasions, which in Ruby’s case has tipped quite a few over. Perhaps all those very dodgy last jumps of Kauto Star’s were Ruby’s error, not the horses. One thing he does do is not interfere with how the horses jump, teaches the horse to jump in the most lovely rhythm, which makes them neat, economical and quick over their fences. I’d rather stack my lot with Ruby given the choice!
Does that include the 2008 Betfair Chase when he came down with Sam Thomas on board
I am not big on stats but pretty sure Un De Sceaux ended a long losing run in Festival chases. Is that pure coincidence or the fact that a jockey is forced to go for a big one more often at the most competitive level? One things for sure it is a whole different ball game to riding long odds on shots in 4-5 runner condition races.
I think Cooldine in 2009 was his last chase winner at the Festival. But apart from that, he only needs to win the Albert Bartlett in order to have won ALL races at Cheltenham at least once. Sitting on 45 winners isn’t too bad. And I also like his arrogance in interviews….
Correct year but wrong horse. Kauto Star won the Gold Cup on the Friday.
Black Hercules never put a foot wrong until you guessed it the last fence and he comes down again. Oh dear Ruby
I think Ruby is just getting tired, especially when it is later in the day and the trip goes towards 3m. Clearly not the horse’s fault….
The internet is going to explode.
Done my money as well, had him at 11/8. Just glad to see the horse is ok
Ruby will have all these horses broken up if he keeps riding like that. 2 chase rides one fall. 2 Chase rides yesterday one fall. Talking through my pocket this time I got an early price of 10/11 on black Hercules.
The horse definitely alright? Was on the ground for a while
Got up seemingly okay and was led away by he stable lad, I mean by Ruby.
Horse got up and walked away. He’s becoming a joke. If he was riding horses who are rated 0-100 who are bad jumpers id understand a few falls but he is consistently falling off horses rated 140+ who have never fallen before
Having put him in as a sub in the ten to follow I was disappointed to see him fall.
There’ll be a few hearts in mouths at the festival when the likes of Faugheen, Douvan, Un de Sceaux and Annie Power come swinging to the last.Horse got up and walked away. He’s becoming a joke. If he was riding horses who are rated 0-100 who are bad jumpers id understand a few falls but he is consistently falling off horses rated 140+ who have never fallen before
I know he’s had more falls than you would expect from Ruby, but I watched the race live, then watched it
a few times in replay, and I don’t see that he did anything wrong. The horse seemed to come to the last on
a decent stride and Ruby looked in control of him.I know this is a very good horse, and a few have him down in their ante post book
as as near a certainty as you can get at the festival, and hopefully it works out that
way for them.I posted my take on the Warwick race in the Novice Chasers thread for the Festival. Reports
in the racing media suggested he jumped brilliantly and won comfortably. I was very much in
the minority, but I said that his jumping worried me. He definitely jumps from one side to the
other with speed, and he travels well in his races. The problem I had with him was, and still
is, is that he has absolutely no leeway when he jumps his fences, he basically skims them all.
I said that in that Warwick race my heart was in my mouth at times and that if he could jump
that way and get it right 100 o/o of the time that he would be hard to beat. I was worried
about Cheltenham, when he had lots of horses around him, and it’s pretty obvious that if a horse
is going to be more prone to a mistake, it’s at the end of the race.I think he caught the top of the fence too hard and that’s why he ended on the deck, I don’t
think Ruby could have done anything.I think he is a really decent horse, but I think if Mullins doesn’t have a look at his style
of jumping, I can see him ending in a heap at the Festival. I really don’t want to see that,
so I hope it gets sorted out, and he lands the bets of some good judges on here.Consistantly falling off….really?
Just watched the reply and unfortunately we are talking about another case where the horse was quickening to the last but met the fence in between strides and just didn’t get his front end up high enough and because of the speed he was going his backend came up too high for the horse to correct itself……………..no different to the fall Bryan Cooper had two out on Tell Us More earlier in the day.
Extremely bad luck that these type of falls have all happened in a relatively short space of time and in higher profile races – all jockey’s probably have the exact same things happen to them (and probably in greater number) but not in such a concentrated time period that us armchair jockeys are able to take notice of………..if these things have to happen, better now rather than at Cheltenham.
Mullins just being interviewed on ATR and he said that he was just a little too low after quickening into the last, which can happen with novices – he mentioned that he was ok after the fall and just currently having a pick of grass, they are still not sure whether to go RSA or the 4miler.
Separately, he said Annie Power will be declared for Wednesday and if nothing happens between now and then the intention is to run her.
To my eyes Danny Mullins was much more assertive at Warwick and I certainly didn’t feel as if the horse was taking any liberties there. Today Ruby elected to keep reining him back with the horse coming up in his hands a couple of times on the first circuit, so you could say there was an air of inevitablility about the eventual fall.
Personally I think if a horse has proven his aptitude for winging fences at pace then it seems odd to try to prevent him from utilising that asset. I think if Ruby had been as positive as Danny Mullins had been he would have had a commanding advantage turning in and not had to ask his mount to jump under pressure. I suspect the plan today was to teach him to settle in behind horses wiht a view to seeing out the 4m trip at Aintree. That plan well and truly backfired and they nearly paid the ultimate price.
There does seem to be a catalogue of high profile final and second-last fence falls mounting up for Ruby. It is fair for people to ask questions, but as Cormack says, without comparative stats it is difficult to draw any accurate conclusions.
For the record I backed Black Hercules, as I had done at Warwick. I was disappointed to see the change in tactics but can understand them. The final fence fall did leave me feeling gutted it has to be said, though the best result was seeing the big horse get up and walk back seemingly safe and sound.
I wouldn’t say Ruby makes big mistakes at the final fence, but he doesn’t exactly ‘gear up’ a horse towards the last and ask it for a big leap, instead he lets the horse sort itself out and jump more at its own accord. If he told the horse it had to jump big and let the horse know this through the reigns then he’d have less falls at the last. So in short he doesn’t do much wrong at the last but he doesn’t do the extra things that help the horse know it has to take a big leap.
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