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Port Douglas would’ve won with a stronger ride.
But let’s brush it under the Stewards carpet as per normal!
Value Is EverythingFitzy and Graham Cunningham are talking the usual crap. However the Stewards are enquiring into why Port Douglas wasn’t given a more forceful ride.
Training in public at its best and rules being flouted.
Thanks for the good crack. Time for me to move on. Be lucky.
What happens when your so called stable star isn’t the superstar you try to convince everyone he is, leaving your team player jockey on your lesser light second string runner to have to do everything he can not to win the race whilst appearing to do everything he can to win the race.
Didn’t expect commentators to call them out on it on the basis that they would never get to do pre or post race interviews ever again if they did – we all know they can only wax lyrical about the big boys and it is only the people/individuals that are unlikely to be constantly interviewed that they will be critical about.
Should be a rule about actual races bringing the sport into disrepute that they could slap them with but they won’t touch it with a barge pole.
Channel 4 focussing on the wrong part of the race.
It does not matter that Heffernan didn’t go for the rail, it does not matter the horse went away from the whip. It is the final 50 yards that matter. The jockey did not need to use the whip again to win, all that was needed was to use his arms with more force. Heffernan did not try hard enough and appeared to be going through the motions.Value Is EverythingFor me he came off the rails to let the fav through expecting him to quicken up and pull many lengths clear, when that didn’t happen the jockey thought oh sh*t I now have to be seen to be trying to win without actually winning, so he reluctantly picked up his whip and gave him a crack, he veered left but he didn’t bother switching his whip into his left hand and started minimal hand and heels riding to which (unfortunately for him) the horse started to respond to.
He then had to pick up the whip (again in his right hand) and gave him a crack and fortunately again the horse went left (while still closing) and again rather than switching his whip he put it down and went through the motions of hands and heels riding to have the horse continue to close but just not in time to snatch the win……job done. The fact that the horse went left both times he used the whip helped him out no end as it was a ready made explanation/excuse were the stewards to get involved.
The simply fact of the matter is, had he been riding a horse trained and owned by somebody else he would have won the race probably by a couple of lengths as he wouldn’t have come of the rails and that would have meant that he could have continued to use his whip in his right hand as the horse would have had no way of veering any further left once up against the rails.
This stinks as much as the team tactics in the 2008 Juddmonte ( won by Duke Of Marmalade) did only this was compounded by the soft finish that Heffernan rode on the runner up . It is blatant not running horses on their merits and non trying and it shames the sport if nothing is done about it…….and the last thing we need to hear is O’Brien’s inane witterings that have their usual pitifully low levels of genuine worthwhile content.Inexcusable and offensive.
It seems I’m in a minority here but I thought the result of the race was the result on merit and I backed Port Douglas.
Maybe it’s just me?
Nothing to see here, please all move along and forget what you saw. That’s the stewards report basically.
I’m with IBRacing. I’m usually quick to criticise bad rides and team tactics, but I thought Heffernan rode a beautiful race here. If he’d won, it would have been a The French Furze style act of thievery.
It’s unusual for a ‘soft ride’ to involve a glance back 4f out and an attempt to steal the race from the front. Heffernan spotted his stablemate (and the rest) struggling and shrewdly stole a few lengths, briefly looking to have Us Army Ranger in trouble. Although Heffernan knows which horse wins on the gallops, he had no way of knowing that Us Army Ranger would act on the track and pick up in the end. Kicking early was a positive and proactive bit of thinking, certainly not the act of a jockey riding for second.
A couple of other things worth noting:
1. If you watch racing at Chester regularly, you’ll notice that almost every horse drifts a few horsewidths off the running rail when clear in the straight. Since the crowd are so close at that track, it’s probably an instinctive response.
2. Heffernan is one of the least vigorous riders on the Ballydoyle roster. Unlike Wayne Lordan and Colm O’Donoghue, who rode plenty of live ones for other yards in major races when attached to O’Brien, Heffernan does not get many outside rides. His style is more about intelligence and opportunism.
3. It’s ridiculous to talk about stallion value in this instance – that does not even come into it. Us Army Ranger handled Chester quite well but he does not look anything like a Derby winner. For the stallion question to be relevant, he needs to win a classic. To win a classic, Us Army Ranger will need to hammer the Port Douglases of this world.
I’m with IBRacing. I’m usually quick to criticise bad rides and team tactics, but I thought Heffernan rode a beautiful race here. If he’d won, it would have been a The French Furze style act of thievery.
It’s unusual for a ‘soft ride’ to involve a glance back 4f out and an attempt to steal the race from the front. Heffernan spotted his stablemate (and the rest) struggling and shrewdly stole a few lengths, briefly looking to have Us Army Ranger in trouble. Although Heffernan knows which horse wins on the gallops, he had no way of knowing that Us Army Ranger would act on the track and pick up in the end. Kicking early was a positive and proactive bit of thinking, certainly not the act of a jockey riding for second.
A couple of other things worth noting:
1. If you watch racing at Chester regularly, you’ll notice that almost every horse drifts a few horsewidths off the running rail when clear in the straight. Since the crowd are so close at that track, it’s probably an instinctive response.
2. Heffernan is one of the least vigorous riders on the Ballydoyle roster. Unlike Wayne Lordan and Colm O’Donoghue, who rode plenty of live ones for other yards in major races when attached to O’Brien, Heffernan does not get many outside rides. His style is more about intelligence and opportunism.
3. It’s ridiculous to talk about stallion value in this instance – that does not even come into it. Us Army Ranger handled Chester quite well but he does not look anything like a Derby winner. For the stallion question to be relevant, he needs to win a classic. To win a classic, Us Army Ranger will need to hammer the Port Douglases of this world.
If I’m not mistaken there are a number of stallions who have had successful careers without being classic winners, so I don’t really agree with the latter point.
That said, I have to agree that he didn’t look a likely classic winner today.You’re right Coggy, good point. I just mean this particular horse will probably need to win a Classic given his likely career path from here.
Not the greatest ride, but that’s about the size of it for me. Then again, I am a hardcore anti-conspiracy-theorist.
Mike
I thought the ride Dettori gave Western Hymn in the race before was nearly as bad. If he tried to win that race then I may as well give up. That is why I dislike the flat so much. Poor rides and nothing said.
I’ve no qualms in saying that Port Douglas’s backers (not me) have been cheated out of their money by team tactics.
The key facts here and not the red herrings produced in the stewards enquiry are –
Would Heffernan have ridden like that in the finish if the other horse had not been a stable companion? Highly unlikely in my view.
Did he take all reasonable steps to obtain the best possible placing? No he didn’t, he was influenced by the other horse being a stable companion and held back.
They would have been absolutely gutted with the ride Port Douglas received if they didn’t own/train the winner.
Let’s not forget Heffernan has previous, in 2009 at Gowran he allowed stable companion Hail Caesar to win when riding even money Drumbeat. That time he was banged to rights by the Gowran stewards, sadly the Chester stewards chose not to follow suit today.
IMO Heffernan wasn’t interested in winning but what do you expect??
I am not surprised just disappointed!! And I backed Port Douglas each way at sevens!!
The so called “rules of racing” are breached on an almost daily basis with horses not being ridden to achieve the best possible position in maidens, bumpers, you name it. How many “easy rides” has Ryan Moore himself given short priced unexposed types already this season? I don’t understand why all the fuss about this race in particular?
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