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I’d like to thank Fist of Fury for the full retraction of the wholly inaccurate (for that read not even remotely close) and rather snide outburst he came out with making allegations and wild stab in the dark guesses about me and who I may be earlier on this thread.
Oh, hang on……someone must have deleted it, I can’t find it?
If the quotes in the Post today are accurate then Nicholls is talking nonsense. He said riding Master Minded would put Thomas in a NO WIN situation.
I can think of no bigger "win" for Sam than if he rode the horse on Saturday and won. At a stroke his "critics" would be silenced.
Nicholls and Smith clearly believe McCoy riding will increase the chance of the horse winning and have chosen accordingly – as is their perogative, but lets not dress it up as doing Sam Thomas a favour.
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The fact is this situation has absolutely nothing to do with having the better man on board, and everything to do with Paul Nicholls finding someone to blame for two high profile defeats.
Had Kauto Star and Big Buck’s strolled to victory, or indeed battled to the line to register short-head victories, do we believe that McCoy would still have been given the ride aboard Master Minded? Not a chance, in exactly the same way that he wasn’t favoured over Thomas at the same time last year. Praise would have been heaped on the winning jockey for strength and determination, and a red carpet laid to the quarters of Master Minded.
Sam has been unfortunate enough to find himself in a no-win situation having been jocked off Clive Smith’s horse, rather than the other way around. It’s fairly clear that some of Nicholls’s horses aren’t running to form (well, they’re running to form up to a point before blowing up completely) and rather than hold his hands up he’s placed the blame on the shoulders of someone who couldn’t have done anything to prevent the falls of Kauto and Buck’s.
I don’t believe for one second that Clive Smith arrived at the decision independently, whether the choice of jockey is his ‘prerogative’ or otherwise. It is equally incomprehensible that McCoy or his agent have had any input into the matter, leaving Nicholls as the only common denominator. Whether he is apparently open with the media or not (not something I would automatically take as a positive, given that Mark ‘Always Trying’ Johnston craves camera time and isn’t worth listening to), there can be no denying that he’s made more than one mistake in the last few years. The difference now is that he’s the top b*llocks and feels that he can get away with saying what he likes, and blaming whoever he likes.
It is true that it is down to connections to decide who rides their horses, and no loyalty need be shown to anyone, but let’s not dress this up as anything more than a kick in the twins for Sam. A real cauliflower bean-bag job.
jock total F/U %
ruby ..3047 ..145 ..4.76%
sam ..1841 ….91 ..4.94%
tony ..3320 ..133 ..4.01%Percentage Fell or Unseated compared to all rides since Jan 2005. Not much in it.
Interesting. You could also interpret this as saying that sam is c25% more likely to fall than mcoy athough . Can you get stats for all three since start of November ?
Good morning all.
I have a lot of time for Paul Nicholls but i to think this is a bit of a bugger for Sam.
As Equitrack has stated at the same time last year no other replacement bar Sam was needed whilst Ruby was on the sidelines or required but now all of a sudden it is.
Interesting to see what would have happened if it was Ruby in this position.
Cheers.
Adrian
So to sum things up! Sam thomas has been well and truly shafted, for a
"crime" he didn"t commit, and has now been sent to Coventry ( Chepstow)
If there is any justice in this world all three of P. Nicholls horses will fall
( but get up safely) in the Tingle creek, All three falls will be down to the horses making the mistakes! P.Nicholls will publicly acknowledge he uses jockeys,like a dog uses a lampost and Sam thomas will ride a treble for any other trainer bar P.Nicholls. Should Master minded unfortunately fall
( and get up safely i sincerely hope) this topic will run into next week!!Wakeman- The difference between Ruby and Sam (were Ruby to find himself in the same position) is that Ruby’s track record would suggest that these occurences are a blip. You’d be more confident than you are with Sam. Sam may have been simply unlucky but we’re talking about a sport where the margins of error are slim and where success can be fleeting.
If I was Mr Smith or Mr Nicholls I’d have done exactly the same thing, but I’d have felt pretty bad about it at the same time, as I am sure they do.
He’s second jockey Gwilson. It’s standard practice that for the big meetings the first choice jockey rides there and second choice at the lesser meeting. As happens here there’s no point in Nicholls sending Thomas to Sandown for one ride in the Tingle Creek – which in all probability has place hopes at best when he could be riding 3 or 4 winners at Chepstow.
He’s second jockey Gwilson.
Exactly he is, thats one of the issues with this discussion, thats why he should be on Master minded, if it was Ruby who had experienced Sams
misfortune he would defineately not have been given the No confidence vote
from connections!It’s up to the owner who rides the horses. Similar to the Scudamore/Johnson/Pipe situation. Tom knows he won’t be riding the Pipe trained Johnson horses as that’s Timmy Murphy’s gig and given what has happened of late with Sam Thomas falling off, asking for big jumps when they aren’t needed, switching horses all over the place is he the right man to ride Master Minded (one ride one fall record for ST on him) and Free World (Arkle hope)?
Nice double in the first 2 races at Winkers, good quiet ride to win on Striking Article despite mistakes- they’d be raving about it were it Ruby…
I reckon 90% of the racing public are supporting Sam through this difficult
time, the remaining 10% are obviously the sort that wear blinkers and cant see past their nose!Good double for him and riding these short priced one’s are what Sam needs at the moment. It will get his confidence back and riding lower profile horses at Chepstow will help even more than Nicholls putting him on a horse he’s already fallen off or in the other high profile Sandown races.
The Sam Thomas i have been watching today is exactly the same one i have been watching all year! There is nothing wrong with his confidence or his ability to ride a racehorse! its those around him with the confidence problem!
I reckon 90% of the racing public are supporting Sam through this difficult
time, the remaining 10% are obviously the sort that wear blinkers and cant see past their nose!73% of stats are made up! The man does not need the supoort of the racing public. He’s just doing his job. You are starting to come across like a mad groupie.
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