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Just got back from Cheltenham and I’ll be the first to admit I don’t generally get overwhelmed by such stuff but it was great to see Spot do that. Superb entertainment, and it’s a dreadful cliche, but I guess seeing horses like that coming back year on year, is what jump racing is about. JP McManus has had tens if not hundreds of horses with more ability. But none with the toughness and durability of this fellow.
They didn;t even need to pull the stablemate to make sure he won today.
For Red Evie & Martin Day, welcome to the forum, but I hope your not like a lot of new members who sign on to the forum just because a popular horse wins or dies, and then disappear until STD wins again or another popular horse kicks the bucket. Hope to see you express your opinions on other topics in the near future. Once again welcome.
Patrick.
I have to agree with the majority of what davidjohnson posted there. I too was at Cheltenham today and while I try not to get overly sentimental about these things, today was an occasion that I will look back on in the years to come and say "I was privileged to be there". The cheer that greeted the winner, both as he rose to his feet and as he was led into the winners’ enclosure, was as rapturous as any that I have ever heard at the course in the past.
In response to the calls on here that the race should be banned, I have to strongly disagree. The clear on-course draw of the race (several hundred, if not thousand, crossed the course in order to gain a close up view of the action), coupled with the immense popularity of the extraordinary equine characters that take part, certainly accenuates the belief that there is deinitely a place in the calendar for races on this unique course. The quality of the race has improved immeasurably since the first tentative steps were made twelve years ago and the leading trainers now have no qualms with running their good animals in it.
I know it’s another horrible cliche that is always often banded around on forums (sometimes about all-weather racing, for example), but there is no rule to say you have to watch it and there is no rule to say you have to bet on it. At least when betting in a cross-country race you can be pretty certain that all of the competitors were trying. What would be the point if they weren’t?
I was there for Istabraq’s third Champion hurdle and Best Mate’s third gold cup and I always just stay around the paddock area so that I can just BE there when they come back…it’s like being part of history, isn’t it?!
This prat stood by one of the fences to try and get some nice photos.
Unbeknown to me (and many others) it was the new fence that wasn’t being used today (didn’t realise until too late).
Gutted as I normally stand by the water jump,oh well.Heard the cheers as he got up to win but then saw on the big screen that he had appeared to collapse.
There was then a deathly silence for a few moments followed by a huge cheer and a massive sense of relief as he got to his feet.In response to the calls on here that the race should be banned, I have to strongly disagree. The clear on-course draw of the race (several hundred, if not thousand, crossed the course in order to gain a close up view of the action), coupled with the immense popularity of the extraordinary equine characters that take part, certainly accenuates the belief that there is deinitely a place in the calendar for races on this unique course. The quality of the race has improved immeasurably since the first tentative steps were made twelve years ago and the leading trainers now have no qualms with running their good animals in it.
The same could be said for the thousands that play the roulette machines and bet on virtual racing, it doesn’t mean to say it’s liked or is right, I know it’s all about opinions in this game but the cross country races will always remain a circus act with me, it offers nothing to the game and to watch horses running up banks, jockeys taking the wrong course and other embarrassing things happening is not my idea of the way ahead, What will they add next? hoops of fire to jump through?
I wouldn’t have any horse of mine doing tricks.
Jim
When you see or hear the applause that Spot Thedifference got today, to say the race has brought nothing to the game is plain wrong.
David, the applause came because the horse got up on his feet not because the cross country is a great race.
Don’t get me wrong I watched the race as it was on TV (I wouldn’t go out of my way to watch it though) and I had a lump in my throat when the horse got up.
I honestly can’t see what it brings to the game.
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As I mentioned earlier my bet went west when Puntal took the wrong course – but that is entirely the jockeys fault in my book – not the racecourses. I really like the race.
For such a specialist race – jockeys should surely put the effort in to walk the course – or at least 100% know where they are going – as its not a standard race. I would have thought that this would have been the professional thing to do – to make sure you do your homework.
My money went down a few years back at Cheltenham when the Czech jockey took the horse up the wrong straight – I think it may have also been in the Cross Country race – if so, maybe I should learn my lesson and leave the race alone.
STD – a great Cheltenham performance. Just watched it again on Racing UK. Hell of a reception into the winning enclosure – all deserved as well.
Punchestown has had a cross country race (a couple of them) at the festival for years and indeed there was one there today…I am not sure what the big deal is. Fair enough if you "can’t see what it brings to the game" but equally how does it take away from it?
As I mentioned earlier my bet went west when Puntal took the wrong course – but that is entirely the jockeys fault in my book – not the racecourses. I really like the race.
Why don’t they have arrows and things like that pointing in the right direction, so the jockeys don’t go the wrong way?
Surely that’d help so the punters don’t lose out because the rider blinks once or twice..
I would have been interested to see how close Puntal would have gotten if he didnt go the wrong way, he was miles behind but managed to finish fairly close to the pace.
Punchestown has had a cross country race (a couple of them) at the festival for years and indeed there was one there today…I am not sure what the big deal is. Fair enough if you “can’t see what it brings to the game” but equally how does it take away from it?
I’d go further than that, and say that to be dismissive of cross country races per se is a bit of a slight not only on those perfomers who can handle their demands so adroitly, but also on the racing cultures where they are more prevalent – I’d be thinking of Ireland and the Czech Republic in particular, but not exclusively.
JP McManus summed it up better than I ever will when stating words to the effect of, “Thank God for these races. They give old horses like Spot a chance”.
I was chatting with a few proper (i.e. not like this chancer!) racing media people at HQ yesterday; and the consensus we reached seemed to be that given the outlay Cheltenham committed to setting up the cross-country course in the first place, and for so long as watering it further into the season doesn’t prove too economically non-viable, there remains no justifiable reason not to have more of these sort of races programmed in.
It seems a particularly grievous omission not to have a cross-country race at the May hunters’ chase meeting, given that the obstacles presented offer a variety of challenges a bit more akin to a day’s hunting (if not quite a like-for-like one, obviously) than 18 lumps of birch around a park track ever will.
Jeremy
(graysonscolumn)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.
It seems a particularly grievous omission not to have a cross-country race at the May hunters’ chase meeting, given that the obstacles presented offer a variety of challenges a bit more akin to a day’s hunting (if not quite a like-for-like one, obviously) than 18 lumps of birch around a park track ever will.
Jeremy
(graysonscolumn)Probably down to the ground on that course, they struggled with it for this meeting. Last May the ground was very hard.
Hence the watering caveat. Ta for the confirmation, Vici.
Come to think of it, my first ever visit to HQ four years ago was for the equivalent of yesterday’s card, wherein I discovered the cross-country race to have been cancelled due to firm going and replaced with a 4m1f handicap chase over the racecourse proper.
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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