- This topic has 24 replies, 14 voices, and was last updated 14 years, 9 months ago by
.
- Posts
This horse was a very unlikely winner at Kempton last night. His trainer, Mr Clutterbuck, has not had a runner for some months, and this horse is an old hurdler who had not run for three years and who dotted up over seven furlongs. Huh? Furthermore, he was backed off the boards all day and won by six lengths. I’m surprised the forum sleuths have not been turning this one over. I don’t have RUK, so I don’t know if they followed up on the story at all on air. Has anybody seen anything about this winner over the last day or so? There appears to be, at the very least, a good story behind it.
Nothing to see here.
Search results for: Stoneacre
No results found.
Did you mean: sitting or STONEGRAVE or STONECRABSTOMMOROW?
This horse was a very unlikely winner at Kempton last night. His trainer, Mr Clutterbuck, has not had a runner for some months, and this horse is an old hurdler who had not run for three years and who dotted up over seven furlongs. Huh? Furthermore, he was backed off the boards all day and won by six lengths. I’m surprised the forum sleuths have not been turning this one over. I don’t have RUK, so I don’t know if they followed up on the story at all on air. Has anybody seen anything about this winner over the last day or so? There appears to be, at the very least, a good story behind it.
It was noted Joe but only Glenn is allowed to start derogatory, accusing or sarcastic threads about Kempton.
According to teh RP he was also heavily backed a few weeks back before being withdrawn, he was supposedly trained by Neil Mulholland then whereas now he is owned and trained by cold trainers list perennial Ken Clutterbuck. Curioser and curioser.
Damon Runyon once wrote
"Son, one day a man will come up to you, pick up the cards from the table and bet you he can make the Jack of spades jump out the pack and squirt cider in your ear.
Do not take that bet son, for you will surely get an earful of cider".It seems that a good proportion of the races on the all-weather these days revolve around these proposition bets, with connections (whoever they are) constantly trying to outdo each other in making their well backed horses appear to have the most outlandish crudentials possible.
Perhaps the reason that Stoneacre Gareth hasn’t been remarked upon until a day later is that a race where the odds and result were commesurate with the publicly available form would be the only thing worth remarking on these days.
Apologies if anybody thought I was being smart here. I just thought it was a remarkable little story that had not been remarked upon. For example: What does the panel think possessed the connections to believe that a muddy old hurdler had suddenly improved so much at home, after three years off, that he was a certainty over a sprint trip on the all-weather? And secondly, why had the connections not shown such a magical touch before? I am not pointing any fingers, because I love a touch as much as anybody, and I laughed out loud when the result came through. It was such an unlikely-looking punt throughout the day that I was tempted to have a go myself, but decided not to.
- Total Posts 17716
What’s the problem, exactly?
Stoneacre Gareth was returning from an absence of two-and-a-half years, had been removed from one of the worst stables in the history of ever and was under ‘job jockey’ Adam Kirby. The form of his two runs over hurdles is neither here nor there.
There’s no crime in backing a horse you think can win.
Apologies if anybody thought I was being smart here. I just thought it was a remarkable little story that had not been remarked upon. For example: What does the panel think possessed the connections to believe that a muddy old hurdler had suddenly improved so much at home, after three years off, that he was a certainty over a sprint trip on the all-weather? And secondly, why had the connections not shown such a magical touch before? I am not pointing any fingers, because I love a touch as much as anybody, and I laughed out loud when the result came through. It was such an unlikely-looking punt throughout the day that I was tempted to have a go myself, but decided not to.
In fairness, his only other win was on the AW over the same trip off a mark of 73.
It was 5 years ago mind
I’m with Hippo on this one. It’s a fascinating story and adds to the rich tapestry of racing. There’s no ‘problem’ as such and nobody is suggesting sharp practice but the circumstances are rather mysterious. Mr Clutterbuck, who has done absolutely nothing wrong, sounds like somebody out of a Dickens novel and the horse has rather an odd name as well.
However, looking back at the horse’s record, I suppose it could have been spotted that it might have had a chance in a class 7 0-50 race when it was once rated above 70 in sprints.
In the current climate Stoneacre could just as easily have ended up on a one way ticket to France. Well done to whoever for persevering with him, hopefully they got a few bob back yesterday.
Thanks for your support, Kasparov. I would just like to know a little more about the coup. If it had been Mr Baker or Mr Wigham I wouldn’t be so interested, because we know them so well, but Mr Clutterbuck? I am astonished that nobody sought to interview him after the race. He must have nerves of steel to bet the farm on a horse off the track for so long.
Tuffers said of his last win: "It was 5 years ago mind".
Well, that too…Some interesting cameos here:
Graham Weldon’s spotlight comments were unusually certain for a horse with such little public info about it. Usually spotlighters would offer little encouragement on these types but at the end of the day be noncomittal. He’s effectively done a Rishi and bismarked the complete rag.
The psychics backing it early a few weeks back – basically the only info on the horse for the last few years that was in the public domain.
The night owls feasting on the scraps befor a proper market was formed.
Neil Mulholland pulling him out of that race and then losing him to Clutterbuck.
FAO Graysonscolumn
Has Stoneacre Gareth run in Points since his nondescript NH runs?
I recall another Clutterbuck – Michael? – who had runners in Hunter Chases. Are they related?
Not the first time Mr Clutterbuck has had a well backed AW winner – his last score on the flat was a pair of wins at Wolverhampton with a hose called Strike Force, and he was backed from 9/1 to 4/1 on the first occasion.
He’s had no runners for some time prior to this one, and I wonder if he gave up his licence for a period while somebody else ran the yard. Strike Force has been trained more recently by Olivia Maylam, but with the same owners as before.
AP
muddy old hurdler
Stoneacre Gareth’s two hurdles runs need putting in a little context. It’s quesitonable whether he’d ever have anything to offer this particular game, and the two unprepossessing performances he recorded in them at Auteuil and Worcester tend to suggest he doesn’t.
That he was ever sent hurdling at all is down to his previous trainer Jonathan Jay, who had reinvented the gelding’s half-brother Tidal Fury as a Grade 1-winning juvenile hurdler in France (after he’d failed stalls tests on the Flat over here), and claimed Stoneacre Gareth from Peter Grayson out of a Lingfield sprint claimer with, one assumes, the ultimate intention of doing exactly the same thing after a couple of Flat sighters.
Jay couldn’t catch lightning in a bottle twice. Despite them going no speed at all early on Stoneacre Gareth emptied as soon as headed on his hurdling debut (2m2f, heavy) at the Paris track, and a shorter trip and better going at Worcester subsequently returned an even worse outcome.
And other than the entry for Neil Mulholland previously alluded to, that has literally been it from the gelding race-wise since. To answer Drone’s question, he hasn’t been a presence on the Pointing or any other scene since then – he hasn’t been anywhere at all (NB Stoneacre Gareth has been hunting in the five weeks Clutterbuck has had him, but at the last check isn’t hunter chasing / Pointing-qualified).
Per the "perennial cold list-sitter comment", that’s basically true, but note that it hadn’t been added to in recent times before Thursday’s runner – this was the first runner Ken Clutterbuck had sent out since December 2008.
Evidently Ken’s son James is now on board as assistant trainer, and one wonders if the hiatus and / or the improvement has had anything to do with that. Certainly James appears to be doing the buying for dad now – Equinity for £800 from Jeff Pearce’s yard in late January, for example.
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.
Good stuff GC
Are you aware of an M Clutterbuck in the Pointy arena?
My database reveals no Rules runners this century
As for Stoneacre Gareth’s win…just one of those ‘bolts from the blue’ that happens occasionally. Hope connections’ enjoyed a good drink. I for one wouldn’t begrudge them that
Follow the money – a road to ruin generally. Not this time, albeit punts from drab minnows are more noteworthy than those from the big showy fish
Hunt hunt, put him on the ‘alien’ AW, and punt punt
A horse that hates routine and relishes change
nice one
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.