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I was suprised to read that The Listener is leaving Robert Alners yard to be trained by his former assistant Nick Mitchell who is starting training. I suppose he obviously knows the horse well having been assistant for quite a while but it seems a real shame for the Alners.
Great shame. The alners have done so well with him and they are very good at training that type. I know you need to support new trainers but surley Mr Humphreys could leave him there he is sending other horses to nick mitchell. On another subject does anyone know what has happened to kingscliff is he going to be raced again next season or has he retired?
I can’t quite remember what the intention is with Kingscliff hereafter, though someone here undoubtedly will.
His owner Arnie Sendell was represented in point-to-points this year by fellow Irish import Slaezy (sic), and the gelding looked handy enough when I saw him win at Ston Easton over Easter, though he has a fair way to go before he looks anything like a ready replacement for Kingscliff judged on a dismal novices’ hunters’ chase outing at Newton Abbot subsequently.
Let’s see what the autumn brings for one or the other or both animals.
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.
Kingscliff has been retired. It’s a shame that he never really got a chance to show how good he could really have been, if he wasn’t hampered by persistant back problems he may well have gone all the way to the top.
I found Alastair Down’s article in the Post about this a little distasteful. As he says himself, it’s an owner’s perogative to have his horse trained where he likes. Emotional blackmail about the Alners’ misfortune is in poor taste. I remember thinking when there was a tour around the yard with Mrs Alner that she was obviously not heavily involved as she didn’t even know how many horses they had in- obviously Nick Mitchell has been running the show and when he goes, who knows who trains the horses. It’s unfortunate, but it’s also hard to criticise the owner’s decision and Down’s cheap attempt to vilify him stank, for me.
I remember thinking when there was a tour around the yard with Mrs Alner that she was obviously not heavily involved as she didn’t even know how many horses they had in-
I don’t think that’s too far from the truth – Sally Alner’s involvement prior to the accident was pretty much exclusively with the point-to-pointers rather than the Rules horses. Louise Alner sees to those now.
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.
I agree absolutely with carvill’s hill. Alastair Down’s piece was nothing short of disgraceful. It is the owner’s prerogative to move a horse if they wish; they are paying for a service and they are doing what they feel is best for the horse. I’m sure that Humphreys has every sympathy with the accident that has befallen Robert Alner, as do most people, but the situation in which Alner is in should not be used as a brickbat with which to beat a paying owner trying to do the best for his horse by lazy journalists who can’t find anything else to write about.
By all accounts Nick Mitchell did most of the work with The Listener so it is only natural that Humphreys would want his horse to stay with Mitchell. If in the same boat myself, I most probably would have done the same.
As has been said in other places, Mrs. Alner’s main, and probably only, concern is getting her husband back to some sort of condition where he has "quality of life".
I would think The Listener is fairly low on her list of things to be worried about at the moment.
Colin
Save the sob story, firefox, because it’s completely irrelevant.
If I’m paying upwards of £17,000 a year to keep a horse in training, especially one as good as The Listener, then I want to know that he’s in the best hands (and so offering the best chance of future success). Mr. Humphreys clearly feels that Nick Mitchell can do a better job than the Alner’s now and has taken the (right) decision to switch his allegiance.
The circumstances that have befallen Robert Alner are unfortunate and sympathies extend, I’m sure, from everyone in racing, but at the end of the day someone else’s health can’t be an overriding factor in such an important decision; hundreds of owners have made similar choices in the past and hundreds will do so in the future (and I can’t couldn’t care less if it’s Magnier, McManus, The Queen or Little Jimmy with the gammy leg).
Alistair Down’s attempt to villify Mr. Humphreys is laughable, wholly unfair and only goes to show that he possesses as much literary talent as Jodie Marsh. All of his articles now come with a faint overtone of pleasant summer evenings embellished with the aroma of a ’91 Chardonnay, ignoring as he does the real issues facing racing or indeed the legitimacy of decisions made by people within it.
If he’s a flagship journalist for the Post these days, then Jim Bolger’s a saint.
Doesn’t Down have horses himself? If so, perhaps he could place one or two with Mrs Alner and put his money where his great big mouth is.
Have you ever heard the phrase "kick a man when he’s down"?
Alastair Down has – he makes much of it in his opening paragraph!!!
Seriously, I can’t quite grasp the idea that an owner must leave a decent horse (hell, make that any horse!) with a trainer, regardless of whether it’s the best thing for the horse or not, simply because the trainer is ill in hospital. Not to mention he’ll be paying the best part of £20k per year for that privilege [make that nearer £40k as Humphreys has two horses with them] – I’m sure the Alners would hate the thought of being treated like a charity case as people are leaving horses with them simply because of Robert Alner’s unfortunate accident.
I am also quite sure that, as Sally Alner has said to the press – she has far more important things to worry about than losing a horse or two. It seems to me that the only people who have such a problem with what has happened (well, publicly at least) are Alastair Down and one or two people on internet forums.
Agree on all points, SL. The Alners are not people given to hysterical responses to some of the curveballs the racing game throws at them, and the removal of Sir Rembrandt from the Droop yard last August elicited a not dissimilar response. Per the Post of 19/8/07;
[i:1khnpei0]”SIR REMBRANDT, who has twice been placed in the Cheltenham Gold Cup, has left trainer Robert Alner to join Victor Dartnall.
Alner, who bought the gelding as an unbroken three-year-old and has trained him throughout his 33-race career, was told of owner Alan Hordle’s decision while Sir Rembrandt was turned out for the summer.
Alner said: “I’m sad to see him go and I didn’t want to lose him, but it is the owner’s decision and you have to accept that. He didn’t win last season and the owner thought a change of scenery might help.”
[…]
You’d never have guessed his quality at home as he is not a fast horse anyway and he doesn’t show you much on the gallops, but at his best he’s a top-class chaser.
It has to be said that Sir Rembrandt is on a downward turn and I hope that things work out for him with Victor.”
Alner added: “There has been no fallout over this. It is Mr Hordle’s prerogative to do what he thinks is best for the horse and I still train Brigadier Benson for him, although we have not been very lucky with him this year.”[/i:1khnpei0]
Unwittingly or otherwise, I’d gently suggest that Mr Down’s article might read like it was opportioning blame where there really isn’t any.
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.
Lets Get Racing.
Robert Alner is on a hospital bed, near dead, moving in and out of a vegetative state. Hr requires 24 hour care. There is a risk of brain injury and permanent spinal damage and it is likely that he may not recover. He will certainly never be the same person again.
His wife faces losing a loving husband and his family are facing the grim prospect of lifelong care with all the emotional and financial implications.
His assistant trainer has just started training on his own and one of the yard’s most prominent owners has just pulled the plug.
The family are experiencing a personal tragedy and you write a post like that?
You call all this a "sob story"?
Are you psychopathic or something? There’s either no room for people like you on a forum for decent people, or there’s no room for people like me.
I am familiar with your body of work SL!
You really aren’t, firefox. I don’t mind you saying most things, but assuming and second guessing what I may or may not think in a different situation is not only pointless and irrelevant, it’s laughable.
Maxilion, you’re being a tad harsh there. Besides which, none of the definitions of psychopath of which I am aware would fit this particular instance!
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