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The King George now down to three runners following the defection of Anthony Van Dyck due to poor blood test results.
This season, already with a weird feel about it, takes another turn.
Thank goodness aiden obrien likes to run multiple horses eh?
Im sure no one will be negative in regards to that in this race Like they usually are..
Disgraceful. What a set of wet blankets the British trainers really are. I’m livid.
BUY THE SUN
regardless of the current tight programme, theres no excuses for some of the derby/oaks horses amongst others not taking a chance in this.
Prize money surely worth it for 4th?
No wonder Gosden has it all his own way in England. Distinct lack of guts among the rest. Come back Clive B.
BUY THE SUN
The next time any British trainers or owners start bleating about a lack of prize money, remind them that they could only muster one runner for the season’s midsummer showpiece between them.
I for one don’t think multiple O’Brien runners is the answer to this and isn’t there a deeper problem here than ‘lack of guts?’by other trainers ?
Others will know more but I feel like there has been a drift away from 12 furlong horses being as sought after for Flat breeding purposes and the dominance of Gallileo and Coolmore ( not least through multiple runners in the classics ) has meant that other stallions don’t get the opportunity to prove themselves as sires of 12 furlong horses and the sector goes into downward spiral.
The Derby isn’t the pinnacle target it once was and there isn’t the same desire to prove that the best 3 year old can stay 12 furlongs because all that awaits is a career as a NH stallion.
Races that fall apart like the KG has should be postponed and rescheduled or skipped for the season unless a field worthy of the race’s tremendous history and standing can be assembled.Worrying.
Strange as it may seem, owners and trainers are not excited by the idea of entering for a race in the hope of finishing fourth. Not to mention that the entry fee is high (£5k this year) and fourth is hardly guaranteed. Because when the entries were made on Monday, how many people knew there would only be three runners?
I’ve got a horse in training – he’s a 6-y-old that just about stays a mile. Should I have entered him for the King George in order to satisfy some need of forum posters to have a big field? Or am I allowed to choose a race in which he has some sort of realistic chance of winning. How many horses in training have any hope of beating Enable and the Coolmore platoon?
And finally, perhaps part of the willingness to enter disappears when the owners can only attend under restricted circumstances, can ony bring one guest, cannot enter the track until 45 minutes before the big race, and will have no access to bars, refreshments or corporate boxes.
I cannot accept that in the whole of the UK there is only one horse capable of running in the King George.
Have the likes of Haggas and Stoute got nothing they could run in the race? And what about up and coming young trainers? Have they no ambition?
Maybe it is a sign of the terminal decline of the King George. When I was first interested in racing it was the inevitable target for a Derby winner. But Coolmore have decided their precious three year olds cannot possibly run here. At least Gosden was going to run Golden Horn until the ground went heavy.
It is also a sign of the unhealthy dominance of Coolmore and Gosden. It is killing competition. If I was training, I would do what the likes of Messrs Cox, Ivory and Teal have done and concentrate on speed. At least you have a chance against the big battalions in those races.
Well let’s look at the Haggas and Stoute yards.
The highest rated horse for Haggas is Addeyb, on 122, but he’s a 10F performer, never raced over 12F. His top rated proven 12F horse is Hamish, on 110, and only 4th in the Hardwicke.
The highest for Stoute is Mustashry, a 7F/1M Group 2 winner, he’s on 120. His top rated possible 12F horse is Highest Ground, 2nd in the Dante. But he’s only a 3-y-old and only had three career starts, so maybe next year.
The only plausible other runner I can see would have been Ghaiyyath, who won a Group 2 over the trip. But he’s been kept for the 10F races and given how far he was beaten in the Arc, that’s hardly a surprise.
Of course it’s not ideal, but expecting owners to run horses with no hope of winning just to provide some also rans is ignoring reality.
If they had “no hope” I presume you would have laid me plenty of 1000/1 against English King and Pyledriver, for example, had connections not hidden behind mummy’s apron?
BUY THE SUN
Apracing, your horse is clearly exposed, you know there capability, theres plenty of 3yo getting weight who could have ran and had a chance, who knows if enable is capable of running 120+? Sovereign is vulnerable, japan may or may not run his race.
So are you saying that none of the bunch finish from 2nd in the derby could have ran a decent race in this with the view to upset?
Couldnt disagree more with your opinion on it, you should go for glory in ownership, history has proved that time & time again That it can pay off, what are you in it for? To win a handicap at chelmsford?
Prize money is why the french dont come.
Surprised there’s been little mention of exceptionally poor prize money. Last years race was worth over 3 times the amount to the winner.
Horses who ran in the Derby don’t have a very good recent record in this race
And all of the better ones are on a retrieval mission after Epsom, so the trainers were never going to chuck them into a king George against enable and japan for much lower prize money than usual
Judging by some comments on here, perhaps AOB shouldn’t have bothered either as Enable is unlikely to be beaten.
So let’s just have a walkover in the supposed top British summer race, and all nod our heads in a sage, knowing fashion, at how wise it was for nothing to bother racing against her.
BUY THE SUN
It does irk me the criticism coolmore get for dominating when Gosden has towered over British trainers for years. To me the problem goes back to when Godolphin wouldn’t buy coolmore horses and that meant of course Galileo stock. Now because of that virtually all of the middle distance quality horses are just one or two stables. Had Godolphin not boycotted coolmore their progeny would have been more evenly distributed. It will lessen when Galileo eventually retires from stud but coolmore have virtually all the quality middle distance mares to mate with saxonwarrior,war front magna Grecia etc and will no doubt still provide the bulk of 12f and up group ones. Maybe we need different owners like bjorn Neilson who is investing in middle distance horses but once again English king is by a coolmore stallion. Maybe it’s just luck that John magnier has ended up in such a dominant position but I doubt it He know his onions, simple as that.
Ff, the derby runners up could have finished a nice 2nd there taking the scalp of japan & sovereign…. is that a pointless feat? I think not
Forget retrieval missions, ill never entertain a conversation about prize money again or aiden obrien having too many runners, maybe if they had the aspirations of competing in these races, getting horses to finish second and 3rd etc, down the line is what is likely to get an owner to give them better horses to potentially win them….
Gordon elliott is a prime example of this over the other discipline…
Useless brits.
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