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Two great pieces of horsemanship today – the only problem with Timmy’s was that it came that bit too late to qualify for Ride of the Year in the TRF Awards
gc
Thought Luke Harvey stating it should win ATR ride of the week (think sometimes these pundits slightly over estimate the importace of that particular award in the greater scheme of things) as soon as they passed the post was funny but that’s hilarious.
Bless you, Yeats, I aim to entertain.
I was positing it as a nomination for the award rather than the outright winner – it’s clear from a few posts on this thread (mine included) that it was a well-regarded ride, but whether it would have been entitled to consideration over all of the other nominated rides is another matter.
All hypothetical, of course, as it’s not on the shortlist – a fact which should prevent your already aching sides from rupturing completely.
HTH,
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 thought it was an excellent ride personally.
Wichita Lineman doesn’t look an easy ride, and always needs to be pushed along by his jockey when he hits the flat spot in his race, and to be fair to him, he did pick up when Timmy produced the whip on him.
It would have been easy for Timmy to really go for the horse after the last, as Pancake was staying on very well too, but he switched him and he knew exactly what he had underneath him and was able to push him out to the line with hands and heels.
Great ride.
I’d love to see Wichita Lineman go for the 2010 Grand National. If I owned / trained him that would be my long term aim.
That is his long term aim
I’d love to see Wichita Lineman go for the 2010 Grand National. If I owned / trained him that would be my long term aim.
That is his long term aim
Great – two years finishing tailed off in 3m+ Chases for Wichita then
Shouldn’t a ride of week or season in most cases involve a jockey having a significant impact on the result?
What did Wichita Lineman beat? Any half decent jock would have won on him and it was a better ride by AP on the same horse 2 races ago and on a couple of his winners at Sandown on Saturday.
If Timmy Murphys was one of the rides of the season it would have been one of the rides of the decade if Dickie Johnson had managed to win on Pancake imo.What a ride from Timmy this afternoon. The way he cajolled this horse to victory and kept the horse’s mind alert was magnificent to watch. On jumping the last Murphy sat still and didn’t just pull the whip, he allowed the horse to relax and use his rhythm to pick Pancake up. Majestic ride. There are plenty of jockeys that would’ve got beat on Wichita today.
in stark contrast to the piss poor ride he gave roll along the day before.
Shouldn’t a ride of week or season in most cases involve a jockey having a significant impact on the result? What did Wichita Lineman beat?
It’s less about what he beat in this instance and more about him appearing intent on getting himself beat. But for the jockey’s intervention I’d proffer that he would have succeeded!
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.
My point being that any of the jockeys currently in the top 20 would have succeeded in doing the same. For me it was Murphy’s kid gloveness that made the ride look better than it was. McCoy would have won twice as far and not attracted half the praise imo.
Enjoyed watching the Boylesports Gold Cup memories on RUK this week, in the same colours watching Murphy almost coax Risk Accessor to victory against Iris Royal and that was a truly great ride.
The official handicapper was certainly impressed – he’s put Wichita Lineman on a mark of 148 after the Chepstow win.
That’s only 1lb less than Alberta’s Run was given after he won the Grade 2 Reynoldstown Chase last season.
If the handicapper is right, Wichita Lineman would be a serious contender for the Sun Alliance.
Personally, I’d be amazed if WL could win a handicap from that mark.
Whoever isponsible for that rating needs to take a good look at what they are doing. Nobody is saying Wichita Lineman isn’t potentially a 148 chaser on his hurdling form. However he hasn’t got with at least a stone of that in 3 chase runs. Perhaps he doesn’t want to be made to look foolish if the horse wins 3 handicap chases on the way up to that sort of mark and I can sympathise with that, but if that’s the case, the whole system of handicapping novice chasers needs looking at.
That much we agree on in this instance, David – whether allotted on reputation, or else in the belief that he was keeping a ton to himself in his chase starts to date, a mark of 148 nonetheless appears a sizeable overreaction.
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.
Wichita has been ‘off’ in every single one of his three chase runs. If a mark of 148 is the reward, it’s no wonder trainers feel the need to play games.
Apart from considerations of whether that mark is realistic, it severely limits their options in where to run him, as there are very few handicaps open to horses rated above 145.
As an indication of how the treatment of novices has changed, Gloria Victis was running off a mark of 151 when he won the Racing Post Chase – and his previous start was an 18L victory in the Grade 1 Feltham Novice!
It was a good ride but the big question has to be, what the hell has happened to Wichita Lineman? I know he went backwards a fair bit last year, but he is a shadow of the horse he was 2 years ago and seemingly another Jonjo horse that is almost ready for the rubbish bin. Shame because I made a lot of money from his Festival win in the Brit, but after being put through the mill on Saturday, won’t be backing him again.
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