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Excellent to see PaulO getting some well-deserved peer approval outwith the four of us who went racing with him last week. Be assured he is decent, knowledgeable, forthright and genial company as much in real life as in print!
gc
And he allegedly has a wife, which I find slightly hard to believe…….
Indeed he does – she is such a lucky woman
Joking aside, she deserves an award as she is very understanding about the amount of time I spend racing.
She tolerates me taking the laptop on holiday to watch racing at ungodly hours and keep the web site updated.
She has even visits, without complaint, the obscure courses I manage to find when on holiday and some of them can be real dives.
Even on our homeymoon I somehow managed to take in a days racing in Bordeaux.
She is also helping me apply emotional blackmail on a Nephew to change his wedding day. He is getting married in Oz but has set the date for September. We are both working on getting them to put the wedding back a few weeks so we can tie in a trip to the Melbourne Cup.
"Salselon":37xofm9b wrote:
Got to question Harry Findlay being put up for owner of the year, what horses does he own? His mother owns plenty including Denman but I don’t see Sheikh Mohammed being classed as the owner of Princess Haya’s horses.
I would like to nominate Lydia Hislop as broadcaster of the year.
Yeats,
2 completely different cases. If we went along with that hypothesis, John Magnier doesn’t own any horses either..
Salselon, Take note!
At yesterdays Derby awards, owner of the year was won by Paul Barber & Margaret Findlay not Harry.
Think you have to actually own the horses to be eligible for the awards.Villain Of The Year
Whoever decided that the Racing Post website needed an upgrade – NAP!- Total Posts 17716
Poster of the Year – Gingertipser, Equitrack, Cormack15, Bosranic, Pompete
To look out for in 2009 – could we add Campbell Gillies to this list please? Not sure if he has been mentioned yet because I haven’t got time to read through 4 pages of replies on the thread – sorry if I’m repeating what has already been said. I feel if Ryan Mania has been nominated then a jockey of the same age but a much higher calibre deserves a nomination as well.
Gillies has had a terrific season so far and, despite being attached to Lucinda Russell for whom he has ridden 4 winners this season, he has also ridden more than one winner for C Grant (5), Mrs K Walton (3), Howard Johnson (2) and Keith Reveley (2). He has also shown incredible skill for a young jockey in encouraging some very stale and fairly unwilling horses to win. He has been riding regularly for Howard Johnson lately.
He was also picked up by Ferdy Murphy earlier in the year to ride Noir Et Vert in the Scottish National at which point Murphy said he believed Campbell could easily become the first Scottish Champion Jockey.
Finally, he also took out his flat licence this summer in order to build his experience which resulted in him riding 2 winners…not bad for a jump jockey!
Thanks
I feel if Ryan Mania has been nominated then a jockey of the same age but a much higher calibre deserves a nomination as well.
Thanks
Saucer of milk for Lekha!
Actually, I’m glad to see this post as I’m much less sold on Ryan Mania than my esteemed southern nominators. He’s done quite well so far, but doesn’t look like a horseman to me (not that that is always necessary in a jockey, but it makes a huge difference on a chaser) and I’d agree Gillies is a better prospect in the long term.
Personal reflection.
I came to this forum a couple of months prior to Cheltenham, and have been taken away by the amount of knowledge, wit, and passion for horseracing. It’s beyond anything I have encountered locally, where it’s essentially a hobby incorporating piss-ups, doubling your money for more piss-ups and courting fillies.
I was an ambassador for international racing but I quickly realised upon reading this forum that I should devote more time to European, American and Asian racing, and there is a plethora of information to absorb and I haven’t even broken the surface!
I have not learned enough about the identities that make up these awards but, of what I can gather, here are my opinions.
HORSE OF THE YEAR (FLAT): How do you fault Zarkava? You can’t, but Raven’s Pass deserves it more for the Cinderella story he produced. Such potential brilliance was falling by the wayside but he returned for a Summer/Autumn campaign and clicked. For becoming the first European to win the Breeders’ Cup Classic (surface factors aside), it’s the icing on the cake.
HORSE OF THE YEAR (NH): What a way to join this forum on the brink of the historic Denman vs. Kauto Star showdown. And then Denman polished Kauto off. So it’s all for Denman.
JOCKEY OF THE YEAR (FLAT): Olivier Peslier had a blinder this year. Kudos.
JOCKEY OF THE YEAR (NH): Don’t know?
TRAINER OF THE YEAR (FLAT): Ralph Beckett. Golf claps all round.
TRAINER OF THE YEAR (NH): I guess PN.
OWNER OF THE YEAR: Khalid Abdulla for continuing to invite more and more excitement with emerging colts and fillies in the Dancing Brave colours, regardless if they don’t reach any potential.
RACECOURSE OF THE YEAR: What’s the criteria? I’ll say Santa Anita for putting on a brave face and attracting some of the finest Breeders’ Cup lineups you’ll see.
COMMENTATOR OF THE YEAR: David Raphael did not call a race this year, but his supremacy as a caller still echoes through me. In all seriousness, Tom Durkin for taking full advantage of "Arrrrr" and "Doremifasollatido" winning races he called this year. He’s still got it!
RIDE OF THE YEAR: Such a gutsy performance by Sam Thomas/Denman deserves the "merit" of this award.
BROADCASTER OF THE YEAR: Watching the Breeders’ Cup on ESPN2 with Nick Luck as special broadcaster, he blew me away with this charm and confidence in knowledge. Ate up the ESPN crew for breakfast. He’s something else, this kid.
JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR: Me.
Having never purchased or read a Racing Post or other British rags I’ll answer: "I don’t know?" Alan Aitken is deliciously witty on the South China Morning Post, however.ONE TO WATCH FOR 2009: Zacinto baby! The emergence of stronger races on the all-weather to complement the Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita Mk II.
VILLAIN OF THE YEAR: Jim Bolger, the Beeb, Aidan O’Brien (devil’s advocate vote
), Dean McKeown, Longchamp, but only yesterday did both governing bodies of Victorian and New South Wales racing take the cake. Embarrassing.HERO OF THE YEAR: Anthony Knott!
POSTER OF THE YEAR: So much of my learning has come from Bulwark and he deserves a serious nod. Others include Bosranic, Colin Little, Venusian and graysonscolumn.
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