Two Years Off and Ready To Go

[Spitfire]

Over the sticks an absence of 500+ days is no longer the huge negative it once was, whether it’s the influence of Pipe, Twiston Davis, etc or modern veterinary techniques I dunno but I will be wary about laying anything on the comback trail. Briareus was a lesson learned and from now on I’ll look at it as a neutral or only slight negative factor.

Oddly enough I can’t remember many comeback kids or queens coming back after such an absence on the flat the way it has been happening over jumps lately.

[moehat]

maybe it’s because technology is such that problems are picked up sooner rather than later ie tendon problems are found out before a horse goes lame in a race and irreparable damage is done; Andrew Balding is pretty good with delicate horses..look at his success with Top Cees [although I still feel aggrieved at the Cheltenham crowd not giving the horse the reception he deserved that day].

[aaronizneez]

Moehat

I think Top Cees was trained by the Ramsdens when winning at Cheltenham and by Ian Balding when winning the Cesarewitch.

[moehat]

I think that, although Ian Balding officially trained Top Cees he openly acknowledged that it was Andrew who really looked after him; I hadn’t followed racing in depth when he won at Cheltenham, but I remember the ‘deafening’ silence when he won and one of the commentators saying what a shame for the horse because the events that led up to the race weren’t his fault….one of those racing moments that stick in my memory. It just made me think when he won the following year that Andrew Balding was pretty good with horses with dodgy legs!

[Author]

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