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Interesting stuff about Gold Cup sectionals by Simon Rowlands (our own Prufrock) on the Timeform/Betfair site.
Got me thinking…
It was certainly slow until 3 out and a slow over all time. Stats which usually favour prominent runners. However…I wonder whether they went too fast from 3 out. ie In a human 10,000 metres race, it doesn’t matter if the runners go Marathon pace for the first 8,000m… If they do the next 1,000m at true 800m pace the leaders will still tire…
On His Own advantaged by being outpaced, although a front runner the fact he couldn’t keep up allowing him unintentionally to do optimum fractions for the three fences – together with Lord Windermere and The Giant Bolster who both had their runs delayed (held up). Silviniaco Conti and Bobs Worth doing too much from 3 to 2 out and not having anything left.
Form suggests the Gold Cup was a far from vintage renewal, with front two in the betting failing to perform and third best injured/falling. It crossed my mind that a similar thing possibly happened last year, with Long Run and Sir Des Champs getting in a battle too early and Bobs Worth (although the rightful winner) flattered by his margin of victory.
Value Is Everythinglol
I discovered another word that bypasses the wordfilter.
The race itself was a complete and utter forgettable mess. A Newmill-esque fluke.
Let us cherish the magnificence of More Of That and banish the "Gold Cup" to the realms of obscurity.
Agree with BH there are some races that are just not worth the time analysing to death. This is one of them.
Everything suggested that last year’s RSA was average at best. The only people celebrating yesterday’s result would be connections, bookmakers and those who just like throwing a few quid at outsiders. I doubt that bookmakers have ever had two better results in succession than Very Wood and Lord Windermere.
I blame the delay caused by the injury to Daryl Jacob before the previous race and the two false starts. If the race had been run on time, we’d have got a different result. Nine times out of ten, either Bobs Worth or Silviniaco Conti would win that race; it’s just that at
that exact moment in time
, the stars aligned for that particular result.
Liam Treadwell and whichever racecourse lackey caused the second false start have many questions to answer.
You might just as well say that if Ruby had be riding
ON HIS OWN
that it would have won.
You might just as well say that if Ruby had be riding
ON HIS OWN
that it would have won.
Would that be the same Ruby Walsh who hasn’t ridden a steeplechase winner at the festival for five years?
A very interesting initial question posed by the Ginger one , well worth some thought imo , I am loathe to rubbish anything that prufrock publishes , as simply put he is on another level when it comes to race analysis
The simple explanation is the best in most cases …here it is
Silviano did not get home , he led at the last ….Bobs had enough at that point the ground was too fast for him , the closers all swamped the front runners because on the gold cup course
you HAVE to stay
…they had stamina in abundance , if the contest went on for another furlong they would have pulled 25 lengths clear
Its about the best staying chaser , yesterday showed that once again ….lets enjoy it , Im sure the bookies did
Ricky
stilvi
15 Mar 2014, 07:21
Agree with BH there are some races that are just not worth the time analysing to death. This is one of them.Couldn’t agree more. Still haven’t watched the race, heard the result and that was enough. Bog standard handicappers first and second in the blue riband of NH racing – what next?
The simple explanation is the best in most cases …here it is
Silviano did not get home , he led at the last ….Bobs had enough at that point the ground was too fast for him , the closers all swamped the front runners because on the gold cup course
you HAVE to stay
…they had stamina in abundance , if the contest went on for another furlong they would have pulled 25 lengths clear
Its about the best staying chaser , yesterday showed that once again ….lets enjoy it , Im sure the bookies did
Ricky
It’s certainly possible Conti didn’t stay Ricky. Bob’s Worth has form on good ground that (up to that point) was his best. So doubtful ground was an issue; especially with his action. Might have been not fast enough, but that’s also out because he made ground up when the pace was at its strongest. May be he just had an off day (or even year)? His Irish win nowhere near the Gold Cup winning form.
For whatever reason (may be it does not matter why) the two best horses ran poorly, third best injured during the race… so someone had to win. However, for future races/form study – I like to understand why things happened.
Value Is EverythingOn His Own must have been showing something to get supplemented, but you’d think he is a low 160s horse nowadays if you are being very generous. The Giant Bolster is established in that ballpark and Lord Windermere’s RSA Chase win was no great shakes, so it does all point to a poor Gold Cup. It wouldn’t be the first in recent years though.
We had to endure War Of Attrition and Kicking King as admirable yet mediocre winners, the forcefield of misfortune that seemed to kill off or injure every other possible 170+ staying chaser of Best Mate’s era and Synchronised’s year.
Classic or even above-average Gold Cups are rare birds. We have only had Kauto Star (x2), Denman, Long Run (arguable) and perhaps the much underrated See More Business fitting that bill in the last fifteen years.
It’s all subjective I suppose. I see a lot of people on forums and social media saying this was the worst Gold Cup ever, but I think they have short memories.
It might have been an exciting race, but quality wise it’s debatable. So many horses in contention turning in, and still there jumping the last, probably suggests it’s only an ‘average’ running.
Winning a Championship race doesn’t make you a Champion, especially after running poorly in previous races. So I’d still think Bob’s Worth is still the top 3m chaser, with SC and CC close behind.
It just proves you have to be a special horse to win both at Kempton and Cheltenham.
We had to endure War Of Attrition and Kicking King as admirable yet mediocre winners, .
Tad Harsh on Kicking King I would suggest. His CV was pretty up to scratch.
SHL
Had Lord Windemere been with another stable e.g. Emma Curtis with a fairly well publicized health issue in the yard earlier in the year, this result would perhaps not be looked not so surprising. Culloty’s horse’s were dismal over the Christmas period. The trainer said it himself, at Cheltenham you need to be patient, so in some ways LW pace was key rather than the pace of the others.
We had to endure War Of Attrition and Kicking King as admirable yet mediocre winners, .
Tad Harsh on Kicking King I would suggest. His CV was pretty up to scratch.
You might be right there and he might have just been a victim of the era. Look at all of his biggest achievements and he never beat a true top-notcher at the highest level – just a bunch of pitsy marshmallows.
You don’t go into a championship race with two horses around 180 – trained to the minute – and come out of it with a field full of 160ish horses – it just doesn’t happen imo. The Gold Cup time was less than seven seconds faster than The Foxunters, run 40 minutes or so after the big race.
The rails were moved yesterday morning "between 7 and 11 yards on the inside of the ‘chase course" (Simon Claisse), offering a strip of ground that had not been raced on for a year. Given that the year also saw an unprecedented amount of water falling on it, and that most of the field raced on that strip for most of the race – except the finish
where the first three came up on older ground
– could that have something to do with the result?
The going announced was for the whole track – I wonder if Mr Claisse used his stick on that fresh strip? I’d be very interested to see a stick reading from it.
An unusual pace can, of course, throw up a strange result. But Geraghty reported that he thought they were going a stride to fast for BW throughout; the winner could not go the pace at all until turning in for the last time. And yet the time was nothing special.
Yesterday was Lord Windermere’s first win on ground without soft in the official description (Timeform gave it as Good, Good to Soft in places). Bobs Worth’s connections have always insisted he is a better horse on decent ground – there’s insufficient evidence in the formbook to form a solid objective assessment of that claim.
Anyway, it’s nothing more than a theory on what was a very strange day at Cheltenham, all in all. Bobs Worth’s poor run at Haydock and the general form of the Henderson yard could also be seen as casting some doubt on his running. But I’m not having it that Silv Conti didn’t get the trip after bottomless stamina won him the King George. That race, of course, might have left a mark on him, so the front two could, conceivably have run well below form. Whatever happened, seven minutes didn’t turn two horses with a ratings advantage of between 16/19lbs and 25/28lbs into a pair of donkeys.
Were the Henderson and Nicholls horses undercooked??
We are constantly told that you can only get a horse race fit on the track and neither have raced this year, whereas the three who finished in front had all raced in the last 5 or 6 weeks.
Both the favourites emptied pretty quickly after the last, especaially SC who if it wasn’t the Gold Cup you’d say had blown up.
Surely they don’t all have to be trained like Best Mate….
The fact is, whether they are trained like Best Mate was or not, his was still an incredible achievement to come back and win it twice after his first time. Enough people want to crab him, but he beat what was put in front of him 3 times.
Still get goosebumps when I see him winning that 3rd one. Shame about the "song", but that wasn’t the horses fault.
As for this year’s, thought BW was a shoo in, but possibly the strangest finish I’ve seen in a while. Geraghty looked like he was about to do a Jane Mangan up the run in at that same tape (and Conti seemed to run away from it too)
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