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As an infrequent contributor myself, I have no axe to grind, but I can’t help but notice that this section of TRF is sadly lacking in cutting edge threads lately. Never mind the paucity of the contributions. Three in two days! It is the only forum I regularly visit, leaving the other forums to the more knowledgeable and sometimes pedantic members.But hey, I’ve been a member long enough to know that these shooting stars
fade away eventually.The concern is that Cormack might put on his bean counting hat and have to decide in this harsh economic climate that something has to go and that might mean the closure of the lounge itself. Mind you we can always jump into the more pseudo serious buddy/buddy horse racing threads with our irrelevant musings.LOL, Hoofski. Don’t you know conversation is dead, m’boy? Hasn’t it all been said? What’s new under the sun!
Isn’t this why no-one buys newspapers anymore? All the news has been written and read before. Bill Hicks was right. It’s all about the next evolutionary level.
LOL, Hoofski. Don’t you know conversation is dead, m’boy? Hasn’t it all been said? What’s new under the sun!
Isn’t this why no-one buys newspapers anymore? All the news has been written and read before. Bill Hicks was right. It’s all about the next evolutionary level.
Max
Might you have missed a "d" off your penultimate word ?
AaronCome on then, Hoofski, what shall we talk about? The death of news? The squeejied third eye? The stagflationary abyss? Gordie’s Pilgrim’s Progress around the stately windmills around the world? That’s a good one.
Every time I see him give his narcissistic, suicidal lecture to some shady International Noriega figure, I can’t help but picture "Harry and Paul’s" vicious, nasty but unforgettable assault on Tony Blair.
"Shut el door, GordON. Were you born in a
barn…
"
Forums go through phases, the lounge is pretty quiet just now, but it will pick up again in the future.
People tend to sulk and go into huffs over the most stupid things, posting on a forum is somehow more personnal than real life. A strange process really.
This looks like a good old random thread. Max, did you manage to get a winner on the final day of the festival after all ?
Graeme, I didn’t have a single winner at Cheltenham. Not one. My worst performance ever at any major horse racing festival in 23 years of punting. And I bet in every race, including up to four horses in races like the County Hurdle.
I’ve had bad weeks before (Ebor 1993, Goodwood 2007), but nothing like that. It’s the first time I’ve ever drawn a blank. I backed all Venetia Williams horses, for example, except the two that won. Not only that, I didn’t have a horse
placed
in three meetings at Southwell (my home track) and got dumped by my cybergirlfriend in Tulsa.
I’ve had better weeks.
Ouch mate. I bet you still enjoyed it though, i’d imagine you’re the type who dosen’t mind losing as long as the racing is good !
I hope Aintree and Punchestown bring you better fortunes. Oh V Williams, i backed Ping Pong Sivola e/w at a good price and it only got beat by its 33/1 stablemate, you’d have been on it aswell.
Oh yeh, win or lose have a booze. And I backed Ping Pong too – and Pretty Star.
It reminds me of what top poker gun Nick the Greek said when he was discovered hustling tourists for 2/4 dollar blinds in Gardena a few years after his epic fifty million dollar battle against Johnny Moss.
"Only thing better than winning, is losing. It’s action, isn’t it"
Still. Bloody hard work, jump racing.
I think some of you more experienced punters sometimes have a bit of bad luck because you know too much.
I keep it fairly basic. I dunno about Aintree betting though, i’ll have to see what replays are available for certain horses. It’s quite an unaccessible sport this horse racing !
I’ve never had any success at Aintree, Rough Quest aside, Graeme.
I know two things:
a) "Promising" runs from Cheltenham are often fools gold.
b) Nicky Henderson struggles big time.After last weeks natter in the top room, I might have to have a night out in Liverpool on the Friday night next year. I know a couple of Mickeys and I’m quite partial to hordes of scantily clad women wandering about. Brings out the Conan in me. I might skip Chelters and have my jumps week at Aintree.
Good racing though – I’m like a moth to a flame where good horses race.
The thing to bear in mind with aintree is that it is a much sharper track than cheltenham, and if the ground is good then stamina is virtually nothing by comparison to cheltenham, especially if the ground at cheltenham was worse than aintree.
So some horses will step up well, and also hwat I tend to find at Aintree ios that "Flat bred" or "Flat breeding descendants" tend to start finding improvement (in races which are within their stamina compass obviously), whilst the NH seasonal mudlarks, especially if sticking to what looks throughout the season to be their best trip, start to be left one paced.
I think the best thing to do with aintree is to earmark horses throughout the season who would appear to have a bit of class on better ground, and the right stamina/speed balance for their likely races, or ones that are maybe just short of top class on worse ground that should improve on better ground.
I think Aintree is very hard to play if you are just reading off a form card on the day, as many of the races are completely different to all the form being brought to them.
With aintree’s 2 mile hurdles for example, if the ground is good then (much like kempton) it is hard to run the race as anything other than (in equivalent stamina/speed terms) a 1m2f flat race. Where the Triumph hurdle and County hurdle can be run more in equivalent stamina terms more like a 1m5f flat race, so I would show more of a preference in these races for horses that are more in the mould of a 1m2f flat horse at aintree, but not at cheltenham (esopecially on the new track at cheltenham).
Think Jered will put in a stormer at Aintree if he goes to face Al Eile. And Starluck and Hebridean should be able to reverse form with Zaynar and Walkon.
Nice post Bulwark. Solid points.
Graeme, interestingly, Madison De Berlais is the latest of the horses I backed at the festival who ran appallingly to come out and win. Higgys Boy, who was (curiously?) beaten after two hurdles in Gloucestershire, won at Ascot at 6/1.
Surely, Bulwark, Cheltenham isn’t THAT difficult a track? How can Madison run so embarrasingly poorly at Prestbury Park and come out and look like a machine today? TGFTF.
How can Madison run so embarrasingly poorly at Prestbury Park and come out and look like a machine today?
He’s simply never given of this best around Cheltenham compared to flatter tracks – four or five attempts at Prestbury Park have realised a third in a Grand Annual but nothing more stepped up in class.
See also Tartak – not a flat track bully per se, but rather better without contours to traverse than with.
Treating French imports with a degree of circumspection around hilly tracks (of which there are few or none at home) until they’ve proven themselves around them has proved a useful ploy for me in recent seasons. I think it will continue to do so.
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.
Surely, Bulwark, Cheltenham isn’t THAT difficult a track? How can Madison run so embarrasingly poorly at Prestbury Park and come out and look like a machine today? TGFTF.
Cheltenham can be very testing if the ground is gd-sft, when you bear in mind the horses are regularly going competition pace, and there is a steep uphill finish. Aintree on the other hand is regualrly good (not so much yesterday but that was a joke due to excessive watering), the track is flat, and more importantly the finish is flat. The pace is still competetive but horses will travel better on a better surface and with a less testing finish this will inevitably throw up different results.
When beaten at cheltenham the ground was IMO close to being good ground, where yesterday at aintree they had watered the ground to the worse side of gd-ft. He may indeed prefer flat tracks but juice the ground certainly seems to plauy a big part with him.
Cheers chaps. I’ll remember this in future.
My logic for banking (notice the deliberate use of the word, banking, rather than tipping or selecting or bumping into), Madison at Chelters was the cheekpieces. I felt that improvement demonstrated at Newbury and Kempers was general rather than specific.
With this in mind and with the fervour of someone who has discovered something brilliant in his garden, I banked it to my brother, father, mum, mum’s boyfriend (a staunch daily Lucky 15 merchant), two remaining close friends, a lass in Belgium who enjoys the trotters, newsagent, bacon and egg cob maker, and five of my ten colleagues at work (one of whom sacrificed lunch to join the aggregate bet).
We once talked about horror films here; Watching Madison run at Chelters was like watching "Carrie"; specifically the bit where the zombie hand emerges from the ceremonial mound to strangle the flower laying child.
Imagine the depth of my wry smile on Thursday.
Jeremy, you sound
much
posher on the radio. I can see you doing "University Challenge" post-Paxman. Enjoyed the show.
Aaron
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