- This topic has 32 replies, 23 voices, and was last updated 11 years, 1 month ago by
.
- Posts
Faugheen fulfilling my utter confidence in him , Vatour destroying a good field and from a personal
point of view ; backing the 1st three home in the Triumph Hurdle .
Gambling Only Pays When You're Winning
1) A golden Gold Cup (The winner had Cheltenham in tears and being the first novice for 41 years helped to make it a memorable renewal. But that wasn’t all, as it was an all the way Denman-like winner ridden by one of the lesser known jockeys. The second and third are both improving young-ish horses who all put in magnificent performances to bring about a new age in staying chasers, and they all look out of the top drawer. Many Clouds performance was the disappointment of the race for me.)
2) Somersby oh so close again! (What a run from good old lovable champ! Defied everyone to run the race of his life only to be outrun up the hill by a horse who didn’t see a racecourse until 2 years after Somersby had his first taste of the Cheltenham festival (3rd in the 2009 Supreme). That would have been the moment of the week. And this race had so many talking points from Sprinter Sacre’s blow out to Sire De Grugy’s hard fought but ultimately futile attempt to retain the crown. And for all those people who thought Mr Mole, a decent handicapper who was pushed out to beet Brick Red in a couple of modest events earlier this season, could win a Champion Chase? Well he was last to cross the line. Who’d have thought? But the real highlight was seeing this season’s top 2 mile chaser uphold all form to win the Queen Mother at odds of 11/2)
3) Douvan’s damn-good destruction (I was most taken with the performance from the year’s Supreme Novice. Willie’s confident that this big’un could be his best yet and on the back of that I can believe him. And after Novice event wins for the imperious quintet of Douvan, Un De Sceaux, Don Poli, Vautour and Peace and Co – the future looks very bright indeed.
*My wallet’s 3 highlights: Faugheen the machine motoring home, Andrew Tinkler arresting the Pertemps and having the Next best Sensation to backing the first 4 in the Grand Annual by backing the first three!
1. It has to be Vautour. What a fantastic exhibition of jumping!!
2. The joy and emotion shown by Warren Greatrex when Cole Harden won the world hurdle (even though I had backed the second!)
3. The better half shouting louder than me when Martello Tower won.
My pockets highlights were
1. Darna winning (had 40/1) and the exacta too!!2. Paint The Clouds getting place to give me a e/w trixie (Hargam, Road To Riches and PTC
3. Getting the un named favourite place in the 4.40 on Friday to get the placepot up for £4 !!
The victories of Coneygree and Cole Harden stand out, for obvious reasons, while the ride AP gave Uxizandre has also rightfully been highlighted in this thread.
My major negative was the dominance of the Mullins stable; I’ve nothing against the guy but surely having one superpower steamrolling all the opposition can’t be good? Oh well; I suppose it makes the victories of the smaller yards all the sweeter.
I’m with you about Mullins. It’s slightly depressing and scary to have one yard dominate like that. For maximum enjoyment you want everyone to have a vaguely equal chance, with the little yards having a good chance too. You don’t want to see big money horses totally dominate, as tends to be the case with top class flat racing. Big up, the small yards and small owners! Big up the Gingearmy and their ilk!
I'd like to live in a place where they cordon off swans...I’m with you about Mullins. It’s slightly depressing and scary to have one yard dominate like that. For maximum enjoyment you want everyone to have a vaguely equal chance, with the little yards having a good chance too. You don’t want to see big money horses totally dominate, as tends to be the case with top class flat racing. Big up, the small yards and small owners! Big up the Gingearmy and their ilk!
These things go in cycles; in the 60s, Tom Dreaper, the 70s Fred Winter, the 80s Tony Dickinson, the noughties Paul Nichols. BTW I don’t think Faugheen was expensive; £12,000, i read somehwere, tho open to correction
Tom Dreaper accumulated 26 “Festival” winners in a training career which spanned almost four decades. Willie Mullins has trained 24 winners in the last five years alone.
Of course, the meeting has changed beyond all recognition over the last fifty years but your hypothesis isn’t really valid; after all, none of Messrs Dreaper, Dickinson, Winter, Pipe, Nicholson and Nicholls ever trained more than five winners at any one Festival. Nicky Henderson’s total of seven in 2012 appeared to be a statistical outlier but we’ll have to see how Mullins fares over the next few years.
The festival was quote different in Dreapers time, much less important in the calender. But these were the dominant stables in their era. Obviously should have included Vincent O’Brien in the 50s
The victories of Coneygree and Cole Harden stand out, for obvious reasons, while the ride AP gave Uxizandre has also rightfully been highlighted in this thread.
My major negative was the dominance of the Mullins stable; I’ve nothing against the guy but surely having one superpower steamrolling all the opposition can’t be good? Oh well; I suppose it makes the victories of the smaller yards all the sweeter.
I share to some extent your reservations about the Mullins stable, as I feel the same about similar dominance in other sports such as Tiger Woods in golf, it is a double edged sword. However I cannot fault Mullins in his attitude – his self-effacement and respect for his rivals do him great credit.
The highlight was Coneygree, not for who bred, trained or owned him but for what the horse did on the day. Look at the time for the race, despite the going. Look at the impact of the pace he set on most of his rivals. On similar going he has every chance of repeating his success.
What left me feeling a bit down was the general poverty of the UK challenge, especially in novice races. Let’s face it, horses we thought were reasonably useful were utterly stuffed by the Irish. It bodes pretty poorly for the next few years.
Even in some of the handicap hurdles, our show was poor and I wonder if maybe some trainers are increasingly looking to bypass Cheltenham for Aintree as they know it’s less competitive – where were the Hobbs, McCain, Lavelle handicappers? Look at the County Hurdle – Roman Flight would have been our best in 4th or 5th if not coming down. Ditto Martin Pipe with Shelford best in fifth.
Is this the consequence of letting bookies and the likes of ARC run our racing? Poor prize money begets poor horses. Also wonder if trainers need to rethink their approach – not running in Jan/Feb seemed to leave some horses short.
W P Mullins is the Japanese Knotweed of NH trainers.
I presume you have owned horses with Willie Mullins?
What left me feeling a bit down was the general poverty of the UK challenge, especially in novice races. Let’s face it, horses we thought were reasonably useful were utterly stuffed by the Irish. It bodes pretty poorly for the next few years.
Even in some of the handicap hurdles, our show was poor and I wonder if maybe some trainers are increasingly looking to bypass Cheltenham for Aintree as they know it’s less competitive – where were the Hobbs, McCain, Lavelle handicappers? Look at the County Hurdle – Roman Flight would have been our best in 4th or 5th if not coming down. Ditto Martin Pipe with Shelford best in fifth.
Is this the consequence of letting bookies and the likes of ARC run our racing? Poor prize money begets poor horses. Also wonder if trainers need to rethink their approach – not running in Jan/Feb seemed to leave some horses short.
I thought after the demise of the Celtic Tiger we’d be back tothe bad old days of 2-3 winners per year in the 80s-90s, but the emergence of Rich Ricci and Gigginstown has more than offset that. I do find it the whole Irish-English thing a bit tiresome; a good horse, and good competition is what we want to see, wherever they come from
Always associating the festival with St Patricks day, I booked the wrong week off work when I was making my plans in January, so I didn’t see too much of the racing live, but I did follow the Guardian blog on my phone as much as possible and as always they combined passion and quality output all week, so kudos to Team Guardian.
As mentioned in another post I’m constantly surprised at how casual so many connections are about tactics in big races and that was something that stood out again this week.
Something else that stood out was how little chance you have going wide in big fields on good ground at Cheltenham. Fairly obvious, but amazing how many jockeys go that route with the choke out ’round Prestbury at the festival and commit suicide in the process.
Cheltenham this week reinforced my view that top level National Hunt racing is so much about gauging where a horse is on its improvement scale, rather than its actual raceday master rating imo. Its a scale the market can have trouble quantifying. Theres an edge there.
As ever during the week a few too many of the jumping fraternity were unable to enjoy their code of the sport without having a snipe at the flat, Mark Bradstock included it seems.
It was genuinely sad to see McCoy ride his last race at the festival. No doubt he will be missed, massively. As I’ve said before I think a man in his prime, drive, hunger and love intact, with his support network and connections could do the five grand and still spend the next 45 years a content ex-jockey. Right now I think he’s more gutted than satisfied.
A picture speaks a thousand words…..
So did I, however I think I now undersstand how Cheltenham falls. IT’s THE LAST FULL WEEK OF WINTER
Say the start of the week is Sunday and the end of the week is Saturday and WINTER ENDS MARCH 20th, the last full week of winter would be SUNDAY 8th MARCH to SATURDAY 14th MARCH.
NEXT YEAR it would be 13th MARCH to 19 MARCH.
You've got to accentuate the positive.
Eliminate the negative.
Latch on to the affirmative.
Don't mess with mister in between.As rishi said on the morning line,vatours run was the best round of jumping he had seen.took me back to Dessie and the likes it was that good. Just brilliant to watch. I hope he goes for the king George as I’m sure he’ll scoot that.
Dom poli was hugely impressive and with djakadam looks to give w Mullins a very strong hand for next years gold cup.
Finally Cole harden looked a worthy winner of the world hurdle and with question marks over a lot of his rivals looks to be a horse to follow.As rishi said on the morning line,vatours run was the best round of jumping he had seen.took me back to Dessie and the likes it was that good. Just brilliant to watch. I hope he goes for the king George as I’m sure he’ll scoot that.
Problem he may have there is taking on a Gold Cup winner who scooted up in the Feltham last year…a natural stepping stone to the KG….If there’s one race in the calendar year that will suit Coneygree 100% I think it’s the KG…..On what they’ve both done the prices are bonkers….honestly!
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.