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  • in reply to: Constitution Hill #1754829
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    He’s effectively number 16 on the list, so only needs two to drop out. And one of those above him is Secret Squirrel who ran yesterday.

    in reply to: Constitution Hill #1754655
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    The key is ‘been placed in the first four’, so a single run down the field doesn’t get you into that first priority group.

    Final entry is 32, and confirmation from the Racing Admin site that only the three class 5 races are open to being divided, with the 7F handicap as first choice for that as it has the most entries (33).

    in reply to: Constitution Hill #1754595
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    I’ve found the rule about divided races:

    Subject to the provisions of paragraph 5, the following types of Race are permitted to divide:

    Weight-for-Age Races in which the Total Prize Fund is;

    £15,000 or less

    The only races on that Southwell card that have the provision for being divided in the race conditions, are the three class 5 handicaps, coincidentally each worth £15,000.

    However, paragraph 5 does contain a get-out clause:

    The BHA shall:

    after Closing, determine an order of precedence for the division of Races permitted to divide

    in reply to: Constitution Hill #1754583
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    If I understand the rules correctly, the CH race can’t be divided, because it’s a Class 2 contest. And the usual ‘this race may be divided’ condition isn’t included in the race conditions.

    But since the race has already been upgraded and moved from another meeting, the ‘rules’ probably don’t apply. I expect there’s a ‘Henderson’ provision buried in a sub clause somewhere that can be used.

    If it did divide, someone would have to come up with the £40k for the extra race – divided races don’t split the prize money these days.

    Now 33 entries, including an Amo Racing addition, called Square Necker. This one ran once for Ralph Beckett last year, won a Dundalk 12F maiden for Robson Aguilar in December and is now with Kevin PdF.

    in reply to: Constitution Hill #1754567
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    No, it’s been moved to 7:30 pm as per the schedule on the Racing Admin site.

    It’s not yet 9am and there are already 28 entries for this race, with 3 hours still to go to the deadline. Just about every NH yard in the country seems to want to join in the fun, with Nicholls, Skelton, Jonjo, Bailey and Moore all represented. The stalls limit is 14 – cue the Weatherbys staff finding a way to ensure CH isn’t eliminated!

    Willie Mullins has entered Daddy Long Legs and Andrew Balding has entered a 4yo 82 rated maiden called Jupiter Ammon, so there might be some competition for the services of Oisin.

    in reply to: Constitution Hill #1754330
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    Greenasgrass,

    Sorry to keep knocking down your possible runners, but those you’ve mentioned that have run on the flat, would all fall foul of this clause in the conditions that define a ‘novice’ for the flat, because they’ve won a race and had too many runs:

    “has not had more than two completed runs, except if it has never previously won a race run under the rules of a Recognised Racing Authority or is a two-year-old and the race is before 1 July;”

    So a maiden qualifies even if it’s run a dozen times already, but not a previous winner.

    in reply to: Constitution Hill #1754316
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    Maestro Bernstein was sold by Coolmore at the Autumn sales for 35,000 gns. Buyer was Northgate Lodge Stud, so not much chance of him turning up at Southwell.

    in reply to: Constitution Hill #1754168
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    Two additional drop outs this morning – El Fabiolo and Nemean Lion, leaving 13 still in the race.

    So Henderson (or the owner really) has paid the second installment for CH and he’s also kept Lucky Place as a possible. That’s the Lucky Place whose last run in a 2M hurdle was a 14L defeat in a Huntingdon maiden in November 2023!

    in reply to: Constitution Hill #1754077
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    That’s right and as this prize money list shows, he’d need to finish in the first four to recoup the entry fee, but fifth to eighth would cut the losses. Keep in mind that the owner pays all of the £18,000 supplementary entry, but only gets 77.5% of the prize money amounts shown here after the trainer, jockey and stable staff cut is taken off.

    Total prize fund £450000
    Distributed in accordance with Stakes and Prize Money Code
    £253215 to the winning horse
    The second to receive £95400, the third £47745, the fourth £23850,
    the fifth £11970, the sixth £5985, the seventh £2970
    and the eighth £1530

    There are only fifteen left in before tomorrows stage after Sir Gino was scratched. So no surprise if it ends up with eight or nine runners at most on the day.

    in reply to: Constitution Hill #1754064
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    VF,

    The answer is tomorrow – here’s the race conditions:

    Enter by noon, January 13th and pay £560 stake
    Scratch by noon on February 10th or pay £1130
    Confirm by noon on March 4th and pay £560
    Supplementary Entry by noon, March 4th and pay £18000 stake
    Declare by 10.00 a.m. March 8th

    in reply to: Venetia Williams stable form #1753138
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    Ten years ago, in the 2015/16 season, she trained 29 horses that achieved a racing Post rating of at least 130. This season she has nine that have reached that level.

    In 2015/16, she had five horses that won at least £50k in prize money. Those five were owned by:

    Tony Bloom – Now a Mullins fan
    Mezzone family – Last horse in training was with Dan Skelton
    Mrs J Burt – Had no horses at all since 2018
    Hills of Ledbury – The horse was Yala Enki, who was moved to Nicholls
    Boultbee Brooks Ltd – presumably the man of that name who now trains his own horses.

    Owners move on, owners die, it happens to almost every trainer as they get older. Ms Williams has long had young horses coming from France, purchased by the agent Guy Petit. But that source seems to have dried up, perhaps through lack of money from her current owners. Prices for horses from France certainly haven’t been falling!

    .

    in reply to: Leopardstown abandoned #1752596
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    CAS,

    I think they were rather unlucky. I was looking at the weather radar yesterday and they had an area of heavy/torrential rain centered over the Dublin area for two to three hours late afternoon/early evening. Twenty miles away, no rain at all. Not the sort of thing that can be forecast or predicted.

    in reply to: Declared Jockey #1752395
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    Yes – go to Britishhorseracing.com, click on Results, select the meeting you’re interested in.

    On the page that comes up, near the top, select ‘stewards report’. And that will give you a list of non runners and any jockey changes.

    in reply to: Old boy Mac Vidi #1752237
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    He continued racing for two more seasons after his Gold Cup run, his last race being in November 1981. But there were no more wins after his multiple successes in 1979/80.

    I’ve no info on his retirement, but would assume that he remained in the care of his owner/breeder Pam Neal, who also trained him under permit for his last five seasons. She had a property on the edge of Dartmoor, where Mac Vidi was allowed out every day while she was training him.

    One reason I was always interested in him, apart from that run of wins, what that his sire, Vidi Vici, was foaled in 1947, same year as me! In the detailed entry in Chasers and Hurdlers 1979/80, they allude to the age spread of the family by reporting that Vidi Vici had won a staying handicap at Goodwood in 1950, ridden by an apprentice claiming 5lbs – L Piggott.

    in reply to: Old boy Mac Vidi #1752226
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    Not so much amazing knowledge as material from an old article I wrote still stored along with hundreds of other pieces on a memory stick. The modern world of technology makes hoarding so much easier!

    And I’m old enough to remember watching Mac Vidi win a race at Kempton in November 1979, when I was home on leave from Kuwait. That was one of the six consecutive 3M handicap chases he won that winter prior to his third place finish in the Gold Cup, aged 15.

    in reply to: Old boy Mac Vidi #1752218
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    The Mac Vidi Novice Chase was run at a Lingfield meeting on the last racing Friday before Xmas. But that meeting was no longer run after 1998, when the card was switched to Folkestone.

    They continued with a Mac Vidi chase in 1999, but the following year, the Daily Mail took over sponsorship of the meeting and the novice chase name was changed to ‘Daily Mail Novice Chase in Memory of Lady Harmsworth Blunt’.

    The last running at Lingfield was won by the very useful chaser Marlborough. And the sole running at Folkestone was rather fittingly won by a 12-y-old mare called Nethertara, who had a long career in the southern area, winner of 13 points. They included one win in a Mens Open when she was ridden by current trainer Chris Gordon. She went on after the Folkestone win to score in a handicap at Plumpton as a 13-y-old.

    in reply to: Too much of a good thing? #1752120
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    Here’s the official notice:

    The British Horseracing Authority (BHA) has today confirmed a provisional all-Chase, six-race card has been created for Sandown Park’s meeting on Saturday 31 January, which will come into effect if the scheduled Hurdle races are abandoned.

    An inspection will be held by 8am on Thursday 29 January to determine whether the Hurdles course at Sandown is raceable.

    If the Hurdle races are abandoned, the fixture will revert to a six-race card will which feature two additional Steeple Chases as follows:

    C3 Novices’ Limited Handicap Steeple Chase over 1m 7f 99y 0-125
    C3 Novices’ Limited Handicap Steeple Chase over 3m 42y 0-135

    Entries for the new races, will close at noon tomorrow (Tuesday 27 January), and declarations will take place at 10am on Thursday 29 January along with the four existing Chases.

    If the meeting is able to proceed as originally scheduled with both Chase and Hurdle races, the two additional Chases will be abandoned.

    This decision has been made both to give the original card the best opportunity to go ahead, and to provide a contingency to support a Grade 1 Saturday fixture on ITV.

Viewing 17 posts - 35 through 51 (of 3,729 total)