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With one week of the season to go and after 3454 races and 309 different winning trainers the leaderboard is as follows;
1st Skelton 754 pts (188 wins)
2nd Murphy 436 pts (136 wins)
3rd Nicholls 352 pts (91 wins)
4th Henderson 344 pts (83 wins)
5th Pauling 333 pts (93 wins)
6th Snowden 282 pts (84 wins)
7th O’Brien 248 pts (79 wins)
8th Owen 235 pts (83 wins)
9th N&W Twiston-Davies 207 pts (61 wins)
10th Tizzard 205 pts (55 wins)
11th Derham 198 pts (53 wins)
12th G&J Moore 191 pts (56 wins)
13th Honeyball 171 pts (51 wins)
14th J&A O’Neill 167 pts (49 wins)
15th McCain 165 pts (56 wins)
16th Russell & Scudamore 163 pts (52 wins)
17th Mulholland 158 pts (58 wins)
18th Bowen 155 pts (48 wins)
19th Lavelle 143 pts (38 wins)
20th Gordon 142 pts (44 wins)I was waiting for someone to say even though he hasn’t run much he’s still be in training since September. There is no way CH would have been given hard work for much of that time when he had very few targets during that period.
Many of those horses rocking up at Punchestown will have been in training since September and before that.
Did the horse look knackered at Kempton and in desperate need of a break? They should find out now if he is Group 3 class while he is race fit. He’s only run for just over 5 minutes since the Fighting Fifth!
Been on the go since September?! He’s only run once between September and the 20th Feb and that only lasted 2 hurdles! Since then just 2 flat runs totalling 3 miles both races taking the same 2 minutes 34 secs to run.
Why enter him for the John Porter then? The Ormonde Stakes is 19 days away, 5 days after the Punchestown Festival finishes and he ran there last season!
Surely the Ormonde Stakes would allow a ready made excuse if he was beaten? Clearly a number of people think he can’t win at Chester so it would then temper any expectation of him at Group 3 level.
Of course if he won or ran well he might then be classed as a serious flat horse. There’s nothing to lose either way.
I do get annoyed when some trainers pigeon hole their horses when there is little evidence to back it up. CH can act on good ground and where’s the evidence he couldn’t act at a tight track? I’m pretty sure CH could have won a National Spirit at Fontwell.
I also thought Murphy gave CH a better ride as Moore nearly had him trapped at one point. I don’t follow AW so I have no idea how many times Moore rides on the AW and at Kempton’s?
Imagine the media storm had Laafi been disqualified for being hit too many times on the same afternoon Gold Dancer was ridden out with a broken back and just a day before the National.
I was one of the advocates of not disqualifying the horse but hitting the jockey and connections hard. For example you break the whip rules in a Class 2 as what happened here the jockey should not be allowed to ride in a Class 2 or above for 6 months. That might concentrate the mind!
I’m in Buckinghamshire today and it’s been raining on and off all morning and just had a very heavy shower. Has Newbury had rain today? Wouldn’t that be ironic if it’s on the softer side of good on Saturday
Not sure why some believe CH wouldn’t act at a course such as Chester especially at a trip over an extended 13 furlongs?
Watching the reruns of Hamish winning the Ormonde Stakes shows you don’t even need to race prominently.
CH is very well balanced horse and not at all fazed in a tight field of runners and well capable of manoeuvring his way out of trouble.
Hamish won the Ormonde on good to soft and then soft so the chances are softer ground is more likely in the North West in May than anywhere down South.
The last 3 runnings of the Ormonde Stakes have had only 6 runners in each renewal. I don’t think the tight nature of the track should bother him especially in a small field.
If they want to run him this Spring on turf they are running out of options.
The Grade 3 Ormonde Stakes should it come up softer at the Chester May meeting? It had 3 hurdlers run in it last season.
Are his owners no longer interested winning races such as the Scottish National now?!
The Gold Cup and Stayers Hurdles are both Grade 1s and at the moment I would argue his best chance of landing a Grade 1 is in the latter. I certainly believe he has the ability to win one.
Won the Irish National off 141 and Welsh National off 154 which suggests to me he’s going to struggle to follow up in the Welsh National or any Class 1 Chase even off his revised mark.
I still think the Staying Hurdle division is very weak, even more so this side of the Irish Sea and he showed at Newbury this season he’s no mug over hurdles.
Rebecca Curtis is never frightened to try something different, so with Haiti turning 10 next season this is the ideal time to give it a go.
His record at the Festival meetings is poor and didn’t get any better this year.
You’d still want Bowen riding for you in a close finish but his habit of sitting out the back backfires more times than it works.
He’s probably not helped as Murphy doesn’t have many Class 1 horses and most of them are exposed when upped in class.
John Porter entries;
Al Aasy William Haggas
Bellum Justum Andrew Balding
Beset Joseph O’Brien
Burdett Road James Owen
Constitution Hill Nicky Henderson
Convergent Karl Burke
Eydon Andrew Balding
Lion’s Pride John and Thady Gosden
Phantom Flight George Scott
Pride Of Arras Ralph Beckett
Tenability William HaggasHe certainly deserves to win the Trainers title. You could argue he’s done it without a stand out high class horse. 179 winners last term so he has just past that number this season.
Not sure if any other trainers will reach the 100 winner mark in addition to Skelton & Murphy this season? Pauling hasn’t had a winner in April and not sure what Nicholls has left to run?
