Forum Replies Created
- Posts
I thought it was workmanlike rather than impressive even allowing for Squadron’s pull at the weights. It will be more informative on his next run especially if he meets older horses with a bit of what I call previous, hardened battlers in the top grade. Nonetheless he is a nice horse who you would have to think would jump a fence one day.
By the way a good show by Emma Lavelle, been up and coming for a while and have always rated her.
aaaahhh bbob,
Believe me, anybody who has the slightest inclination of following horses that are retired 12 months after they first set foot on a racecourse are IMO criminally insane.
My location, and previous post, is (are) – not sure which if I have two; misleading.
It was a joke – I rarely post on the raing section in here between Apr & Oct because a) I have no idea wtf I’m talking about and b) I like to watch my horse for a good 10 mins before I know I’ve done my dough.
But I welcome your gentle reposte (in the words of either messrs Pinza or Ostoomsysmeyer – or whatever). I am flattered you took the time.
Lee
Fair enough mate, I was only having a bit of fun meself. It is nice to have a bit of a laugh on the forum. But seriously mate, the offer is still there if you can be bothered with the metropolis in winter.
The good news for people such as myself and GC is that the proper races of the meeting i.e. The Cross Country Steeplechase and the 4m Chase will now be live on C4.
Sing it, brother. 8)
gc
Although I am banned from singing in our house, I am humming along with you both. It is about time the 4 miler was televised and such a shame that they switched the Foxhunters to 3 and a quarter. Some grand horses including the mighty Freddie won it when it was run over 4 miles.
Always been a fan of both trainer and jockey. How on earth can anyone say that Geraghty’s bottle has gone. Anyone who rides in a novice chase has more bottle than the biggest brewery.
Jump jockeys are the bravest of men and women and Barry is among the best of the current excellent generation. As as has already been said anyone who has such a good record in the National has plenty enough bottle for me.
Comes across as a nice chap as well -never met him – who gives a good interview and Nicky Henderson likes his jockeys to be intelligent and good talkers – he had a champion in Mick Fitzgerald didn’t he. No doubt BG falls right into that category
anyhow GC you just want to see him pointing in some far fetched corner of the earth that only you and HJ know about :)
Me and Tinkerater know these far flung corners as well Wilson and can assure you if I can get to Charing without a car, then they cannot be that far fetched.
Have you ever been or are you going to confine yourself to that miserable sand stuff, yeugh? And pointing is the ultimate all weather racing. I had all four seasons in the one race at Charing this Easter. Great fun.
Tell you what Wilson if you want to join me and my mate on the train to Charing from Victoria on Feb 22 and sample proper racing with a great atmosphere, you are more than welcome. I might even stretch to using my Network South East card and treat you to the fare. The Charing track is a short walk from the station, but the facilities are all on grass so bring stout boots or wellies.
This season’s fixtures are now available on Weatherby’s and Jumping For Fun Websites – starts on November 30th in Devon. There is a pointing fixture near almost all forum members in the UK so if you have not been, get out the picnic, the sloe gin and give the sport a try.
Great race in Merano. You would have to fancy a Badminton or Burghley winner round there – both events in excess of 6.000 metres and Burghley winner Tamarillo is in the stable of William Fox-Pitt whose wife, is as you all know, Alice Plunket.
Tamarillo can go in all sorts of ground and jumps for the fun of it. I’m surprised the NewZealand crowd of Todd, Tait and Nicholson, all mad keen racing men, have not eyed that one up and had a go.
Having said that I would not fancy riding any of those five horses anywhere near the Trout Hatchery at Burghley.
Shamefully I’ve still got to visit all those courses, Bob – I’ve been to most ptp courses south of Easingwold but none further north than that! However, it’s very much my intention to do some of Perth Festival next April, and then stay in that part of the world for an extra couple of days in order to do Balcormo Mains that weekend.
I nearly got to Dalston this last March, but a welter of pre-Cheltenham prep got in the way. Usually a very long day (10 or so races) up there, isn’t it!
gc
Usually ten races and beware of the company you fall into. When Heroic Way won the John Peel Open some years ago, the owners’ father took 21/2 hours to leave the track. I know this because he was my late father’s great mate and he was travelling in our car. Mind you he did have his uses. The first thing he did that day was to hand us the owner’s car park pass and we had great fun waving at all the Langholm lot queueing to get in while we were waved past them like Lord Muck and his mates. It is that kind of meeting, great fun.
Never did get to Balcormo and Netherby and Overton opened long after I moved south. I used to get to Bogside a lot when I lived in Glasgow ( easy on the train to Irvine) and we never used to miss the old Dumfriesshire meeting at Roberthill, Lockerbie – saw Flying Ace win there in what I think was the the only time Doreen Calder didn’t ride him. The late great Charlie McMillan was on board – now there was a horseman.
No, I didn’t see the race at Huntingdon, Benny.
Well done Dominic. 8)
Fred Winter’s ride on Mandarin (I think) in a big race in France, many moons ago, is always quoted as a magnificent piece of horsemanship. I don’t remember actually seeing it though.
Colin
Film of this fantastic ride is on a video selection which may well be available on amazon called "Horse Racings Greatest Ever Moments" which also includes a full showing of what for me is the greatest of all Gold Cups, 1964. Arkle’s first beating of Mill House. What a race and of course the greatest horse flat or jumps of all time.
One other great ride that BBC sometimes show on their Grand National programme is that of Tim Brookshaw on Wyndburgh in the 1959 National. A stirrup iron( yes, the iron not the leather) snapped clean through landing over second Bechers. Instead of bailing out as any sane man would have done, Brookshaw proceded to ride magnificently all the way home without any stirrups and was only beaten a length and a half by the winner. But for that Scotlands gallant hero, Wyndburgh, should surely have won (he was second three times and only failed to finish once in seven attempts)
Tuffers, mate enjoy your filly and have fun with her. Mark Brisburn is a good man who knows horses and does not get the animals he deserves.
You will find that loads of people will give you opinions on the horse and some of it will be good and some of it will be rubbish. For what it’s worth another word that could be used is "unfurnished" but that’s nothing time can’t put right. The confrimation problem might be aleviated by corrective shoeing but your trainer will advise you on this.
Remember that if she does not make it on the track there are loads of things she can do in the horse world (forgive me for this bit, but i is something that I feel strongly about).. Horses are wonderful creatures that’s why I follow the sport not for betting.
well. I hope they meet again and I hope that Overdose wins..it was a dismal start to what has been a wonderful days racing .
Aw come on Moehat it was good but not as good as in March, nothing in the world is as good as that.
Have followed the lines about Overdose since joining the forum and came to conclusion that either he was beating nothing or he was exceptional. Allowing for horses pulling up behind, this was exceptional. A brilliant horse robbed by something that was nobody’s fault, one of those things. Let’s he comes for the July Cup, Kings Stand or the Nunthorpe and then see this fella fly. I’ve become a real – and of a flat racer – I can’t believe that. Any chance of five furlong hurdle races?
A word of warning for anyone planning a trip to Wetherby. I’m reliably informed that several big stables have already indicated that they intend to avoid Wetherby in the short term due to their concrn about problems with the ground.
There are enough people concerned for the NTF to have approached the BHA asking if the feature races scheduled at Wetherby later this month can be moved.
On a similar theme, there are also problems with the hurdle track at Carlisle and they will be staging an all chase program at their first meeting.
Carlisle’s hurdle track is also their flat track and takes a heck of a hammering. Coming originally from the Border area just north of there, I know Carlisle and it’s environs well. The area gets a lot of rain (The Lake District is less than thirty miles away). I did see somewhere that they were working on a new hurdles track but don’t know how that is progressing
I wish people would stop knocking Channel 4. Without them there would very little of our coverage of our sport at all.
As for their paddock coverage. On the whole, they have a good run through the runners for most of the big races, but they are on a commercial channel and have time constraints imposed on them by the need to generate income for the channel from advertiser. It is not entirely their fault. They do a much better job than the BBC
I did not like the BBC coverage apart from Clare. Why did they not use the eloquent Kevin Darley? Willie is getting more and irritating and Loughran is a waste of a good mike.
I know they were running late this time but the BBC usually cannot get away quick enough after their last race, which is usually the big race of the day. It is not good. I think, if they could get away with it we would only see three meetings a year, Royal Ascot, The Derby Meeting and The Grand National Meeting with only two races on BBC1, The Derby and The National.
The day Newmarket hosts a nine-race card of bumpers is the day I’ll consider getting annual membership there, Paul. 8)
gc
Even better, why not buy 22 portable fences and lay them over the 3m6f of the Town Plate course and have a quality days racing on the July Course.
Now that’s a good idea. Could we put grass down at the All Weather tracks and put up jumps on them as well, much better than now eh!!
Chris Pitt’s excellent book "A Long Time Gone" has a section on the Newmarket Jumps Track on page 114 of the hardback edition. Held from 1894 to 1905
Myles, he was originally entered for the Champion Stakes but was taken out at this week’s forfeit stage because same connections have Archipenko for that race.
Eagle Mountain’s ultimate aim is Hong Kong but he could go for either the Darley Stakes (Gr.3) over 9 furlongs at Newmarket (to take on Bankable again) or the Breeders’ Cup Turf. He is also in the Gran Premio di Milano over 12 furlongs.
Ideally he’d need another run before Breeders’ Cup but if that race doesn’t look too strong it would be a good option.
Kevin Oshea, the jockey, in a Channel 4 interview was of the opinion that he should miss the Breeders’ cup and go to Hong Kong instead. The BC can be a bit of an obsession when a horse like that could do well in Hong Kong and Dubai and even the Japan cup (yes I know it is a mile and a half but might he get the trip on the right track?).
Quote – "As a laboriously slow reader I don’t always tend to get through it all in time before Mackenzie and Harris gets published around two months later, though."
Can’t wait for this GC. Our kitchen table is a bit wobbly and it will be just the thing to stick under one of the legs to get it level again.
Impudent young pup. Get thee to Balcormo Mains, and repent! 8)
gc
Mosshouses is colder Jeremy, even in May. But what a lovely place to be high up in the Eildons above Galasheils. Dalston is lovely and so is Friars Haugh. Been to all three having brought up in Langholm.
I thought Tracy Bailey had an involvement with John Francome…she certainly was a very glamorous figure in racing round about that time…I love Kim Bailey’s daily blog and I’m glad to see him doing a lot better these days..whatever happens he doesn’t lose his sense of humour; I love his little anecdotes about the fat/thin farmer……
We all remember Mr Frisk as headstrong, but after he retired from racing he became a decent eventer. I once saw him run at the old Northampton trials in Delapre Park. Went round one of the twistiest of tracks to the manor born, including a bounce off the bank and rails that would have put a Badminton winner to shame. He was seventeen at the time and my mate and me agreed that if he had taken to that game earlier he could have been an Olympic contender (not that we are eactly brilliant judges but we have seen some great eventers in our time).
On the subject of pacemakers and them being illegal. If that is the case then the rules must have changed since 1975 when the so called "Race of the Century" took place (imo it was the ’64 Cheltemham Gold Cup but that is for another debate).
On that day Kinglet and Highest- two complete no hopers- were in the race for one reason alone. Pacemakers. Their job to ensure that a flat out gallop was maintained as long as possible for their illustrious stable companion, Bustino. All three ran in Lady Beaverbrook’s colours and it almost came off.
Now if we look at that race in the context of this debate, then not only were pacemakers employed, but it could be argued that team tactics were also involved. I have never heard anyone question the tactics used that afternoon (and I am not saying they were wrong to do what they did).
So where is the problem with what Ballydoyle did or have been doing. I agree with Paul, this is the politics of envy.
