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I’m just about to fly out to Lanzarote, having been to Lanzarote for Cheltenham 2022 and Tenerife for Cheltenham 2023.
I’m from the South Midlands area, but spent most of my adult life working away from home. Since 2013 I’ve been permanently based back down South and so I’ve taken the week off and attended Cheltenham (usually) on the Tuesday and Thursday every year between 2013 and 2020. I would drive on the Tuesday and go to Tatts/Club and then have a social day on the Thursday in Best Mate (or as we call it, “The Cabbage Patch”). I’d also then spend the Friday afternoon in the local pub which is usually a good day for a bit of banter.
Reasons for the change have been covered on here in other places. I wouldn’t rule out ever going again, but my attention for now has shifted to the Fridays at the Autumn meetings.
Prices for flights etc to Lanzarote have gone up this year, but I think I was able to get flights and a reasonably decent apartment for 2 people for no more than £1,000 total for a 10day stay. All of the bars are busy with race fans on all 4 days. Most bars have people taking bets (although I use my accounts), and prices for a draught Spanish beer can be as low as €1/pint.
The only downside (for me) is that I use my laptop to study form when I’m at home. However, I’m reluctant to take the laptop away with me and (unfortunately) I’m a bit too clumsy for touch screen devices and my eyes aren’t what they were either. But hey, I’m sure I’ll get around the problem somehow.
Hope that helps.
Cheers Nathan !
I actually purchased mine and Mrs Bronco’s before The Hennessy !
These two spare ones are for some friends who jumped on the bandwagon late, but have just had some bad news on the employment front. I don’t really want to see the tickets go to waste, so anything I can get to offset their expense will be a bonus.
Are you there on Tuesday ? – I’ll keep an eye out for you if so !
Hypothetical question.
Could / Would one of the two Grand National hopefuls Long Run or Tidal Bay have won this?
I think on the bare form (second giving weight to BW in The Hennessy, before winning the Lexus) that TB would have had a cracking chance in
last
season’s GC.
Obviously he was ruled out last year through injury, but I was absolutely staggered when I read that connections were only intending to target the World Hurdle with him rather than the GC.
"Won his 18th consecutive hurdles race at Newbury in December but unfortunately a small leg injury came to light soon after and we decided to put him away for the rest of the season. He’s been back in a week now, which is really a week earlier than I wanted but he’d got so fat . . . He’ll do six weeks of road work and start cantering in October.
We’ll look to give him one run before he tries for a fifth World Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival, possibly in the Cleeve Hurdle in January, so long as the ground isn’t too bad. There’s no reason why he shouldn’t be as good as ever but we’ll see how we go with him and take our time."
Thanks Rory !
Does anyone know anything of the progress that Big Bucks has been making ? I seem to recall that they were going to aim him at his "usual" 3m hurdle race at Newbury, but this was quite a while back. Does anyone know if he’s still on target ? Thanks.
What a great legacy Sir Henry left us.
Love the photo resembling a Munnings painting with Henry walking casually through the field with his hack following.
There’ll never be another like him.
I like that one too and there’s a story behind it, according to the narrative at the exhibition. Henry had dropped his cigarettes and so had dismounted the horse to look for them. He then didn’t have anybody to give him a leg back up, and so had to walk back while leading the horse behind him !
You beat me to it in starting a thread for this race, Bosranic….
It’s wide open for me, so looking for a nice price and Aiken (at 14s) jumped straight out of the page at me. He likes the course and was only just outstayed by a proper G1 stayer in the same race last year in similar conditions. A little bit out of form, but he only made his seasonal debut in August and has also been running at shorter trips. Cheekpieces tried, and Richard Hughes up !
Can’t wait for the curtain raiser and will be in attendance again !
5 length winner of the Arc (not all out), with a neck between Orfevre and Intello (who had improvement in him) and 2 lengths back to Kizuna.
That has to be close to, may be even better than any other performance by a female racehorse.
How about Danedream in the 2011 renewal ? So You Think, Workforce, St Nic, Snow Fairy 5L+ behind ?
Am I correct in thinking that the track record was also smashed that day ?
Although not 100% identical, I’m reminded of the Makfi / Canford Cliffs era. Makfi was obviously the best horse on 2000GS day, and was a proper G1 performer in what was a good year for 3yo milers. However, for my money CC improved to be several pounds his superior as the season played out.
Although in the latest generation, all things being equal and identical odds given I think I’d still side with DA if I had to choose. Roll on round 4 !
I echo everything said above.
RIP Sir Henry. Please say hello to my dad if you see him.
By the way – Cracking post, Jonibake.
It’s a marvellous thing, hindsight eh ?
I sometimes wonder if Henry himself knew just how good a horse he would go on to prove he was just after The 2000 Guineas.
I mean, a 2000 Guineas winner comes along every year. We’ve been relatively spoilt the past few years, but in many cases The 2000 Guineas winner doesn’t go on to dominate as anticipated. Sometimes they turn out not to even be the best 3yo miler once the season as a whole has been reviewed. At the time, Frankel still hadn’t even faced the older horses.
Did Henry REALLY know AT THAT STAGE ?
Obviously Henry knew what the horse was capable of at home, but it’s on the racecourse where it matters.
I’ve had his book on the shelf since April. Maybe I should get around to reading it. ;o)
[quote="Danny
Great Post, with regards to the last part if he’d have won the Derby surely he’d have been retired at the end of his 3 year old campaign maybe only running one or two more races. So in hindsight we were all lucky he never ran.Back to the opening question you say you don’t think he’d win, then were does he finish? Is he placed? or does he end up last like Dawn Approach walking past the post? Native Khan was a close 5th in the race, Frankel was well ahead of him in the Guineas would the further trip see Frankel finish behind him?
Another very good question….
Now I don’t claim to be the greatest race reader around, and I think there are plenty on here who are better.
But, let’s say that Frankel ran in The Derby, and (worst case scenario ?) ran in a similar style to how he ran in the 2000 Guineas.
So they’ve jumped off, and Frankel has gone into the lead at a similar pace to The 2000 Guineas. After they’ve gone 8F, do we all agree that Frankel is still in the lead and probably clear of his rivals ?
How far clear is he ? – I’ll be the first to raise my head above the parapet and suggest that anything within 12 lengths (2 seconds) of him has probably gone too fast and cooked their own goose already.
So, how far behind would something have to be to have not gone too fast, but still be in with a chance of catching him inside the next 4F ?
In The 2000 Guineas, Dubawi Gold was the closest to Frankel after being at the back of the field early on. That would seem to indicate that Pour Moi’s style of running might stand him in good stead.
Frankel stayed 8F as a 2yo on yielding ground effectively enough, and always seemed to take an age to pull up after the race had finished. I don’t therefore think he’s going to be stopping after 8F. Is it also possible that he might get a breather after the turn for home ?
There are of course other factors to consider, such as did he have too hard a race in The Guineas ?, but I think there can be other reasons for the comparatively underwhelming SJP win (idling ? / jockeyship ?). He might also have been inconvenienced by Epsom’s undulations, but I’ll keep it simple for now and assume that he wouldn’t be.
I can’t see them catching him myself.
Cracking debate as usual. My two pence worth….
Who would you say were the top middle distance 3 year olds during that year ? Pour Moi ? Nathaniel ?
I too was there on Champions Day. Frankel finished 4+ lengths ahead of Nathaniel over 10F on very heavy ground. And that was after nearly falling asleep in the starting stalls. I can only think that that winning margin would have been greater on faster ground as it was at Epsom.
Although I appreciate that this all happened over a year after Epsom.
Nobody can be 100% certain. But if you were to put a gun to my head and I had to choose correctly, I’d say Frankel would have won The Derby.
The horse was an absolute freak !
The DA team tactics were found wanting. They should’ve had a pacemaker of their own in the race. Would DA have won ? We’ll never know now.
You have a horse that has questionable stamina, so you throw in a pacemaker to turn the race into a true test of stamina…… yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
If anything, the slow pace should have worked in the favour of a stamina challenged horse. The problem for DA is that he wouldn’t rate, he was rank as a pig. Most horses can be taught to rate (see Frankel etc), but some can’t. We’ll see what Bolger can do with this fella.I think you need to watch the race.
The horse might have settled better with a stronger pace.
It’s The Derby at the end of the day. No point going into it unless you are prepared to put your faith in the horse’s ability to stay.
Probably the worst Derby ever to be ran, tactics wise it spoiled the race, just looked like a bunch of slow horses battling it out in a slog, was not good to see. Clocking almost at 2:40, ridiculous.
The DA team tactics were found wanting. They should’ve had a pacemaker of their own in the race. Would DA have won ? We’ll never know now.
Bronco,having read your posts regarding
Dalbury
and
Run and skip
,I would suggest that could it be possible that you saw both horses on the same day? Coral Welsh National Day at Chepstow as ‘Dalbury’ ran in the Novices chase at Lingfield behind ‘Clara Mountain’,it was the first race of the day and ‘Run and skip’ did make all to win the Welsh National an hour or so later at the unusual odds of 13/1,strangely enough ‘Corbiere’ won the Grand National at the same odds too!!
I too have fond memories ofRun and skip
as prior to his Chepstow win he won at Cheltenham at 6/4 and I was lucky enough to have him along with
Ten Plus
at 6/4,
Troilena
at 5/2 and
Emo Forever
at 7/2 in a £1 lucky 15,my first ever all winning Lucky 15,it made me £300 and paid for my Christmas,I bought Action Man the Red Devil if my memorys right!!
Thanks TAPK. It’s possible, but I think unlikely. I would be 99% sure that as regards "my" races, Run and Skip would have run BEFORE Dalbury (I initially thought only a week before, but now looks like longer).
It pains me to say this but I don’t think that Dalbury would have been "on my radar" at this time, if it wasn’t for the fact that Run and Skip had already put me in profit. Although I’m sure he was an admirable horse in his own right, and bought his connections a lot of fun !
