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Wonderfully, patient, set in stone old fashioned yard. Must add Wetlands to that list, who was killed in a fall in what was to be his final race of the 20/21 campaign, and final run over hurdles. He had the potential to develop into the best northern novice chaser of the following season and I could not fathom why they let him run in that race, the ground drying out fast. The yard rarely risk animals on unsuitable ground – this animal needed give and I suspect that Trevor Hemmings racing manager, Michael Meagher, had the last say, the fact it was Scottish National day coming into the equation. I may be wrong but I can’t believe Nicky Richards would have risked him, if allowed to have the final word.
Agree that Milcree is a most promising individual and one to be excited about for novice chasers. Fingers crossed they get a curse free run with this one.
Slow and sleepey but much preferable to the irritable barrage on ITV, fronted by the worst TV racing frontman in the history of ITV/C4/BBC. A few months avoidance now and feel healthier for it.
Agree about Getaway being overated – seems to produce more than his fair share of big cumbersome creatures such as Five Star Getaway, and that highly tried big dopey slowboat of Twisters, Weveallbeencaught.
I seem to recall that shortly after the programme, Pipe sent in an audit he’d completed covering a random window showing the fate of each animal that had left his yard. This analysis did not paint such a bleak picture of things as the programme suggested. Seemed to be a general case of horses who’d nothing in hand of the handicapper who had reached their ceilings.
The person who inspired this episode of Cook was the maverick journalist Roy David, who has now been Michael Watt’s racing manager for many years. He was a drummer in one of the Merseybeat bands, was the racing correspondent for the Liverpool Daily Post during the 1970,s, when he also ran a record shop in Ormskirk called ‘SoundsGood’. He has also visited and interviewed Julian Assange in recent times.
Probably a good thing that he never won at Epsom as he’d have disgraced the Derby roll of honour even more that Serpentine as I doubt they’d have retired him, not having an attractive enough profile for a flat stallion. I remember reading that when Joseph O’Brien saddled him up on his racecourse debut he told Ryan Moore, ” this could get beat today and still go on to win the Derby”.As with name changing, it seems to be the norm in HK, should just let things be.
That’s interesting – the HK Jockey Club site originally had him listed as ‘retired’, though that run does not bear well considering the promising sort he was when purchased after the Doncaster race.
That sounds a nice little gem you’ve found and and comes without the baggage of worrying about signatures being authentic ect. Those certificates of authentication don’t prove too much though confidence is increased if they come with a photo of a signing session, and the trader is long standing with no black marks.
However, you do see plenty of dubious stuff out there – I remember seeing what was claimed to be Marc Bolan’s autograph for sale on e bay – the seller supposedly came across it as a mate obtained it while decorating Bolan’s flat!
I’m a sucker for memorabilia with a bottle of red down me and will have to resist becoming involved in the bidding for the signed Schiaparelli pic – as have a soft spot for the animal having seen him in the days when trained by Peter Schiergen winning the Deutschlandpreis at Duesseldorf (the same day as when Harrington beat Garcia in the Open), and the Preis Von Eurpopa at Cologne. Imposing, powerful looking animal.
Even moderately close inbreeding is rare in Germany – they have a system, established in the 1990’s, whereby to be an ‘approved’ stallion and to qualify for the stock receiving generous premiums, the stallion must have reached a certain level of performance and undergone physical examination and be deemed ‘correct’.
Unfashionably(sadly so)but predictably,the racing arena is top heavy with old fashioned, slow maturing middle distance horses. A system born too late.
I was surprised when Sissoko was purchased out of Donnacha O’Brien’s yard after splitting Luxembourg and Bayside Boy in the Vertems – he looked to have a bright future here.
However, it does not seem to have worked out as it looks like he picked up an injury.The Hong Kong Jockey Club site have him down as ‘retired’ under his new name of’Packing Sissoko’ – whatever that means.
The Racing Post database lose trail of the HK exports once their names are changed.The Timeform database keep a basic track, such as Dante runner up Freemantle, who had a couple of starts in HK as Straight Forward, but will not list the name change until they actually race under the new name.
The omens don’t look good for Paddington staying in training. They’ve never previously kept any of their St James Palace winner’s in training, neither any of their Irish 2,000 Guineas winners.
And with the Newmarket 2,000 Guineas, there have been two unusual exceptions to the rule – George Washington only returned to training ( with sad consequences) due to fertility problems, and Camelot was the other who won despite the trip at Newmarket, and who they were desperate to finish on a high with after the disappointing end to his three year old season, during which they were no doubt confident that he’d be retired as a Triple Crown winner.
I notice that Tom Dascombe has three Coverdale Stud animals entered in the next few days; Lunar Shine, a 300,000 Kodiac who was listed in training with Horton in Horses In Training, a Mehmas filly called Divergency and a Dark Angel colt named Miggy Magic.
The latter two were not listed in training but it may have been an incomplete entry and I’m assuming they’ve come from there – they were not acquired in the breeze ups.
Though Dascombe has only had 3 winners so far this season, his juveniles are starting to run well and I feel things are picking up for him – especially given the circumstances he found himself in.
They protected the Pattern far more in the early years with no careless upgrading – in fact it was probably over protected.
A good example is when the old Vernons (or Ladbrokes Sprint Cup as it had become by then) was upgraded to G1 in the mid 80’s. So as to ‘protect’ the quality of G1 sprints they downgraded the King’s Stand from G1 to G2. To me, that race was the most enjoyable race of it’s kind of the season, setting an early pecking order that was sometimes maintained.
Since then it’s all gone out of control. Not only the Kings’s Stand back to it’s original status, but the old Cork And Orrey come Golden Jubilee also G1, and now the Commonwealth Cup, which means nowadays the chances of your mighty Marwells taking on the older horses in the King’s Stand are unlikely unless they are seen as 5f specialists.
Still, the dilution at the Royal meeting has had nowhere near the same negative effect as similar as had on Cheltenham.
Have only ever been the year when it was staged at York ( went the Tue when Sharmadal won the St James Palace) but must say that there is a buzz about June in general – arguably the best sporting month of the year ( Derby, Royal Ascot, Lord’s Test Match, start of Wimbledon, US Open Golf, start of World Cup/ Euro Championships when they are on). The horses have come in their full summer bloom, the season is still relatively young and exciting with lots of unknown questions to be answered. I also feel that the extra races at the Royal meeting have not had the detrimental affect as the extra contests have had on Cheltenham – though they were dam crafty when they initially said that Golden Jubilee Saturday was just going to be a one off, when most suspected otherwise.
It’s their decision to have trust in who they delegate to. The likes of Richard Fahey must delegate down with instructions involving masses of entries at this time of year, and must place trust in more than one individual to have read the entry conditions carefully.
Cannot vote with confidence on any category but he’d be very close to best ever Derby performance. I’d put it above Slip Anchors who I thought was flattered by a brilliant ride though he did beat a stronger field than that of Shergar ( I don’t count Kalaglow as a runner as he ran too bad to be true). Must also add that the Dante winner Beldale Flutter would have started second favourite if he hadn’t picked up an injury but as things turned out he wouldn’t of stayed anyway.
Was lucky enough to see him on the grey, raining on and off day he won the Vase and took a couple of far from perfect pics of him in the paddock with a Kodak Instamatic. Racing fans use to attend Chester in those days and there was a buzz in the air as he’d looked special when beating Kirtling at Sandown. Stoute also had Grundy’s full brother Centurius in the yard at the time who wasn’t impressive when winning the Blue Riband Trial and was now clearly not going to be a serious Derby prospect. He was owned by Jimmy McCaughey who invested heavily in the sport in the short time window from the late 70,s to early 80’s and owned Ebor winner Shaftesbury with Ryan Price. Not sure how he made his money ( may of been construction) but his fortunes went downhill quickly and he disappeared from the sport quickly and passed relatively young.
