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Dawn Run’s Gold Cup – I fill up when I watch replays, so I’d be fit for taking away if I’d seen it in the flesh.
And if I’m allowed a sneaky extra one from the Flat – the 1978 Belmont Stakes. Affirmed and Alydar going head-to-head from about a mile out, with Affirmed just out-battling his great rival to become the last American Triple Crown winner.
1984 to 1986 was also good. El Gran Senor, Dawn Run, Slip Anchor, Pebbles, Dancing Brave, Bering, Commanche Run.
Can’t believe you left out Oh So Sharp!
I could have written Mikky’s page 1 post, so I can only echo what he says (Mike, are you the brother I never knew I had?
)I heard that Turbo Linn originally had an aversion to starting stalls, so she was started in bumpers to give her racecourse experience and take advantage of the fact that in every other respect she was ready to run, while they worked on getting over her ‘phobia’ or whatever it was of the stalls at home.
A good looking woman at Newcastle racecourse.
Presumably we can look out for you on the cover of next month’s GQ?
Yrs, Cruella
Newcastle upon TynePaul Nicholls:
“As I’ve often pointed out, Kauto Star is a rotten jumper.”
AJ Martin:
“To be sure, after he won his maiden hurdle by 20 lengths on his debut I realised he was a bit special, so I’ve mapped out an ambitious campaign culminating in the Royal & Sun Alliance at Cheltenham. I’m hoping he can go through the season unbeaten.”
Coolmore:
“We’ve decided to limit all our stallions to 50 mares each per season.”
And since the thread is actually called Things you’ll Never See in Racing…
…Lesley Graham in an attractive outfit.
who is this horse Nevada Royale that I’ve heard about?
Unbeaten point-to-pointer now at Ditcheat, set to go novice chasing next season. Nicholls quoted as saying “potentially good, but something of an unknown quantity, as it’s hard to know how good his pointing form wasâ€Â
This is the year that a jumped up handicapper will progress through the ranks to win the Champion Hurdle.
Bob’s Pride?
what happened?
1. A 2yo not guaranteed to get 7f who didn’t go through with its effort last time was equally unwilling to pass its odds-on stable companion despite looking the winner within the last furlong
or
2. Said 2yo was given a very tender hands-and-heels ride into 2nd place behind said odds-on stable companion, prompting much speculation that it would have won if ridden with a little more vigour
You decide.
New game: Seven Degrees of Xavier Aixpuru?
At which point do you get to Kevin Bacon?
Aaaaaaaand topic…I started off with a love of the Flat, following Henry Cecil from the mid-eighties during the Cauthen years, with only the occasional big jumps race impinging on my consciousness. Now the situation is reversed, so while I still enjoy the major Flat races, it’s the jumps that really get me going – in fact I’ve just booked a weekend in Cheltenham for the Open meeting.
Being a self-confessed Ruby groupie, I’m looking forward to seeing how Paul Nicholls campaigns his big guns: Kauto, Denman, Star de Mohaison (if he can come back), Taranis and Twist Magic. I have a particular soft spot for the latter.
Stamina is becoming such a dirty word that even if a horse had the ability to do so, it would be perceived as commercial suicide. After all, why risk your Guineas-and-Derby-winning stud prospect being labelled ‘slow’ by winning the St Leger, when you can send it to Longchamp and…well, get beaten by some late-progressing French thing, probably, but you can always blame that on yours having too much speed for a truly-run mile-and-a-half…
Finsceal Beo out. Shame. Don’t know if she would have stayed, but I would have liked to see her try.
I don’t know how easy it is to get hold off these days, but Simon Barnes’ book Horsesweat and Tears, written in the late 80s, is worth a read for those who’ve never encountered it. It follows a year in John Dunlop’s stable (the year during which his son Tim was killed, tragically) and is well-written and evocative. I’ve had a soft spot for Dunlop’s yard ever since reading it.
Pardon me, is this the queue to register for the Get Lesley Graham Off Our Screens Now club? Where do I sign?
I could even put up with Outspan Chapman if we could persuade him to do the programme on, I dunno, valium and beta-blockers.
Willie Carson has the occasional valuable or interesting insight, but his inability to string a coherent sentence together makes me want to push him off his box sometimes.
Thommo is a legend! A fairly buffoonish, mildly cringe-making legend I grant you, but racing TV wouldn’t be the same without him.
I used to be all about the Flat, and I still enjoy the big races/meetings, but now my heart definitely belongs to National Hunt. I don’t get very excited any more wondering if last year’s top two-year-old has trained on, but I’m dying to know if Kauto Star could possibly be as good or better this coming year than he was last season; what will happen if/when he meets Denman/My Way de Solzen/Star de Mohaison; whether Nickname will ever get the soft ground he needs at the Festival; will they persevere with Brave Inca over two mile hurdles, step him up in trip again or send him novice chasing…ooo, so much to look forward to!
Is it October yet?
I would have loved to have seen what Triptych would have produced to Mr Prospector if she hadn’t been killed in that freak paddock accident. Then later I would have bred her to Danehill.
If we can magically re-attach geldings’ bits, resurrect from the dead etc, then my Champion Hurdler would be the offspring of Istabraq and Mysilv, with the mare going on to produce a champion stayer in the making to a covering by Brave Inca.
And continuing the mission to mate horses through time and space, the Gold Cup would be won by the result of Dawn Run’s covering by Arkle, and the Champion 2-mile chaser by covering Anaglog’s Daughter with Flyingbolt.
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