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Um, Dawn Run beat Cima in 84 but he was indeed trained by Jim Old.
I agree with you though; the great horses should be remembered. That includes Night Nurse, Monksfield and Best Mate too. I’d love to see the Bula restored.
Some interesting comments about running at 3 festivals. Having gone to several Punchestowns one of the first betting rules was to oppose horses that had already run at Cheltenham and Aintree – didn’t always work but helped most of the time…
Every year I park in the farmers field east of the crossroads just south of Bishops Cleeve. It’s a 10 min walk to the course, costs a fiver and you get out pretty sharply.
You’re only the other side of the railway from the public car park.
Back:
Value at Risk (Bartlett 10-1); Hargam (Triumph 11-2); Sprinter Sacre (QMCC 11-4)
EW:
Run Ructions Run (Pertemps); Clarcam (Arkle); Karezak (Triumph)
Lay:
Faugheen (Champion); Dodging Bullets (QMCC); Any Currency (X-Country)
That’s exactly as it should be. Bumpers were introduced as a seventh race.
And there we have the mindset of the average racegoer. The reality is a little bit different:-
(1) On poor/average cards the bumper is quite often the best quality race of the day. Even if it isn’t there is at least the chance that you might see a decent horse in action.
(2) Contrary to popular belief bumpers do provide a good betting medium if the punter puts a little bit of work in. Yes, you can have a false pace and connections using the racecourse as a schooling ground but that sort of thing happens in other races. Don’t hear anyone moaning about 2yo maidens. It isn’t that difficult to identify stables who are actually capable of winning bumpers.
(3) With the exception of the occasional junior bumpers there is a fair chance that you will actually get at least eight runner fields for these races.
(4) I suspect trainers, especially the better quality ones would want more of these races, not less.
Personally, if a card has historically contained a bumper I think it should be retained, if necessary as part of a seven race card.
I’ve got nothing against bumpers Stilvi, and I’m perfectly aware which stables are worth following. The point is that if we’re having this idiotic dash to force 6 race cards on courses, it’s basically a flat race and as a jumps fan I’ve always seen the bumper as the bonus ball rather than one of the six main ones. That was the basis on which they were introduced and as they’re not especially popular with many punters that’s how it should stay.
I’m hoping that if racecourses cut out bumpers as they should then trainers will squeal. Courses should be left to organise their own programmes and the BHA should focus their interference and nincompoopery in other directions. Ideally at the idiocy whereby every course building a sandpit automatically expects to be able to race 100 days a year.
It’s not just in the finish where races are won or lost though is it? In another race on the card, the horse I mentioned previously was dropped out 30 lengths with the jockey sitting motionless until before 2 out where he got a bit busier and was beaten 10l.
Racing post comments say: soon detached in last pair, ridden and stayed on from 3 out. Held when not fluent 2 out.
My comments: held up 30 lengths off lead. Visibly travelling ok on the home turn but still miles back. Basically given no chance whatsoever.
I didn’t notice anything that untoward about the last but tbf I was watching Jonjo’s first and foremost.
The expansion of Cheltenham isn’t helping. The fact there’s a ‘race for everything’ at the festival now means that horses which might have been targeted at February fare just aren’t any more.
Why bottom your horse out in the Ascot Chase with the Ryanair and Melling still to come? Before, when there was no Ryanair, specialist 2 and a half mile chasers would probably all have run at Ascot.
The Victor Ludorum is suffering from a surfeit of juvenile hurdles, combined with the lack of decent ones trained in the north.
The big owners come and go – David Johnson, Stewart Family, Graham Wylie – at the moment it’s all Simon Munir, but I don’t see that as a problem. More of a problem, at least in Ireland, is the scale of Mullins’ dominance.
Is the hot beef bap guy still at Leicester. Always get one in but haven’t been for a few years.
Agree – standing by the last fence is great here and at Uttox – unfortunately the cross fence has gone because you used to get a great side on view of that with a pair of bins.
Surely he’ll finish at Punchestown?
Will his last winner be Jezki in the Punchestown version of the Champion Hurdle?
Only way AP wins if he has a stonking Festival and/or wins the National.
AP obviously eligible by virtue of being born in the North.
Agree rugby looks most likely to provide a standout performance but would it be the captain or another player?
Rory McIlroy the other obvious contender as he’ll surely win at least one major.
Oh b*gger. I hadn’t realised that. Could have seen him making up into a Paddy Power GC horse next season.
What a shame for one of the smaller stables.
Thought his ride on Ifandbutwhynot at Edinburgh the other day showed he’s still on top of his game. He more or less carried the horse up the straight.
A stunning piece of live TV. I suspect that will silence the critics of post-race jockey interviews.
Come off it now Joe. That was a once in a lifetime moment, ironically coming after a farcical race.
I wouldn’t get my hopes up that Ruby Walsh is going to break down and confess that he’s gay from the back of Faugheen in the winners enclosure at Cheltenham in March
A once in a lifetime moment that made all the others worthwhile, whether you liked them or not. For the first time in my memory, we, the people, the punters got the news first. There were many in that winner’s enclosure at the pinnacle of racing – Nicholls, Henderson, top businessmen, multi-millionaires, celebs, all of whom are used to getting the ‘word’ ahead of us plebs. For them? Zilch.
A weighing room filled with jocks and valets who’d worked with the man for 25 years…his own mother and father…and who got to know first? We did. The fans. The ones who watch top jumping every chance they get.
it was well worth – 100 times worth sitting through a thousand cliched interviews from the past. It was a moment I’ll never forget.
Spot on, a jawdropping moment and like everything else about AP, total class.
Sire De Grugy was going nowhere when he nudged the previous fence then ploughed through the one where he unseated. He’ll come on for it but it’s a stretch to see him winning in March.
Dodging Bullets or Dodgepot as he was fondly known before this season is no shoo in for the race either. Mr Mole was impressive today, and whilst I’m not sure I’d take the form at full face value he’s well into consideration.
But writing off Sprinter Sacre seems very premature. He was entitled to run as he did at Ascot and it should have sharpened his jumping and fitness.
Keep the hoses off.
