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I watched iris’s gift debut chase this morning again, and was quite incredible how he stayed on all fours!!! He was all over the place. That was the start of his luck – getting beat by Darkness was the luck run out. And it ain’t coming back.
And just think how many runners there will be in the Gold Cup just thinking about how open the race is. I think even Dr R Pritchard may be tempted to have an entry and go for a bit of prize money!!!
Well, i would call it black as well. It is such a dark shade of blue, that it practically IS black. Agreed, i love them as well,
Rock of Gibraltar’s silks were beautiful, abdullah’s as well, cheveley park stud’s, tabor’s and the elite club’s are ok.
the beauty of club 16-24 is, that even if you only go to 3 days of the festival, you still save money!!!
i was going to go to the bula hurdle, but weather was awful near me and looked as if it would be a foggy drive. But definitely going to pillar property, and provided new year’s day racing is good, i’ll be off to that as well!!!
but 4 days of pure and utter racing at the festival!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Better than sex!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :biggrin: ;) :cheesy: :cool:
but the problem is that it clouds the day with rubbishness for all of 10 minutes or so. To get a really great atmosphere, you need top class stuff going on. A lot of the big races miss this a great deal i think. the derby springs to mind immediately. Rubbish course, rubbish card – the only good thing is the derby.
However, i’ll definitely be staying for the 4th day of the festival. My spine shivers whenever i hear the deafening roar of the crowd on the opening race of every day. The gold cup is the very pinnacle of jumps racing for chasers (well arguably anyway with the Champion Chase) and seeing a great horse gallop up the Cheltenham hill to glory is going to fantastic.
Cheltenham racecourse membership is my birthday present this year. £155 for a Club 16-24. And i simply cannot wait for those 4 days.
The first day of the ebor is definitely one of the best days. I was actually thinking about it the other day. The opening day of the festival is amazing. The main day, the friday, is actually probably the worst day of the festival ironically! They should have the Ryanair chase on the friday rather than the thursday and beef it up a bit. The foxhunters is a bit of a novelty race, the triumph hurdle is not exactly amazing. And the race that moulin riche won is not fantastic either. The stayer’s hurlde is definitely the least popular race so why not make that the worst day?<br>But anyway, the best day of racing for flat is in principle the champions day at newmarket. But that regularily turns out to be rubbish. The derby day is pretty rubbish. Ironically the oaks day is pretty good. But i’d have to say the best day is the opening day of royal ascot. the coventry stakes, the king’s stand, st james’ palace and the queen anne. fantastic stuff. <br>For the jumps the best day is the opening festival day.
i couldnt really say anything about the worst of the racing, cos i barely look at racecards monday-friday. But the best days are the royal ascot and cheltenham festival opening days.
Oh hang on – some people on here are having a laugh. Best Mate – won 3 Gold Cups – how the hell can you call them poor quality gold cups???? Yes, best mate was beat by beef or salmon in the ericsson chase. But how many times did best mate destroy beef or salmon in the gold cups???<br>Best Mate never came out of the top 2, and there is no way i am including the haldon gold cup as a run. If the jockey club cup on champions day was named after Persian Punch last year, a race he won a few times, then why could the Gold Cup not be named after Best Mate for 1 year and then give him a permanent race.
You cant say that i think that hardy eustace should be given a race named after him. Hardy Eustace finishes 2nd or 3rd up until march, where he wins the champion hurdle and then wins a champion hurdle in ireland in april. he’s nowhere near as consistent as best mate, and the 2001 festival being abandoned didnt inconvenience hardy eustace anywhere near as much as it may have. Hardy Eustace probably hadnt even started racing then.<br>The Gold Cup is the entire reason that chasers exist. I’m pretty sure if you asked any trainer in the uk, which race they would want to win the most, it would be the gold cup. Arkle won it 3 years running, and <br>Best Mate has, so to treat Best mate with lesser respect is absurd.
i can’t believe that he is dead. It’s just unbelievable. I raced from my college to a bookies in my home town to watch the race, and then 5 minutes later, he was gone forever. I was so touched by the racing post’s coverage on the matter. They dealt it with respect, are, love, sympathy, sensitivity – no pictures of best mate collapsing, or lying dead.<br>And the telegraph and daily mirror just showed absolutely no respect with the former printing a picture of the great horse lying dead on the FRONT page, and the mirror had a picture of the poor guy collapsing. I was so disgraced by this that i wrote letters to all 3 papers, commending the rp, but berrating the telegraph and mirror.<br>It’s always sad to see a horse dying, but best mate should have gone at henrietta knight’s stable, during his sleep, while he was having the rest that he absolutely deserved.<br>My thoughts are with EVERYBODY in racing, as tuesday 2.50pm was a tragic moment in the sport. And im not ashamed to say that i cried when i heard about the news. Good night Best Mate….
The Totesport Best Mate Cheltenham Gold Cup
Best Mate is the greatest jumps horse of all time arguably (Moscow Flyer and Arkle are the other main contenders), and he deserves to have the greatest race of the Jumps season which he won 3 times in a row, named after him
Yes, rakti is mental. But so was montjeu.<br>Rakti has been a class act and has many MANY group 1s – his need for firm ground wont definitely be passed down through the breeding lines, so there is value there definitely.
I’m gonna pick –
Kicking King<br>Ollie Magern<br>Well Chief<br>No Refuge<br>Back to Front<br>Harchibald<br>King Harald – i dont know if he’s still around. I’ll check later, but I watched the Arkle from this year a couple of days ago, and my god, what a horse
Ashley Brook
My full list of 20 i’ll post later, cos I need to go back and watch my cheltenham and aintree races all over again!!!<br>
I agree with rakti being best when had a long drought. if so, let me put this to you. He quite clearly is still a brilliant force and well up to Group 1 quality. On his only run this year when the ground was in favour of him, he won by 5lengths. I think they should run him max 3 times next year and then retire him.<br>Lockinge – QE2 (provided ground is in favour. If not, then Champions Stakes) and then the Hong Kong cup. That is what i would do if i were tanaka.
yeah, poor decision with rakti. Shouldve been a NR then gone to Hong Kong Cup.<br>I feel gutted about le vie dei colori, as ive just started to really take into consideration the visor/blinkers/cheek pieces into my form check, and had i seen visored for the 1st time at20/1, having been a Group 1 winner in italy, maybe i would have done him a couple quid EW, but its all very well saying that.
I backed Alexandrova in the fillies mile, but should have been beaten a lot more than a short head, as fallon had fortune blocked in for most of the race so he had to go another way around. <br>In terms of the others not being talked up – aussie rules has started all 4 starts as favourite and is by the same sire as GW and HN. Marcus Andronikus definitely had hype as started the Coventry stakes as 2nd fav and was 2nd fav for the guineas at one stage as well.
Rumplestiltskin has now delivered on her promise, and admittedly the others werent exactly stuck into group 1 company as odds on favs, but they have been put into group 2 or 3 races, and performed well below what their form and other things suggest.
Yeah, i understand that many trainers never get a Group 1 – but O’Brien trains horses from 2 of the richest guys in racing, Tabor and Magnier – such is the importance of money in racing, they can buy the best from the best breeding lines.
From sept 1st, o’brien has had runners in the following UK and Irish Group 1 races
St Leger – Scorpion 1st<br>Irish Champ – Oratorio 1st<br>National Stakes – George Washington 1st<br>QE2 – Mullins Bay 6th/6<br>Middle Park – Ivan Denisovich unplaced<br>Sun Chariot – Virginia Waters last<br>Fillies Mile – Alexandrova 2nd<br>Champ Stakes – Oratorio 4th<br>Dewhurst – Horatio Nelson 2nd<br>Irish St Leger – Yeats unplaced
30% strike rate
That means in 6 Group 1s, which largely revolve around 2yos, which Ballydoyle is renowned for having brilliant ones, he has not had a winner in 6. Horatio Nelson, Alexandrova & Ivan Denisovich all losing, when it seemed as if these were all super horses.<br>Next week is the RP Trophy, and now O’Brien’s challenge on that race looks weak with the his 2 best 2yos out of the race, so that will probably be another Group 1 lost.
Compare that to the start of the season
Nothing was expected of O’Brien in the early stages, but he had a great start winning the first 2 classics and then having very consistent runs with a few great horses like Oratorio, Ace, Indigo Cat and Wolfe Tone. Virginia Waters never ran properly again because she never had the ground in her favour and was never going to stay in the Oaks.
But then, guys like Aussie Rules, Rumplestiltskin, Amigoni, Dylan Thomas, Arabian Prince, Marcus Andronikus, Ivan Denisovich etc all came along with a load of hype, and did not deliver with the exception of Rumplestiltskin, who was never convincing until running in the Marcel Boussac on L’Arc day.
Let’s not forget, that Ivan Denisovich was favourite for the 2000 Guineas in July – now where is he in the betting??? but agreed completely about Washington for the Guineas. 7/2 looks a steal.
And Ultimate Nightmare, in terms on horses training on, look at my post in the Washington vs Nelson thread posted today about 9.30pm – very interesting reading
