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Most of the National winners mentioned above had been campaigned a bit at a competitive level outside novice company. Miinnehoma and Royal Athlete for instance had run in the Gold Cup, Lord Gyllene had some strong form in valuable long-distance handicap chases and Numbersixvalverde had already won a Thyestes and an Irish National.
Also Royal Athlete (fell at the 9th in the void National). Rough Quest fell on his only previous attempt over the National fences, in the Topham.
An interesting piece of art commissioned by the Czech government for their presidency of the EU:
minor Royals have a long history of tootling off to foreign parts and being blown to pieces
I can’t think of any who have actually ended up dead – have there been any?
Interesting stuff.
Is the RH/LH bias necessarily related to jumping, though? If it were, presumably it would be more marked amongst chasers than hurdlers and would not occur on the Flat.
Do horses that jump left do better on left-handed tracks? I am not sure why this would be, as surely the majority of obstacles jumped would be jumped more-or-less straight, so whilst an inability to jump straight is going to lose a horse ground, it is not necessarily going to cost the horse more ground if jumping out the ‘wrong’ way.
The British racing authorities have adapted rather better to cross-country chasing, though, effortlessly seeing off all challengers with their bumbling muppetry…
Still, the incident represents progress of a sort, I suppose, being caused by a jockey actually knowing where they are going as opposed to not knowing.
I think he would get beat. They jump some funny things at Auteuil, and if Nicholls sends him into a championship race without any prep runs over the course he is going to get into trouble.
Hi Paul,
Agree with most of what you are saying, but:
Money Leeching – The CAP should be enough to cover that one. Why should our taxes be used to finance inefficient farmers in France and Italy, road building projects in Spain, development projects in former members of the Eastern bloc when there are far more pressing social needs that have to be addressed in this country.
Always nice to know that there are a few ordinary people out there benefiting from my taxes…the suspicion is that if any potential government in this country could get their hands on this money, it would be pissed up against the wall.
Won’t the proposed change just lead to a lot of good chasers underperforming in low-grade hurdles to maintain the lowly rating?
Isn’t it just that Aintree, being a speed course, plays more to Kauto Star’s strengths than Denman’s?
Because they fear the consequences for them at the next election. Would you stand on a platform of taking people’s cars away for a couple of days a week or restricting their speed?
I don’t think the nature of French fences prepares a horse for Aintree well – some of the obstacles are hurdled, some jumped, some can be brushed through, some are solid. 29 solid obstacles and a water jump is quite another matter.
Not sure if physical maturity plays a part or not, but few 6 year olds that run in the National have much experience of jumping fences at high speed in large fields, which probably accounts for why few of them complete.
So, is there a place in the Gold Cup for 135-rated handicappers (and a little bit upwards) who haven’t lost their form?
I am a fan of Tango Royal so it was nice to see him have one of his occasional going days and win this…he has been around for years, I remember seeing him running in Graded chases at Auteuil as a four year old. He seems to delight at popping up unexpectedly after compiling long sequences of unplaced efforts.
It’s some years since I last followed the idea up, but it used to be worth noting any horse running in either the Prix Wild Monarch or Prix Finot at Auteuil – these are Listed races for juvenile hurdle debutants and usually have a fair few good horses.
