[LD73]

For me it would have to be a real attritional Arc and then Coolmore would have to sacrifice some high class horses (in order to get into the race) to set a strong enough gallop for it to have any chance of working – he doesn’t have a lot of natural speed so those kind of tactics could see him struggle to hold a position early in the race.

In any case, from what Aidan has said on the subject, he seems very reluctant to subject him to that kind of race that would be very well outside of his comfort zone, especially considering what the horse has had to come back from.

The staying division looks extremely weak with the usual suspects turning up for the same races year in year out and there doesn’t seem to be anything just short of top class at 12-14F that potentially could step up into the division – Los Angeles for me would have been a great candidate to make said jump but I doubt they see him as that type of horse, even though he screams relentless galloper crying out for a longer trip to me.

I do believe that what they really want as an end goal for Kyprios is to try and emulate Yeats in winning 4 Ascot Gold Cups and that would be a much easier task if you didn’t have to worry about a threat coming from your own yard – which is probably where his biggest danger would likely be.

[LD73]

I agree that Bluestocking best form is on softer ground but bear in mind that Goliath has won twice on good to soft, once on soft and once on very soft so I don’t think Bluestocking would have had any advantage on him on today’s ground – especially considering that the winning time was just 1.98s slow on officially ‘very soft’ ground

[LD73]

Yeah, I don’t think it will go down as a vintage renewal but if you win I doubt you give a monkeys about that.

Makes you wonder what the connections of Goliath are thinking as he put her firmly in her place in the King George and we also know how much he likes soft ground (having won over C&D on very soft at the start of the season).

[LD73]

Great ride and perfect trip, kept it simple – reminded me so much of how Alpinista won her year

[LD73]

Will be interesting to see how see goes – one can only assume that she has had some sort of problem to be off the track since the 6th June when she was odds on to beat Bedtime Story on both of their debuts.

[LD73]

Didn’t see that coming, I take it all back.

[LD73]

Worried that LV has been dropped back to 6F (for the first time in her career) when it wasn’t until the last 1F in the 7F Moyglare that she really got going and that race was only 13 days ago too.

Aidan went to the well one too many times with Bedtime Story in the Moyglare and I worry that he is doing the same thing here – hopefully the ground hasn’t dried out too much to where it becomes more of a speed test than stamina.

[LD73]

Thanks Glad – silly me, of course it is 2m5f.

The RSA was also originally called the Sun Alliance Chase and I did originally type it as such but as I had already used that for the hurdle (which I also originally typed in as being 2m5f), I thought it better to use the RSA moniker instead (to avoid confusion lol) but in deleting and moving sentences around and retyping it, I clearly missed that error.

[LD73]

And yet again they elect to ignore the obvious changes that need to be made – too many options for the best horses to swerve each other.

It was all fairly simple back in the day, for the novices you had:
The Supreme (2m) & Sun Alliance (3m) for the hurdlers
The Arkle (2m) & RSA (3m) for the chasers

In open company you had:
The Champion Hurdle (2m) and Stayers (3m) for the hurdlers
The Queen Mother Champion Chase (2m) and Gold Cup (3m2f) for the chasers

For the handicaps you had:
The County Hurdle (2m) and Coral Golden Hurdle aka The Pertemps Final (3m) for hurdlers
The Grand Annual (2m) and the Mildmay of Flete (2m4f) and National Hunt aka the Ultima (3m1f) for the chasers

And for the amateurs we had the Kim Muir Challenge Cup and National Hunt Challenge Cup for the chasers.

If you just happened to have a horse that excelled at an intermediary trip then you simply had to decide whether to drop down in trip for the shorter race or go up in trip for the longer race and if you had a good/great mare you had no option but to take on the boys and find out who really was the best.

Whilst the National Hunt Chase for amateurs wasn’t particularly a favourite of mine I do think it is a very sad day that it will no longer be confined to just amateurs. I guess the history/heritage that the BHA bang on about being a huge selling point for British Racing doesn’t apply here.

The extra day meant more Festivals races and whilst that was great for extra revenue ultimately it absolutely diluted the championship races and deprived us of some great clashes that had we still been a three day Festival, we would have all got to see.

To me the Cheltenham Festival has now become more of an Every Horse Catered For Festival…….well all except for them having a hurdle equivalent of the Ryanair Chase (which would likely be odds on to be created if they went to a 5 day Festival).

[LD73]

If only the Mares race was also given the Turners handicap makeover as that would have taken that swerve option off the table for them.

[LD73]

So he moves from 2s to 7-4 from a supposed ‘large’ Ladbrokes betting shop bet but ‘the firm were unable to clarify the stake of the bet struck’………really, who knew you could now place bets without confirming how much you are staking for said bet

A complete and total nothingburger of a story…..must be a slow racing news day.

Btw, any chance we can get a face palm emoji gif added to the list on this site?

[LD73]

For me this was a relatively easy choice – his two marquee wins (where he scrambled home) in the Derby and the King George were against decent but not great horses in Hot Grove and Orange Bay, which means for me he doesn’t quite fit the very good option but he is without a shadow of a doubt the poster boy for the bravest and toughest racehorse of the 70’s.

He ran in four classics (both English/Irish 2000g and Derbies) and was subjected to the full Piggott treatment at Epsom and still came back for more by going on to win the Irish Derby and then the King George where he once again responded willingly to the Piggott kitchen sink being thrown at him.

Whilst not ideal that we didn’t see him race again after Ascot, for me he wouldn’t have been a match for his stable/owner mate Alleged in the Arc and with two out of his last three races being extremely tough hard fought wins, one might argue that going again with him after that might have been a case of going to the well one too many times.

[LD73]

‘Angus McNae would have been giving us the Race IQ stats’.

Would likely have wet himself rambling on about speed figures, stride pattern/frequency etc etc

I see Aidan again waxed lyrical about the ‘performance’ with “I felt watching him today was the best I’ve seen him with Ryan riding. “He galloped smoothly around the bend and when he said ‘go’ he really opened up and kept straight, which I loved.” Err it was a gallop Aidan and against vastly inferior horses that (at the time he said go) were being eased up (and in some almost pulled up) once their job was done.

He tends to drift off a straight line only in his races when he comes under proper pressure and if he does it again and goes right under pressure in the Classic those fans on the stands rail at Del Mar could be getting a real good view of him.

[LD73]

I doubt you would even attempt to replicate conditions where you would get the same kickback effect as in the US (not sure how you would be able to do it over here anyway) as you run the risk of souring the horse before you even get over there. You might get away with doing it once in the race on the day.

The one thing Ryan could do if he does miss the break would be to try moving COT to the outside of the field to mitigate a lot of the kickback rather than be stuck in amongst horses where he can’t escape from it. It would mean you travel further but we know he stays 12F so it might be worth doing that (obviously would depend on his draw also) to give him the best chance?

[LD73]

Hung right badly from middle of the course over to the stands rail (commentator laughably said Buick brought him over to the stands rail when you could see that he clearly had not control over where the horse was going) and even when he reached the rail he kept hanging into it to the extent that he was completely unrideable and Buick looked more likely to come off him than anything else..

They have no options but to call stumps with him now and his next stop should be a visit to the Retraining of Racehorses brigade to see if they can do something with him because being a racehorse is quite clearly something he wants no part of.

He looks like a horse that has had something (injury – maybe undiagnosed) that hurt him in the past that he is still remembering because as soon as he gets on a racecourse and is asked to gallop at racing pace……..it all rather predictably goes south.

Very sad end to a career that had started out so full of promise.

[LD73]

He can’t go in the class of Sea Bird or Nijinsky but conflicted over whether to bunch him in with Sir Ivor or not.

He didn’t have Sir Ivor’s brilliance (who won 2000g, Derby, Champion Stakes & Washington DC International and was also placed in the Eclipse, Irish Derby and Arc as a 3yr old) but Alleged is the last colt to go back to back in the Arc and that is a huge accomplishment in of itself.

I would class him as a better overall racehorse than El Gran Senor (option not listed) simply because EGS’s standing rests purely on his admittedly brilliant 2000g win – his Derby and Irish Derby form isn’t on par with Alleged’s Arc wins and we didn’t see EGS again after the Irish Derby but I very much doubt he would have won the 1984 Arc (the English/Irish classic crop didn’t cut much ice in it).

Even though Alleged is rated higher than both Sir Ivor and El Gran Senor by Timeform, the only option I can realistically pick is the ‘In Sir Ivor’s class’.

[LD73]

All it told us was that he still has all four legs and can gallop – doubt there was much of note (class wise) with the other horses other than being there to lead him into the straight.

A pointless exercise to me but good that a fair number of the public were able to get a close up look at him, so a great win on the PR front by Coolmore.

BC Classic on US dirt a night and day difference with gate speed and most importantly the kick back being the main issue he will have to overcome – if he misses the break, we are likely to know early on whether he can cope or not.

Relying on the ‘daddy excelled on dirt so his son should too’ reasoning (which many pundits/analysts seem to be jumping on board with) still makes little sense to me.

The big thing in his favour is that there isn’t a standout star over in the US but then they might not have to be one anyway.

[Author]

Posts