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What a moving post by Jo Davis. You can really feel the raw emotion, and it is a good example of how people in the game really do care about the horses.
Grey Aquila was so much more than a set of moderate form figures. She was a beautiful animal with a lot of personality, and who was clearly well-loved. It is a great shame that she did not get a chance to go on and have a life beyond racing.
RIP Grey Aquila
I agree the made-up Southwell race does not look like a precursor to a serious attempt at a Flat career. It looks far more likely to be geared around a possible Champion Hurdle attempt.
CAS, all you say may be true, but it still doesn’t persuade me against wanting them to try him a few times on the Flat. As I say, if it doesn’t work out it’s much lower risk than continuing over hurdles, and I’m not keen to pack the horse off into retirement just yet.
It wasn’t embarrassing when Sea Pigeon won Flat races, or when the likes of Morley Street or Tiger Roll had a try. I see little difference for Constitution Hill. Sadly his aura of greatness is long tarnished already from the ugly images of all those falls.
As LD73 says, making the best of whatever situation you are in seems the best approach to take. If a Flat career doesn’t work out, there’s unlikely to be any real harm. The same cannot be said of persisting over hurdles.
LD73, I definitely wouldn’t rule out that he could still win the Champion Hurdle. But the approach being taken is too big a risk for the horse and also for the image of the wider sport in my view.
Even if reckless gambles pay off occasionally, that still doesn’t mean they were a wise idea.
Jusbluey, sorry to hear that the loss of Peso has hit you hard. These things are difficult enough even without having fond memories from seeing the horse in real life.
That sounds a great experience meeting The Jukebox Man. Lovely to hear that they made you so welcome at the yard, and it’s nice to read of something positive in this often sad part of the forum.
Not many posts actually make me laugh out loud, but your last couple have managed it HDLG. Great stuff.
Plenty of Henderson jumpers have coped fine with starting stalls, so I wouldn’t be overly concerned about that aspect.
Even if his first attempt on the Flat were not a success, I don’t think that would tell us anything conclusive, and would like to see a few attempts made before that avenue was given up on.
I’ve little enthusiasm to see Constitution Hill going back over hurdles but, if he is to do so, I agree with GM23 that appearing at the Festival without proving he can put in a clear round first really would be playing with fire.
For the sake of the sport, the BHA should be dissuading connections from this path, not putting out a £40,000 red carpet.
I’m all for Constitution Hill running on the Flat, but more had a summer campaign in mind, and with no intention of returning to jumping.
This new race feels rather too like special treatment for one horse/trainer.
My interpretation of the events around Peso’s sad demise is a bit different.
He was pulled up mid-race before tiredness is likely to have been an issue. The horse had been struggling to go the pace, but was no further behind at the time he was pulled up than he had been for a while, and was far from hopelessly tailed off. Plenty of horses have stayed on to win or be placed from similar positions.
The fatality rate at Kempton on Saturday was unacceptably high, and it’s important that the causes are understood. However, I didn’t see anything to make me think jockey fault was a primary cause of Peso’s sad death.
On another day the horse could have stayed on to win, and everyone would be saying what a brilliant ride it was that O’Neill didn’t give up.
I remember Nicholls’ very public falling out with Kauto Star’s owner, Clive Smith. While I think Nicholls had a point, it shows he is perhaps not the best at schmoozing owners.
“Wasn’t Peso pulled up on just after dirt track onto turf I jury sustained there”
That’s right vf
Interesting points AP. Does anyone know at how many positions on the course the going is checked normally?
Had best also clarify that I mentioned fall rates and fatality rates separately for a reason. I wonder if perhaps the newer design leads to fewer falls, but perhaps the falls that still occur tend to be more harmful due to there being more premature take offs.
Sadly I suspect that three fatalities at the same meeting is not as extraordinary as most of us would wish, especially allowing for injuries that have a fatal outcome in the days that follow.
I’m not persuaded either way regarding the new obstacle design at present. This debate can only really be resolved by having some comparative statistics for fall rates and fatality rates from before and after the changes. I don’t recall seeing anything substantive on this as yet, and hope some are forthcoming.
Moehat, I hadn’t realised that there had been changes to fences as well as hurdles either. All the initial publicity was about the changes to hurdles.
