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Very sad to hear this, he was a great standard bearer for his small stable.
RIP Cracking Rhapsody
Mr Vango has indeed returned home to Sara Bradstock’s to continue his recovery. I read that they have set up a baby alarm in his stable so that he can still be monitored at night.
There was also some nice footage of Quai De Bourbon on ITV’s Home Schooling feature on Saturday. He was shown running in a field looking none the worse for his unfortunate experience in the National.
While I do think it may be best for Dandridge if he tries to move on, I wonder if some of the resentment he bears is because Williams didn’t admit to the offence, and has presumably never indicated he is truly sorry as a result. It must be very difficult to be forgiving in those circumstances.
Loads of options for him still, and I think we are a long way from the stage where veterans’ chases are his best hope.
Haiti Couleurs is graded class when he gets his conditions. He reminds me of Royal Pagaille who was also a stamina-laden chaser who fell slightly short of the very best, but that did not prevent him from having a long and fruitful career.
The part I find most puzzling is that such an upstanding member of the community with over 570 character references appears to have lied about his actions.
While what he has been found guilty of is in no way justifiable, I would find it easier to empathise if he admitted he snapped and caused grave harm as a result.
Moehat, the Kauto Star remounting incident where he was injured was in a novice chase on 31/1/2005.
Best Mate died in the Haldon Gold Cup on 1/11/2005. You probably have that race in mind as it is where Kauto Star made his comeback from the injury, finishing second to Monkerhostin.
I had forgotten that Best Mate and Kauto Star ever ran in the same race. What a shame it ended so sadly.
My concern with rule setting is that knowing when a horse has nothing else to give is such an inexact art. Horses respond to the whip in different ways, and there will always be varying opinions on how much they have left in the tank.
Presumably the large majority of horses in Saturday’s National had reached the very borderline of what they could give, and many of the jockeys would be sailing close to the limit of what any rule deemed as acceptable.
One area where I would like to see more progress though, and which could be fitted into a rules-based structure, is in a further significant reduction in the amount of whip usage permitted.
Been watching some of the Aintree meeting again tonight, and Hitman looked to jump pretty well to me apart from a mistake four out.
He came down two out where he jumped the fence fine, but then had a coming together with Coming Up Easy and tripped after the fence. The fall was not due to bad jumping on his part. Thank goodness he got up as it was a very ugly incident.
1) I Am Maximus
2) Grangeclare West
3) Favori De Champeau
4) Imperial SaintThanks, and good luck all.
Moehat, Kauto Star was found to be injured after he was remounted in a race in 2005, and this led to the rules around remounting being strengthened. However, it was not until 2009 that a full ban was introduced.
That’s lovely to hear vf. Good to see them making a fuss of Ahoy Senor at his favourite course. What a wonderful racehorse he has been.
There’s still a little part of me that would like to have seen him give the National course a try though; perhaps they can sneak him in after the parade
Horses are such amazing creatures; a curious mix of strength, speed, sensitivity and fragility. Racing them brings moments of immense beauty and joy, but also horrible lows like the loss of Gold Dancer.
I think that these incidents are sadly an unavoidable reality of racing these wonderful but delicate creatures. Jockeys face such a difficult task in making sure they ask enough of their horse to get the best from it, while avoiding asking for too much.
We also have to factor in that this is all taking place in a matter of seconds, and that it is happening in the heat of the action. It is so much easier to make judgements with the benefit of hindsight, or while watching from outside events.
How bad does a mistake need to be to make pulling up a definite requirement? Sometimes a visually ugly mistake can be harmless, whereas the most innocuous looking error can prove fatal. Pulling up all horses that make mistakes would make racing impossible.
I do not believe any jockey would have pulled up Gold Dancer in the specific scenario that arose, and do not think Paul Townend should be being criticised for how subsequent events played out. I hope he is OK tonight, and my condolences to all Gold Dancer’s connections.
RIP Gold Dancer
Thanks for highlighting this vf. I recall it was mentioned that retirement was probably on the cards for Noble Yeats after what proved to be his final race, but did not see anything further in the media after that.
The fact that a star horse who won a Grand National slipped away into retirement without considerably more fanfare or notice seems a shame to me.
That’s what makes it so irritating HCMW. O’Brien is clearly a master trainer, and I’m sure he does have a very good idea of which of his horses are truly exceptional, but they can’t all be.
I am not convinced the hyperbole enhances the stallion prospects of his charges either – does anyone really take these comments seriously now?
“Aidan said he doesn’t like to go slow 😂 well he didn’t go fast.”
That amused me too vf. If only the horse were slower so that he could have won
I find the nonsense spouted by O’Brien far more irritating than anything Nicky Henderson says.
