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Would love Hewick to win for sentimental reasons but I can’t see him getting the fences (even in their reduced form) or the full trip.
Mr. Incredible has told his connections in the only way he knows how that he does not want to continue racing. He’s more than earned his place in someone’s pasture.
I’ve seen a lot of flat racecards go off in fog, apparently visibility is usually better on the ground than it is for spectators. I’ve seen charts where the sectional calls and margin of victory are left blank, as long as the steward can see the order the horses cross the finish line I suppose it’s fine…
Happy New Year and a very happy official birthday to all the racehorses in the Northern Hemisphere
Japanese steeplechaser Nishino Daisy has been retired following his win in the G1 Nakayama Daishogai on Saturday and will become a stallion at his owner’s farm.
He won two graded stakes on the flat as a 2yo in addition to his two G1 wins over fences. He is the first son of Harbinger to go to stud.
Video of his Daishogai win https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GV-s8ce3DSUJumps horse of the year – I know I’d be the only vote for him but Snap Decision was an absolute star this season
Villain of the year – Nicky Henderson for timidity in running his horses, even by modern training standardsIt’s impossible to find numbers for the fatality rate of timber racing (and the small sample size would be a confounding factor) but the rate doesn’t seem to be that much worse than UK brush fences? Wooden rails will fall if hit hard enough (they have frangible pins like cross-country eventing jumps) but they aren’t exactly soft.
Annoyingly hard to find which courses in the US have water jumps. I know that the Maryland Hunt Cup’s water jump is over an actual creek. The horses are already used to seeing such things from foxhunting or at least hacking in the offseason so it doesn’t seem to take any by surprise.
The cross-country (excuse me, “Steeplethon”) course at Great Meadow is known for its “Swan Lake” water feature that is a popular subject of photographs. It’s not really a jump as the horses just run through the 120-foot-long infield pond.
And it has a “normal” water jump also
We’ve had a drought in the east coast of the US for the last several months and it’s finally caused a couple of the late season meets this month to be outright cancelled. Horses can and do run on hard ground (they ran the International Gold Cup on hard ground a few weeks ago – some non-runners but no horses hurt) but not on ground that’s half dirt because the perennial grasses haven’t sprouted. For the most part though courses have done an admirable job of watering and aerating to get safe firm ground which most American horse trainers would argue is the best ground there is. It’s silly that trainers would be afraid of firm ground, let alone good.
Some turf horses do better on wet dirt tracks because it slows the pace of the race. If they seal the track beforehand (basically compacting it so the water doesn’t soak through to the lower layer) though it’ll play more like a fast course. They’ll probably make that decision late tomorrow depending on forecast.
The mighty 15yo (!) Mystic Strike ended his long career with a win in the International Gold Cup this past weekend. He started in $5k claimers on the flat but found his true calling over timber fences and he won just about every big timber race besides the Maryland Hunt Cup and Maryland Grand National. Happy trails to him.
There is also the argument that geldings are at a disadvantage because they have far less testosterone in their bodies than intact males.
To me it is very silly that a race for older horses bars geldings. It isn’t a “stallion-making” race the way 3yo classic races are. If a gelding were to perform admirably in the race then interested breeders could just look to his sire or other lose relatives, the way that National Hunt breeders do with all the top jumpers being geldings.
He won two graded stakes on the flat as a 2yo in addition to his two G1 wins over fences. He is the first son of Harbinger to go to stud.
