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I’d say the opposite Moehat. Certainly horse racing has a much larger television presence on main UK channels than on main US channels, and the only race in America that even begins to rival the Grand National in terms of public consciousness is the Kentucky Derby. I don’t think horse racing is going to disappear per se, but a lot more tracks will close
All that said I fully expect the Maryland Hunt Cup to be running over the same fences and same course for another hundred years, even if nobody watches
Some of the complaints about the Grand National remind me of motorsports fans who complained (and continue to complain) about the various safety measures that auto racing has taken to reduce risk. Compare an old Indy 500 or F1 car to the modern ones. Even NASCAR has changed enormously. There are still people who yearn for the good ol’ days, when men were men etc etc – what they really mean is that they watched for the crashes.
In horse racing people still want the element of danger, and it’s always going to be there, just as there will always be crashes in auto racing. The difference is that in horse racing the vehicle is a living, breathing, animal, and over the years the general public’s assessment of the value of that animal has changed. It might have been acceptable in the past to see a horse die on national television every other year, but it isn’t now. I think that’s a good thing, by the way.I rate this year a 9/10. Do I think all the changes were strictly necessary for a safer race? No, but if the end result is fewer dead horses and the survival of jumps racing as a sport I’m fine with the “emasculated” Bland National.
Another on Calico e/w, he’s going off at 28-1 on the tote here so hopefully he’ll hit the board.
Helcatmudwrestler, the French Trotter registry give each foal crop a letter that their names must start with. It’s alphabetical so Trotters born in 2020 have names starting with “K”, those born in 2021 start with “L”, and so on. Note that nowadays most trotters in France are crossed with Standardbred so unless you’re watching a race restricted specifically to the French Trotter breed you won’t see this pattern. Standardbreds of course have their own naming conventions with suffixes added depending on country of origin, reserved farm names, reserved family names, etc.
“Henderson’s apparent attitude of only caring about Cheltenham and his wealthy owners might be a bit more palatable if he was not sponsored by a bookmaker. There he was on RTV yesterday, resplendent in his Unibet sponsored jacket.”
Bookmakers are allowed to sponsor trainers? That seems ripe for corruption. Granted, this is me coming from parimutuel-land so I’m not as familiar with how the bookies operate.
“I appreciate British horses are not trained at the track and are not as familiar with the stalls as American horses – but should British trainers get better at schooling?”
Unfortunately the announced post times for American races are also just a suggestion.
An increasing number of Irish hurdling prospects are brought over to the USA as well, where they fill out the stakes fields. On the other hand, we have a critical shortage of timber horses as not enough of the hurdlers seem to move up to the big fences. Perhaps there should be a deal where if you send over some of your excess 4-mile chasers we can agree to stop buying up the hurdlers.
I’ve said it before – there would be enough horses for all the G1s if top horses raced a full season instead of one or two then off till Cheltenham.
Loved this video of Lostintranslation winning a “hunt ride” (I think the US equivalent is called a hunter trial). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5sqsJiftco
Seems to me that Hewick is getting the Rodney Dangerfield (“No respect at all!”) treatment. I certainly didn’t expect him to win or win like he did but he’s a handy little horse and if Shishkin stayed up I dare say the finish would have been very close between the two. Unless a true powerhouse in the division pops up between now and then I can see Hewick winning the Gold Cup.
A lot of star TBs seem to end up at Old Friends (https://oldfriendsequine.org/) now, which is also open for tours. Though steeplechasers typically end up as foxhunters or pleasure riding horses if they are sound to ride and willing to slow down just a little.
Speaking of which, Ask Paddington has fully recovered from the serious injury he sustained back in May
https://twitter.com/USASteeplechase/status/1737859424750817606Two-time NSA Timber Horse of the Year Andi’amu is retiring to the Kentucky Horse Park. He’ll be the first steeplechaser to reside at the Hall of Champions!
https://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/274023/andiamu-to-join-kentucky-horse-park-hall-of-champions
The French-bred Andi’amu raced in the UK from 2013 to 2015 prior to his illustrious career in the US.Have never seen that sort of prejudice in the USA. Man O’War and Secretariat were chestnut, that’s all the rebuttal you need. The enormous success of chestnut stallions like Curlin, Gun Runner and now Justify has ensured plenty of chestnut Thoroughbreds here, just like the success of Tapit and his sons has created an abundance of gray horses that isn’t seen in the UK.
“Chrome” on a horse doesn’t seem to hurt their reputation here either, except maybe with the grooms tasked with keeping them spotless
He does seem to get a piece of the purse more often than not. The kind of horse every trainer would love to have in their barn.
If you want some light entertainment search for the name of any American jumps meet + “fight” on Youtube
etc.
Similar antics used to happen in the Preakness day infield but I’ve heard that has been cleaned up in recent years.Britain doesn’t have a monopoly on this sort of thing
Seattle Dancer was a $13.1 million yearling back in 1985 (so a heck of a lot more in today’s money) but at least he managed a couple group stakes wins.
The only really expensive yearlings I recall who remotely lived up to their promise were Ajdal and Royal Academy.
The retired champion Nature Strip looks like a natural at his first 90cm showjumping competition. Could’ve tried him as a hurdler! :D
https://twitter.com/WHR/status/1730753736862261610?
