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There’s a lot of wild speculation right now, Shireffs hasn’t been saying whether or not she’ll be back. I have a feeling that they’re keeping their options open so if Rachel Alexandra gets Horse of the Year, Zenyatta can challenge her. Or they’ve been wooed by various teacks offering massive purses for a race featuring both RA and Z.
Why not put it back to Wednesday? It would be a perfect event to cap off the whole celebration. I never got why you’d put the Epsom Derby on an already crowded sporting weekend.
Is the Gallant Fox still the only 12f+ graded stakes on dirt outside of the Belmont Miss Woodford?
They really really do need to up the Jockey Club back up to 2m and make it a proper race again
Gallant Fox S. isn’t graded
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The only graded stakes at 12f+ on dirt/AW:
Santa Anita: Tokyo City Cup (gr. III), $100,000g, 4&up, 12f.
Belmont Park: Belmont S (gr. I), $1,000,000g, 3yo, 12f.
Breeders’ Cup Marathon (gr. III), $500,000g, 3&up, 14f.CK is eligible for two of those.
I’m really hoping Cloudy’s Knight is pointed to this race, assuming he stays healthy. Even though he has done well on synthetics, he’s really a turf horse. There simply aren’t enough stayers’ races for him in the states-the longest graded race is 1 3/4 miles, and the longest stakes is 1 7/8 miles. As good as he is at 12-14f, I think he’d be even better at 2 miles.
No-one else fancy War of Attrition? For a former Gold-Cup winner, hes probably going to get a lovely racing weight, and we know he has the class and is a sound jumper. Hes really beginning to appeal to me now, anybody else???
I like him quite a bit, even though his form has tailed off slightly this season. The only other knock against him is lack of experience going this far, but I’m certain he’ll be able to stay.
This sort of weather is the reason why the American chasing season is March-November, with a brief break in July. The last meeting of the fall are in South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.
While the jumping has been off I’ve been wondering…
How long did the attempt at AW jumping last, what kind of races were there & what ultimately led to it being scrapped?
AW and dirt surfaces lack the "give" of turf, so a fall is more dangerous and the horses legs suffer more strain on landing.
I used to be one of those horse-crazy girls. At first I only watched horse racing on TV because you hardly see any other equestrian event on network television. Then I begged my dad to go to a real racetrack, and since my dad had been taken to the track by his grandfather, I suppose he felt nostalgic. I just wanted to see the pretty horses, but eventually I learned about handicapping. If you want to ensure that racing doesn’t die off with the old generation of bettors, you have to introduce it to young people before we are even allowed to wager (age 21 here).
Media Gecko wrote:
Why? Casinos bring drinks to your table, so why not amalgamate two inevitably large queues into one?Given me an idea, why not have Tote Betting Terminals in pubs. Make them self service, touch screen or something. Winning tickets would be cashed at Tote Betting shops or through the post.
We have those already in the US, although it’s a bit simpler with parimutuel betting, since you aren’t going through a bookie anyway. They could easily be made to accept the odds from different sources.
Talking of Grudon and his buttered hooves, this Last Tango in Paris of National Winners was fittingly retired to stud once he retired.
The Aintree Marlon Brando didn’t alas sire much in the way of notable scions. But my Question: is he the only National winner to enjoy that particular fate?
Several of the victorian winners were entires as was another 2oth century winner in Ascetics Silver. However the last entire winner was Battleship under Bruce Hobbs (yes the future much respected Newmarket trainer, who at 17 years old is the youngest ever winning jockey in the great race).
Marcus Armitages A-Z of the Grand National has an entry about entires in the Naitonal on page 157 and on Battleship on page 49 according to which Battleship sired 11 individual American Stakes winners and three winners of the American Grand National.
What’s amazing about him is that he sired only 58 foals, yet 11 won stakes and two were champions. Here’s his page in the Hall of Fame http://www.racingmuseum.org/hall/horse.asp?ID=25
The restoration of old race names has to be a major priority. I’d List them – in the sense of protect them.
Thirded! And Drone’s suggestion of adding the sponsors name in brackets at the end is exactly the solution I’d choose. After all, it’s precisely how they do it in the USA – shameful to think that the Yanks have cherished their sense of history and continuity better than we have.
Oh … and by the way, I hear a rumour that Brian and Ben are gearing up for a Civil Partnership. Sweet.
We’re still pissed about the “Kentucky Derby presented by Yum Brands”. Having nearly every race named for a sponsor would drive folks mad.
That’s not to say we value continuity all that much-the Manhattan Handicap, for example, has been run since the 1800s at distances from 6f to 12f, on dirt and turf. The Firenze was renamed the Lady’s Secret, then recently renamed the Zenyatta. Whirlaway’s race was renamed for Mineshaft, the Sir Barton was renamed the Barbaro (rumor has it they’ll change it back), the La Troienne was renamed the Eight Belles.
Also, why doesn’t racing have a credible fantasy game? The nearest we get is the ten to follow, which is rather univolving. I’ve seen fantasy ownership for virtual horses but not the real thing.
ROAD TO THE ROSES! That’s the best idea anyone this side of the pond has come up with, it gets people to actually watch the prep races rather than just the Derby, and even my non-horsey friends still participate in it and will ask me if such-and-such horse ought to be in their virtual stable, what channel is the Bluegrass or the Lexington Stakes on, etc. Something like that could easily be done for races like the Grand National.
Another major thing is the cost of going to the races. I have 4 flat tracks within driving distance, none cost any more than $5 a person for general admission-one of them is free. Admission to the "clubhouse" is at most $20. As a result you a lot of families, especially in the summer.
I actually think the funky odds and stones and guineas make British racing more unique and traditional, but decimal odds should at least be shown once the race is declared official.
There’s an entire class of regular racegoer we see at the track called "stoopers", who collect the discarded tickets in hopes of finding a winner. They wait until after the nightcap, and at some tracks there’s an unspoken agreement between them and the janitors to not clean up the tickets until the stoopers have gone through them. Surprisingly, this can be very profitable, and I’ve heard stories of people winning thousands of dollars from it. Easier than actually handicapping the races
.Very few jockeys end up becoming millionaires, the vast majority are slogging it out every day, taking whatever horses they can. For a profession with such a high rate of injury and death, they are paid relatively little. Even a bad jockey is still dealing with high risk situations, but if they aren’t getting checks for their mounts they’ll be out of a job quickly. How about what happened to Secretariat’s rider Ron Turcotte-a terrible fall in 1978 left him in a wheelchair. Just this past summer, top rider Rene Douglas suffered a career-ending spinal injury. One of our top riders in Maryland and West Virginia , Travis Dunkleberger, injured his neck and was out for several months with no paycheck.
Every time someone says Kauto Star is vulnerable/not up to his old self/has regressed, BET HIM. You’d think people would learn by now
.Well, looks like I was right. Kauto Star is incredible, this was one of his best performances. You’ve got a horse on par with Arkle and Desert Orchid, admit it!
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