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The risks involved in riding thoroughbreds are bad enough without this kind of thin happening.
I am one of the others lucky enough to be a partner in Bally Conn. :)
This is my first venture into ownership and what a dream start even if, as Rory rightly says, Bally Conn didn’t need to be a world beater to win on Saturday.
I wondered where you were, Zil, and I missed seeing this thread. I hope your recovery continues.
The Taoiseach is begging on behalf of the Irish nation that the Champion Hurdle be brought forward to next weekend as an act of kindness.
"The prospect of four months of trembling knees is too much for our people to bear", he declared. "Far better to know our fate sooner, even if it means almost certainly having to cancel Christmas, abandoning NH racing in Ireland and apologising to the Queen for not wanting her on our stamps".
Quote: from underscore on 12:27 pm on Nov. 13, 2006[br]Totally agree.  Fantastic horse who loved his job.  I’m sure brought more people into racing than any other horse.  Dont think we should be sad though, he’s had a cracking life and retirement.<br>
Well said.
Anyone who thinks the sight of a Union Jack on an Irish racecourse would induce booing and jeering from a large proportion of the crowd is an ignoramus.
In one way the waving of a flag would be a compliment to the locals because it would show how much winning their event meant to the victor.
If given the choice, however, I would opt to have no flag waving at racecourses.
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Quite so, JJ.
It’s quite remarkable how much gloating there is by some on here at Fallon’s current fate. More to the point, his career is badly damaged, and all this before any evidence has been heard at all.<br>
I see that the Anne Duchess of Westminster Memorial Chase takes place today at Bangor-on-Dee, so Arkle must be also Welsh.
Truly a horse for all nations.
QED
I fear that if Irish stables continue to mop up the big prizes at the current rate (a big if, it must be said) NH racing will go into long term decline in the UK.
The British public would begin to heed the animal rights lobby, accept that jumps racing is cruel and turn their attention entirely to the flat.
That would be an alarming prospect for NH racing in Ireland as well.
Thanks for sharing this info, Cavelino.
I am really surprised at the variation between Carlisle at the bottom of the list and Kelso at the top (Aintree is a special case, as you have already mentioned). I would have expected a greater degree of uniformity in the percentage of fallers.
Looking at the six at the bottom of the list, you might suggest that slow ground (Carlisle, Sedgefield, Haydock and Warwick often come up soft) or classier horses (Haydock, Sandown, Newbury) reduces the risk of fallers, and that stiffer fences or a stiff track might actually be helpful to horses within limits (Aintree and Towcester being examples of tracks falling outside those limits).
But in that case what is Newton Abbot, with its lower class of horse and fast summer ground, doing as the next one up the scale?
By the way, Cavelino, next time you have a boring evening, is there any chance you could produce the same analysis for the Irish tracks? :)
Correct me if I’m wrong, but presumably the decision to retain Hurricane Run for another season on the track has not paid off. There’s more than just the risk of injury to contend with when keeping horses in training.
It would have been very difficult to make money by opposing Irish horses for the sake of it in recent years. But it’s great that there are those who do.
Zorro, you are forgetting that Arkle was Scottish, on account of being named after a mountain in those parts.
I agree with Aidan.
True fans should recognise quality wherever they see it, but that doesn’t stop me from wanting the horse I liked in his maiden at Leopardstown or the Curragh to vindicate my judgement by going on to greater things, and I am pleased the guy I used to chat to coming home from school is making it as a trainer.
I am also pleased that the quality of Irish racing in general has never been higher and that we can go to see excellent races such as Teofilo v HRE or BoS v War of Attrition on our doorstep as well as having the best of UK racing on the TV.
And what good racing that is. Did anyone else see the table of the top 10 flat races in the world* in the Irish Times on Saturday? Five of them, the King George, Champion Stakes, Juddmonte, QE II and PRince of Wales Stakes are staged in England. Not bad!
* (Based on average International Federation of Horseracing Authorities ratings on the first four horses in leading world races over the last three years)
