Forum Replies Created
- Posts
I voted for Falbrav, Ian, but any more of that trolling nonsense about HC and I’ll be minded to change it! Falbrav, while he might have won at Leopardstown, over HIS best distance, was never going to do so easily.
My not-so-short list:
Monksfield (I’m named after him:) – a little horse with a crab-like action; small-time trainer and semi-retired jockey; good and gutsy enough to be a Champion Hurdle winner in a golden era; his races against Night Nurse, win or lose, were epic.
Triptych – classy, tough and consistent. Beat the colts in the IR2000 and cleaned up as a 4-y-o.
Captain Christy – the tension every time he approached a fence at his breakneck pace was amazing. Would he get over it? Won two King Georges by a street. In fact he seemed to win everything by a street or else end up on the floor.
Anaglog’s Daughter – another bold, front-running and brilliantly fast chaser.
Stanerra – won twice at the same Royal Ascot meeting for her small trainer and went on to win the Japan Cup in the days when such achievements were underrated.
Red Rum – for obvious reasons!
Desert Orchid – spectacular, and so enthusiastic.
Giant’s Causeway – his Iron Horse monicker was well deserved.
Shergar – one of the greats.
Sinndar – noone deserved better than John Oxx to get the chance to train such a good horse.
If One Cool Cat turns out as good as I hope we will I’m going to like him a lot too!
Happy Christmas and New Year to all of you, I don’t expect to have access to a computer for the next couple of weeks.
I was away for a few days, so maybe you’re all sick and tired of this thread by now, but I can’t resist making one last point.
Ian , you gave a list a number of Champion Hurdle and Gold Cup winners that you reckon were better at their respective disciplines than Dawn Run.
But that is missing the point. By my reckoning only two of those horses, Night Nurse and Captain Christy respectively, could conceivably have won both races. The rest were out and out specialists.
Night Nurse was an exceptional hurdler in an exceptional era and was probably better than Dawn Run at that game.
But how on earth, Ian, can you claim that Dawn Run was not exceptional? Her record speaks for itself.
Nobody has won the Gold Cup and Champion Hurdle…except?
Novice winners of the Gold Cup are unusual (just think back to the Beef or Salmon controversy this year about even running a novice in the race).
Novice winners of the Gold Cup are an even more unususal.
Foreign-trained winners of the big French jump races are a rarity.
Mares capable of winning the top races are a rarity.
You’re barking up the wrong tree when you try to knock her record on the basis of ratings, Ian. Why is 70% of the prize money in most races awarded to the winner, even when the winning margin might be less than an inch after jumping 20 fences? Races are there to be won, and she beat the best around.
The percentages are much higher for the top 15 "heavies" than the "firms".
Maybe this suggests that the aptitudes required for success on heavy going are more specialised? But it may be wrong to assume that some sires’ progeny prefer heavy conditions just because they are high up the table. It might simply be because they have a high concentration of runners in Ireland (e.g. Storm Cat), or even France (Kingmambo, Hernando), where heavy conditions are more frequent.
<br>I’m glad you’ve mentioned Indian Ridge, PR, because I too have my doubts. Didn’t the horse himself handle fast ground?
I used to assume that Saafend was an ex-Hamdan horse until I spoke the name out loud.
I haven’t been to  enough tracks in the UK to have a vote, but I have this urge to unleash some puns about Worcester and its leading position in this poll. It’s like trying to hold in a fart.:o
Connections of promising horses get excited all the time. I’ve often heard it said that the best time of year in a yard is before the season gets under way, when dreams are still intact. Inevitably, most of them get shattered.
I’ve never seen Aidan O’Brien speak so openly about one of his horses as he did after the Lockinge on BBC. He was so full of emotion he could barely get the words out coherently, but he wanted to communicate his sheer pleasure at being involved with the horse. He spoke of the pleasure of watching HW work, and of his natural talent. He blamed himself (as he frequently does, unlike many another) for having got things wrong in the past. He was prepared to speak in this way because the horse did show that day how he is capable of something special.
OK, he’s infatuated with the horse, but I think he’s being completely sincere. I don’t detect any cynical motive at work. If anything, it has only served to deflect attention from his other stars of last year who achieved more that he did.
Dungheap, you’re right about (only) one thing, that HW is still in training this season in an effort to improve his record. There’s nothing unusual in that. Marcus Tregoning said the other day that if the photo had gone the other way in last year’s King George, Nayef would not still be around.
Meshaheer, I suppose some people would say none of us have much to do if we spend time on this and other forums. But if you want to post on them you can expect your contributions to be read.
I made no reference to the Hawk wing hype. But I do find it extraordinary. Both for and against.
Meshaheer, compare and discuss:
"I’ll never take pleasure in the disappointment his connections feel as Hawk Wing is exceptionally talented."
"Last laugh, as usual, is on Hawk Wing. When will they ever learn?"
I know it sounds like another excuse, but I’m with Marling on this. Just look at how O’Brien’s other runners today have fared. Hold That Tiger (4th) is the only one to finish nearer first than last. Recent results in Ireland have not been too encouraging either.
I think we had an excellent festival this year. All three champion races threw up an undisputed top class winner, and I think the novice events also were well up to standard.<br>
The whole point about Kinane is his straightforward approach. He makes very few mistakes, horses travel well for him and win if good enough.
Milan was never going to be the winner of that Breeders’ Cup race, and Giants Causeway got touched off by a champion horse who repeated the trick the following year. Rock of Gibraltar might have won with a better ride, but nobody’s perfect.
It has to be Vincent O’Brien, who has made his mark in three separate domains. Master of the jumps, then the flat. One of the first to spot the importance of North American bloodlines, and one of the builders of the Coolmore empire.
He also helped rescue Irish racing. The Phoenix Park project in the 1980s, although ultimately a failure, showed the way to other Irish tracks at a time when racing was in the doldrums. Every race on every card was sponsored, and the prize money reached a level few could have imagined. Leopardstown and the Curragh were stung into quickly following suit, and many other Irish tracks learned from the example set.
At a time when the quality of horse in Irish stables was mediocre, the standard of Irish racing was maintained, even if it meant that the feature race virtually every Saturday went for export.
What a conservative lot!
Surely it makes good sense for the whole industry, and not just the racecourse, to make the most of the Cheltenham festival. The media attention and the betting turnover on the fourth day would be far greater than could be generated anywhere else on the same day, which would be to the benefit of racing in general.
In the same way, it’s madness to be running only six races per day when you’ve got a huge crowd assembled, both on and off course, ready to have a bet.
As Rich K points out, not all existing races at Cheltenham are top notch, but I’m sure the revenue they produce for racing is far greater than if they were run elsewhere the same week.<br>
