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Unfortunately, the Grand National is just too easy a target for the screeching activist. Whether you agreed with fox hunting or not, it was a lot less taxing for protesters to jeer at a red-jacketed toff, than to travel to Africa and confront a heavily-armed elephant poacher.
Great finish, although Foley had to get quite serious to keep her going. I counted seven forehand strikes, five left and two right, but can’t be certain about the last two, as they were on the far side. As a spectacle, I had no problem with it at all. But if that was a race in Britain in 2023, would she have won with seven backhanders? Not sure – I think Moore might have had him.
Run To Freedom – drifting a bit, but tempted each way four places at 16-1. 10th in the Platinum Jubilee but only beaten 3.25 lengths. Alcohol Free was 9th, half a length ahead, and Double Or Bubble was 11th, a nose behind. They went on to run 1st and 5th in the July Cup. Decent chance on that form, down to G3 level.
With the form she’s in, Venetia’s Royal Pagaille looks tempting each way. Tend to favour classy plodders over specialist 3 milers when it’s soft.
Ben, I think you’ll find that bullfighting is a hangover from Roman amphitheatre games. That doesn’t make it acceptable 2,000 years later of course, but it’s more comparable to Gladiatorial combat than cock-fighting. Romans in the cheap seats at the Colosseum would have struggled to see two small birds going at it…
Isn’t he rumoured to be one of the currency traders who bet against the pound, and won, on Black Wednesday in 1992? George Soros allegedly made over a billion that day, and if sharp cookies like JP played too, they probably weren’t far behind. I very much doubt his ForEx operations went into decline afterwards, either.
When you’re worth 2 to 3 BILLION, with all the investment growth it produces, spending 10 million a year on your hobby is no more than a round of drinks.
Some of his properties cost over 100 million to build.
Don’t worry Ruby, JP can afford it.‘Jumping like a stag’ doesn’t bother me too much Illavim, but what about ‘jumping from fence to fence’? Unless they fall, don’t all chasers do that?
I wonder if racehorse rehab centres like Greatwood, Moorcroft, New Beginnings etc will be given any mention in this programme. I’d like to think so for the sake of balance, but my money’s on “not much, if any”.
Good thread all. My own preference is to keep the Derby at 12f and agree with those of you saying we’ve quite enough 10f Group 1s already. I remember calls to reduce the Ascot Gold Cup to 2 miles back in the 80s/90s. That didn’t happen and the noise went away.
On another tack, I seem to recall John Oxx saying (in Sea The Stars’ year) that he believed in the Triple Crown and that with ‘the great sires we have’, there was no reason why it couldn’t be won again in the modern age, but STS wasn’t the right horse for it. Camelot damm near proved him right 3 years later (only going down by less than a length in the Leger to an Al Zarooni “improver”).
Can’t see how Great Max qualifies for this. Isn’t the Chesham restricted to 2yos whose sire or dam won over 9.5 furlongs or more? By Wootton Bassett (never won over more than 7f) out of a mare who never won.
Ed’s initiative seems to be failing, doesn’t it? Each day so far, nowhere near the 300k entries needed to raise the jackpot to even the first boosted level. Shame – it’s a nice try to increase the TV audience.
Two possible reasons:-
a) ITV isn’t supporting the move by plugging it during non-racing airtime (possibly for fear of upsetting the anti-gambling Puritans).
b) most people are more interested in the kick-ball…
