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Marble
He didn’t need to do anything at the previous stage as it was a forfeit – if he didn’t actively take the horse out, it stayed in.
Yesterday was a declaration stage, so he had to keep it in if he wanted it to run.
I believe he is also crown prince of Dubai these days – ie. the one who will take over one day.
"bin Mohammed" means "son of Mohammed". In the same way, Sheikh Mohammed himself, a son of the previous ruler Sheikh Rashid, is Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum.
Anyway I’m off to the Bubble Lounge for a sharpener – it’s a tough life out here….
That’s just disgraceful.
How can you go to the Bubble Lounge when the Cantina Bar in the Village is selling the coldest margaritas in town?
If you’re into American racing, this blog is worth a look.
Highflyer
I’ve just consulted Tim Fitzgeorge-Parker’s meticulous history of the Festival. According to him, the 1964 meeting started on Thursday and finished on Saturday, and given the depth of research elsewhere in the book, I’m not about to argue. .
Found this from the same poster, not sure it’s been flagged up on here before. Couldn’t have finished any faster if it had been strapped to a cruise missile. Fun to hear the commentator going bonkers in Japanese too.
But how do you prove it, even on the balance of probability?
In Ahern’s case, they have a great big mark on the horse’s backside as evidence.
I believe the French are more generous than the British when it comes to the B sample testing, because they are keen to give the person concerned every opportunity to be present, or have a legal representative present, when it is tested. For the most of the last three months, Fallon has been able to argue (fairly persuasively) that he needs to be in London, as do all the legal types he might want to witness the testing in his place.
He can’t string this part of the process out forever though. The next steps (hearing, appeal, possible attempt to stop the Irish applying the ruling) could be another matter.
Hi Sean, welcome to the Forum
I think it’s to do with the French regulations when a first test is positive. Apparently, they try to give the person concerned every chance to be present, or to have a representative present, when the second sample is tested. For the last few months, Fallon has been able to argue (fairly convincingly) that he needed to be in London every day, as did all the legal types he might trust to go to the second test on his behalf.
Can’t argue that now, though, and they do have a cut-off point in the rules. Not sure exactly when it is, but it must be approaching rapidly, if not passed already. The result should therefore be known pretty soon.
Think it was John Upson who trained Nick The Brief.
Manhattan Boy used to put several hundred on the gate at Plumpton whenever he ran there.
The track is stunning. I was there as a child on holiday at about age 7 – in fact, it was my first time at the races, which must be rarity for someone born and raised in the UK, and it made such an impression that I can still remember the horses my dad backed for me – Moolah’s Memory, which was unplaced, and King’s Flier, which placed at big odds and won me enough to buy a new fishing reel. If there’s a database of US racing that goes back to the 70s, I could probably pinpoint the exact day.
Was back for the Breeders’ Cup last time it was there and the track and setting didn’t disappoint. Have to say I took against LA with a vengeance though. It’s a typical US sprawl of a place, very little centre with any character, unlike, say, New York, Chicago or San Francisco. The smoke from the bush fires mixed with the normal smog to produce a permanent fug that you couldn’t quite escape or forget about – you could, quite literally, taste the air, and it did not taste good. Bush fires don’t happen every year, but the smog is permanent (I can remember seeing it from a hilltop as a child, hanging over the whole city) and getting worse.
Will be back again next year though if fate spares me, just hope the bush fires don’t return too.
No, though there should really be a way of protecting names of horses like that too, because people become very fond of them whether they are winning sellers or something better.
Perhaps any horse that wins at the same track a certain number of times should get its name "retired".
I remember in Manhattan Boy’s Plumpton heyday, the clerk of the course reckoned that it put 500 on the gate every time he raced.
I was always in awe of Steve Cauthen, and then Kieran Fallon, but I seriously think that Ryan Moore has every chance of being talked about in the same breath as these two great jockey – and if I remember correctly both Cauthen and Fallon didn’t have the best of relationships with the media either
Cauthen could be a bit moody because of his weight problems but overall he was an impeccable ambassador for the riding profession: smart, articulate and generally happy to provide a worthwhile quote. For that matter, Fallon is also a very good talker when he wants to be, and had been trying a good deal harder prior to his ban.
Moore, for all his many qualities as a rider, just seems to find it impossible to offer more than the most banal of observations after winning a race. The Rules of Racing do not insist on good post-race PR, of course, but it just seems a pity as he is from a family of smart, forthright and very entertaining characters, his much-missed grandfather Charlie not the least among them.
