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Proviso the danger for me, pretty happy with those 2. But Sidney’s Candy is a bit like Presious Passion, he might bolt in.
This thread will drop down soon, but SYT is on his way to Ballydoyle it seems.
What a coup, apparently Bart Cummings is not happy about it. He says SYT may be the best he’s trained, and that there should be more to come, he doesn’t turn 4 until next week.
In the Cox Plate he started his sprint from something like the 700m so he can really let down from a long way out. Great speed too… he’s Fame and Glory with a Harbinger or Workforce finish. He acts on all ground and will be incredibly hard to beat in anything, including the Arc if all goes well.
Ryan Moore or the Aussies Zac Purton and Brett Prebble for me. Fallon too.
Although I wonder how much of a difference there is between a flamboyant and hard pushing top jockey and a less-animated top jockey.I have to say that I look down upon most American jockeys. I’ll scoff at anyone who claims that Mike Smith is as good as Mick Kinane, I’m not sure why I have this view. Gomez has impressed me with his races in Dubai but other than him I don’t really hold them in high esteem; I like the Europeans like Frankie, the Frenchies (there wouldn’t be much separating Mosse, Soumillon and Lemaire), Moore and Murtagh.
Maybe I think this way because of the plaudits thrown Calvin Borel’s way, but maybe that’s just the American media. He’s had some shocking rides, including Mine That Bird in the Belmont, Super Saver in the Derby (unnecessarily flogged him with the race wrapped up… the crack down the shoulder really makes me wince), Rachel in the Woodward… sticking to the rail is hardly exactly a new and exciting idea.
I did have a huge amount of respect for older American riders like Gary Stevens (pulled off some magnificent rides in HK) but less so the current generation.
I find Mordin incredibly useful at times. His times analyses are a great resource, and he illuminates simple factors that are all so important. Simple fact; if Canford Cliffs didn’t hang in the Greenham he would have beat Dick Turpin comfortably, and nobody would be saying he couldn’t stay a mile…
It was made on the Australian Sky network which makes it a bit more understandable… but not by much. And there is an accent on his name.
The owner, Dato Tan Chin Nam, said: "I would say there is a good chance he could be retired now."
Disappointing. This is a superstar who might be good enough to clean up in the biggest races in the world… that’s one thing about the Australians and Bart Cummings. They don’t often like to travel and live a bit in their own little world down there. SYT has been described as perhaps the most brilliant horse Australia has produced in the last 40 or so years, and it’s a real shame that we might not see him run again.This reminds me of an interview with former champion jockey Shane Dye.
"We are very focused on us. Our horses are the best, our jockeys the best. I’ve got something to tell everyone: our jockeys are not the best nor are our horses. It’s a great place to live and to ride and we do have great jockeys and horses. But not as good as Australians think.
Coincidentally… "A bloke like Gerald Mosse would be better than any jockey in Australia. Christophe Soumillon is another better than anyone here. Mosse is an absolute genius. Just goes out there and rides the horse. He doesn’t make mistakes in big races."On reading tipsters, you’re right. You just have to find out if what is being said makes sense to you or not. Mordin substantiates some points, and doesn’t do so for others. Also, I’d think he would’ve have been singing a different tune after the swift burst of speed Americain showed in the Geelong.
Behkabad for me whether or not Workforce runs. Even though he didn’t get a run until the furlong mark in the Arc he didn’t do what I expected of him, I think he might have bounced from his Prix Niel effort. I think he handles all ground but he’s never run on a firm track so impossible to know.
http://www.racingpost.com/news/horse-ra … ms/714698/
He won well over 9f on Good ground in his lead-up to their Derby. "He was very relaxed in front and certainly the better ground helped" but it should be noted that the prior race was run on very Heavy ground. It’s a worry that he looked so one-paced in the Arc but I’m banking on that it was because he wasn’t at his best rather than the going.I got the impression from the prices that the Aussie racing folk had been impressed by Americain’s run in the Caulfield. I’ve just read the RP write-up, and I’ve nver read of a horse finding so much trouble, still less getting out of it to win. I must look if its up on YouTube yet.
The Geelong Cup, and honestly he didn’t endure a horror run. He got a very cushy run in transit, and the only thing was that he had to wait until around the furlong or a bit before to get a gap, and he showed a nice turn of foot to win it comfortably.
Mosse won his Arc around 20 years ago… apparently some commentator on Sky was harping about how he wasn’t "experienced" enough with big fields to win a Cup. Hilarious… he’s won 2 Japan Cups, a Dubai Duty Free, a St. James Palace Stakes, every G1 in Hong Kong (yes, every single one including domestic G1s, some of them several times of course), 2 French Derbies, 5 French Oaks, 3 French 2000 Guineas, a French 1000 Guineas, an Arc… most of the French races really. Throw in a Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.
Fantastic win by perhaps my favorite active jock. He’s always been the best jockey in Hong Kong when he tries (notably, he shook his head when describing the lower classed horses he had to ride there as "goats"). But class jock and what a horse.
Mr Medici hit the lead for a short moment right after straightening but didn’t get the distance. Back to 12f for him, unless there’s a nice 15f or something race for him somewhere.
Bullish from Bart. He said something along the lines of "we bought him for it (the Cup), trained him for it, and he’s bred for it".
What an amazing story if Shoot Out wins… he’s been running like the distance would suit. His last run wasn’t dissimilar to Shocking’s. I’ll be rooting for him and Mr Medici, with some money on Illustrious Blue.
I think Illustrious Blue offers value at 69/1 on Betfair, considering he has a nice draw, will love the strong gallop, and has a nice turn of foot!!
I dont think the ground will be a worry, because when they say its soft in Australia its near enough what we would call good-soft(good in places)!!
With the ground what it is he might be massive overs. Reading form literally he has Manighar and through that horse a few others covered.
The horse has his own blog and twitter too. Very bullish in them of course!
http://illustriousblue.blogspot.com
http://twitter.com/illustriousblueThe only reason Mr Medici’s trainer might prefer better ground is the distance query since there aren’t races further than 2400m in HK. The horse is an absolute swimmer (though he handles firm tracks quite well) and if this were 12f connections would be praying for a soaked track. He runs like he wants further than 12f but still a risk for obvious reasons.
He’s a real fighter who doesn’t have a great burst of speed (a bit like Spanish Moon) so he’ll need it all to go his way to win. He doesn’t like being between horses but from the draw and with Australia’s top jock aboard he shouldn’t be. He will run handy and they will happily take the lead if nobody wants to. No matter what happens he will be fighting hard. In HK he’s well known for his frequent placings against top milers despite his staying credentials.
On form Illustrious Blue might be up there with the likes of Manighar but the ground is a worry. I’d take So You Think on at the price (for the win). He is jaw-droppingly good at 10f but we’ll see…
She has never had the hardest schedule, even for an American horse. In the USA there are G1s everywhere and rarely more than one or two G1 winning horses in most of them. Sometimes she doesn’t beat any G1 winners in her races.
The Ladies’ Classic and the two Classics (after this year’s BC) are her top class races. Yes, she’s won her other 17 races but this is a fact. Goldikova takes on tougher opposition every year. You know how we’ve dissected the form of Goldikova, Sea The Stars, and Miesque by looking at the G1 winners they’ve beaten in their races and the G1s those horses have won since? There aren’t many races you can do that to with Zenyatta. I can go on. In most races Zenyatta is long odds-on with one "sort of" live danger (think Goldikova vs. Music Show this year), she’ll have raced against the boys twice, look at Secretariat’s career, etc.
Being unbeaten is just one part of the equation so you can’t call her one of the great horses off that alone; you need to face good competition too. I don’t see anyone calling Peppers’ Pride one of the best of all time.
I think she’s a great horse who will win the Classic again, but I’m just being objective here.
Great that even 60 minutes is jumping on the bandwagon. Can’t have the "greatest racehorse ever" talk though, for obvious reasons. You can argue that she’s only run 3 absolute top class races (including this year’s Classic) in her life…
She’s a great horse and I think she’ll win with the long straight. But Twice Over is no superstar with a great change of gears as we well know, he has good tactical speed and a solid kick but that’s it. Rip Van Winkle took a stack of ground off him in 200m in the slowly run International.
The thing is Lookin At Lucky showed in his runs after his unimpressive Preakness victory that he has a fantastic change of gears that he can produce on the turn and sustain to the wire. I have no doubt that if he gets a decent run Lookin At Lucky is a bigger threat than Twice Over was last year.
But again the long straight convinces me that Zenyatta will be winning. The only dangers are LaL, and a horse like Quality Road is very dangerous if he produces a career best (over the distance) since he’ll be out in front. I doubt another backmarker can beat Z to the wire?
In 2004, Cape Of Good Hope was runner-up in 3 Group 1s – the Hong Kong sprint, the Chairman’s Sprint Prize and the Centenary Sprint – on each occasion to Silent Witness.
This is true but perhaps it should be noted that of those 3 only the HK Sprint was an International G1.
Viva Pataca ran 2nd to Ramonti in the 2007 HK Cup (beaten by a smart Dettori ride in December), 2nd to Sun Classique in the 2008 Sheema Classic (beaten by the horror draw in March), and 2nd in the HK G1 Champions & Chater Cup by Packing Winner in May near the end of that HK season.
Great horse. His problem this year was the ground he faced, as I’ve said before. If the QE2 was run on Good ground instead of Good to Soft, he would have romped home. Last year he was fortunate enough to not strike any rain-affected tracks; this year those tracks killed his chances in the Irish Champion (don’t know if he could have won though…) and hurt him in the QE2.
On the Irish Champion, I think the fact that he barely made any ground on Twice Over in that race, while he was storming past him in the Juddmonte International would show that he didn’t run to form.
Great horse, and one who is easy to root for. He definitely has great acceleration, but what cost him was that it took him an age to get going when held up.
