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Quote: from tooting on 11:49 am on July 30, 2002[br]<br>Take Zindabad – surely a solid, tough Group 2 horse. Not Group 1.  Looking at the form prior to Saturday’s race you felt he’d give it a right good crack, almost certainly be placed, but just fall short of the required class.  And indeed, he did run a cracker, particularly off that pace, but was found wanting for class.  <br>
You’re comments echo mine.  But I would suggest that Zindabad’s style of running is what stops him from being quite up to Gp1 class.  I’m sure that, if he was capable of running on from off the pace, he would be top class from 10f-16f.  He might even be good enough to win a Leger.  But to beat the Golans and Sakhees of this world, I just don’t believe it to be possible by dictating the pace.  A Gp1 horse has to have a finishing kick, and dictating the pace saps any finishing kick that Zindabad may have. But there again, would he be the horse he is if held up? I doubt it somehow. It’s not easy as the horse is obviously better for being allowed to front-run.
(Edited by Racing Daily at 1:02 pm on July 30, 2002)
Great performance by Golan to win first time out. I personally didn’t fancy him to win, but he ran a game race to hold off Nayef. Zindabad was today exposed as a cracking Gp 2 horse, but not quite group one class. But he ran with va-va-voom to hold on for third (holding up his Hardwicke form with Storming Home).
It was a good race, but not a vintage one. I never thought for one second that Grandera would stay the 12f on today’s lightning fast ground. He was hating the final 2f and just didn’t get home.
Nayef was the improved horse for me. Ran a blinder.
I stand corrected. I think that, had the going at Epsom been good, Hawk Wing would have won. I would lay money that if the two (HC + HW) meet on better ground, Hawk Wing would win.
Quote: from Venusian on 9:54 am on June 9, 2002[br]Racing Daily,
so…"I just hope that the Derby doesn’t produce another Teenoso.  Wins the Derby, and doesn’t win anything else after ".
You don’t think that races like the King George & QE Diamond stakes,  or the Grand Prix de St Cloud count as races then?<br>
June 1983 – Teenoso wins Derby<br>Sept 1984 – Teenoso wins King George
It’s a good job that Mr Wragg’s horses generally win more often than every 15 months. He would go out of business if not.
I was using Teenoso as a loose example of races on soft or worse being freak results and not showing the true form of the race. My racing knowledge doesn’t go all the way back to 1984, but if I remember rightly the ground was soft for his King George win, and that was the first opportunity he got to win a good race with the horse. That was my point. Did he win anything of value on good to soft or better? If my memory serves me right he didn’t (but don’t quote me on it :) )
I just hope that the Derby doesn’t produce another Teenoso. Wins the Derby, and doesn’t win anything else after. It spoils the glamour of the race if it is won by a mudlark. It’s nice to see the Derby winner go on and take some class races on good ground during the summer. But there again, I really think that the race doesn’t attract the same class of horse it used to. Benny The Dip for example. What the hell happenned to that one?
I don’t know if Mirium Francome qualifys as a commentator, but her trackside interviews make me cringe. A wife of an ex-champion jockey (who I respect as a TV pundit, I should add) who would like nothing more than to get to her hubby’s stature in the racing world. I fear she will not, and should stick to tupperware parties and socialite events at the Hilton. She gives the impression of being a person who knows diddly about racing, and is just there to further her own well being. Maybe she should team up with Nigella Lawson for a double act? :)
