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Not following the home scene with too much passion but poor prize money is a big problem obviously. The sport gets little to no media attention. Even though I felt there was a bit more ongoing in recent time with some TV coverage and a couple of articles in the papers about the bigger race meetings, thanks to the successes of Danedream, but as far as I have seen Novellist’s King George win didn’t set the German sport world alight. So the general interest in the sport remains small. Biggest problem is the low betting turnover, which is supposed to be the biggest income for German racing and its racetracks. It also has to be said that racing is usually only on weekends underway, with a couple of exceptions.
Apart of that I think the German bloodstock is strong actually. German horses winning big races all over the world or are at least competitive in them. So it can’t be all bad. But the racing scene in Germany itself is on its knees, no doubt.
Great performance by Novellist, confirming he’s a proper Group 1 horse. Great ride by good old Johnny, confirming he’s still the king in the saddle once more. Very happy from a German perspective, also from a punters perspective as I backed him to win, as I did with Danedream last year. German racing is clearly on the up, what is great to see. Just hoping that German racing at home can capitalize from this as well, as the industry there is on the ground.
Ryan Moore is probably the top professional. Barely makes a mistake. He lacks flair on the other side of the coin.
Johnny Murtagh combines it all for me. Class, professionalism, flair. Even now, when he’s also a trainer and doesn’t get any younger I think he’s simply the best.
Loves Richard Hughes. The way he rides with confidence on horses is amazing. It doesn’t pay always off, but boy if it does it’s spectacular, isn’t it? His ride on Paco Boy in the Lockinge Stakes a couple of years ago is still for me on of the best rides ever. This man has balls of steal.
Underrated in my mind, and I’m always really happy to see them on a horse that I have backed: Graham Gibbons and Franny Norton.
The coverage by ATR is a shame. The quality of the pictures is awful compared to almost every other TV channel (maybe this is only the case for me, due to a poor signal, though?), all the ads are utterly annoying, even though I understand they need the advertising to survive. But then the graphics look outdated and ugly. What surprises me, as you would think in these times it is easy enough to produce as least a show/channel that looks nice to eyes. Isn’t ATR part of Sky? Then I’m wondering why can Sky Sports News produce top notch graphics but ATR can’t?
The reviews from the race meetings are a shame as well. While RUK does show every meeting in full lengths, replays it often enough so that you have every chance to watch them after work or at least record them, with ATR it’s the case that they are often too short, sometimes they only show parts of the races, sometimes they don’t even review whole meetings at all. It’s very sad because I do like a couple of the ATR presenters, in particular Matt Chapman. I really like the Sunday forum, and I like all the Hugh Taylor things But then, if you compare ATR with RUK – and as someone who is RUK subscriber I can compare every day – it’s just a huge difference in class. I don’t like all what RUK does, and think from time to time their coverage lacks the colour and is dull, but then it’s highly professional at least, the picture quality is superb and they don’t do too many mistakes I think.
ATR can be lucky that they have Irish racing and it looks they will retain it as negotiations going well from what I heard. And I think that is a positive. It wouldn’t be good to have all the racing on one channel. It would be too much for RUK to cover everything. But then it really is important that ATR makes changes, they have to up their game…
You might be lucky or unlucky in this or that race from time to time, but overall only the long term matters and there is no luck involved in being successful or not.
Mars was sold as a world beater to the public after his Dundalk maiden win, but he didn’t confirm all the promise. Of course he has a the chance to win Group races, as he’s nicely bred as you’d expect from a Ballydoyle horse. However he looks just short of class compared to what is required in the top division this year. And if "the lads" would have really thought he is the superstar many thought he’d turn out to be then they would certainly campaigned him in a different way. It probably is simply the fact that he is not up to Group 1 class, but he might can win a poor Group race in Ireland over 1m to 10f. But certainly not a St Leger, not in my eyes at least.
Quality is better than the ATR stream… for me at least. Think the RUK stream is good value for money. I’m quite happy and have no problems with it. But I guess it depends very much on your internet connection.
He has a column in The Irish Field every week and It’s actually one of the reasons why I buy the paper. It’s always interesting to read and I really like his approach. Didn’t know his blog yet but thanks for the link.
I love the flat and can’t wait until the new season kicks off. If there wouldn’t be All-Weather racing during the winter I guess I would have to hang myself. I just can’t watch poor midweek jump racing. Well, poor AW racing isn’t that exciting too but It still helps at least to survive during the winter. However I really have to admit that I enjoy jump racing this season more than ever. I only watch the bigger meetings on the weekend but I think there was some great sport so see so far.
Replay with post race celebration etc.: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpxYVkrc_J8
Well done Buena Vista. Great win for a great horse. I’m not disappointed with the 6th place for Danedream. She run well, but box 13 was difficult. A. Starke tried to bring his filly into a better position right after the start, but was denied to do so and had so settle in rear of the field. That was not ideal as it wasn’t to go wide around the home turn. She still finished sixth what is a fine achievement. She earned around 150.000 € for that placing. Not too bad. And don’t forget that she had a long and hard year. I think this was just one race too much…
Does anyone know if ATR or RUK will show the race tomorrow morning?
I hope Danedream will run a good race… not sure if she can win. It was a long and hard season and in such a big field you need usually a bit of luck. If she finishes in the first three I would be more than happy.
Really like this new feature because I use the ATR racecards for most of my form study. I have usually a big list with horses that I follow for certain reasons and used a similar tool from another site yet but to have it now integrated in the ATR racecards is great. It simply safes time.
My blog: http://horseracing-international.blogspot.com/
My twitter: ProHorseRacingMagnificent. Absolutely magnificent. I’m still full of emotion. I had tears in my eyes yesterday and still have them today when I watch the replay. This win showed really the beauty of horse racing. It’s not all about betting and winning money but it’s about emotions and heroic performances…
Yes, my enjoyment of racing has changed. I enjoy it less because it’s not anymore that competitive as it was before. Jockeys who are not allowed to give their best and are not anymore allowed to use their own judgement if a horse needs the whip and goes forward under a whip or not, makes it less enjoyable for me.