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I must say what a pleasure it’s been to be involved with the Forum syndicate, and what fun we’ve had at John’s yard and at the races.
That’s essentially what we bought into, and to actually watch her absolutely blitz a big field was amazing – I genuinely thought she would win the minute the gates opened, but the dawning of the fact that our horse was a winner as we ran down to the winners enclosure was like a waking dream.
Leicester were marvellous and showed us a great time, and the people there were a considerably more friendly and well behaved bunch than those at Epsom (especially the lady who grabbed Kathy and said "ee, didn’t your little horse run fast?") ).
Great, great day – more please!!
DM and Mesh – are you not concerned with the woeful form of the Godolphin stable??<br>
Do you remember John Hunt’s brilliantly over-excited commentary on See More Business’ victory over Challenger du Luc in the King George in 1997?
Challenger du Luc absolutely cruised upsides the apparently toiling SMB at the last, but Hunt knowing what a rogue the Pipe animal was screamed (and I do mean screamed) prophetically …."What’s he going to do? Will he throw it away?"
He threw it away! One of the most memorable commentaries of my lifetime.
Doesn’t matter how difficult it is – Graham Goode has always called a race as he expects it to pan out, and fails to commentate on the actual action; I can never forget a well touted horse called Nash House running in the Dante (he was a half brother to Spectrum).  GG rated the horse a good thing.  He made a short lived effort to challenge over a furlong out before fading tamely to finish a well beaten fourth of seven.  Needless to say he was a disappointing animal.
To cut a long story short, GG’s commentary was shocking, ignoring the winner throughout and constantly remarking on how Nash House was poised to strike; he reached a nadir by calling "Just look at this go!!!" as he expected his fancy to go on, but the animal was already off the bridle and going nowhere at the time.
A truly overrated racecaller, and unprofessional to boot.
Meshaheer,
regarding Tempting Fate: the Channel Four pundits made it very clear that this was to be her last race before being retired to the paddocks – do you know something we don’t.
You also state that on this showing "she will be a force to be reckoned with"; she beat a 72 rated filly by five lengths at levels (ridden right out to boot) – nothing to write home about, surely?
Re: Georgia Peach
As a subscriber to Sports Adviser, it’s interesting that Georgia Peach has been listed by a pro punter as a horse to swerve – I’m inclined to agree.
Why not limit the number of good horses in Group races?
Perhaps if the Dewhurst was a nursery, it would attract bigger fields?
This has been debated before and I think if trainers are frightened of running group horses in group races because Aidan O’Brien has 2 runners, they should be taken out and shot (in a figurative sense).
I realise this wasn’t exactly Tooting’s original point, but a similar argument applies – if Dandy Nicholls is pulling his horses (he isn’t, incidentally) then let the JC catch him. If owners choose to send horses to Dandy Nicholls and trainers like him who will have multiple runners in sprint races, then that’s their choice -it’s a self regulating system.
The notion that Aidan O’Brien and J P McManus would run any horse (let alone Istabraq) which they knew to be unsound is patently ridiculous. Shame on anyone who could harbour such a thought.
Alsoran,
interesting analysis; however you seem to back your statistics up on the premise that the outcome of a race is a random event, and while recent results might suggest that is true, you might get stung if you decide to take that view with your hard earned!
Good luck in any event.
Trying desperately to get back to the original intention of this thread, what we should ask is what do we expect from racing?
Some very strange ideas have been expressed here regarding the methods employed by the top trainers in both spheres.
[*]Aidan O’Brien has been less successful with what he has been given than Martin Pipe – we might as well say that Michaelangelo wasn’t much cop compared to Da Vinci; the success both have achieved cannot be quibbled at, whatever the setting.  They can only be compared to their peers, and both emerge smelling of roses.
[*]Ballydoyle/Godolphin make racing less interesting through multiple entries – this would be plausible if they only ran one horse from the top echelon in a group one, thereby diminishing the competitive element of the race.
That both not only enter but run all the horses they deem fit to do themselves justice on the day reflects with credit on their respective organisations. Personally, when I watch a group race, I’m looking to view great horses, not the colours worn by the jockeys.  Someone claimed that O’Brien competed against himself in the (Dewhurst and) Racing Post Trophy, by saddling the first 3.  This astounds me;  would the race have been better if he had removed two horses? Absolutely not – the race was about the horses, not whether they wore royal blue, dark blue or pink.  Any trainer who is "frightened" of running a live contender in a group one race should have his licence revoked!
There was justifiable concern 10-15 years ago that small trainers in the North would be unable to win maiden races with their horses, due to the proliferation of Arab owned horses campaigned nationwide to win such uncompetitive heats.  Such a fear now seems faintly ridiculous, especially with the advent of the artificial surfaces, and the low grade handicaps which fill their cards.  That anyone should make the same claim regarding the chances of Sir Michael Stoute, Henry Cecil et al winning pattern races is laughable in the extreme.
(Edited by rory at 10:31 pm on Feb. 19, 2002)
I think if the Godolphin operation could win sponsored handicaps with horses they hadn’t just snaffled from someone else, they might engender a little more respect.
A lot of this has been covered in previous threads, but since we’re bandying opinions – why not?
If Istabraq turns up on the day, he will be easy to back, and I expect odds of 3/1 or bigger to be available.  There are a number of fearless rails layers who will take their chances, and with good reason.  Apart from his well documented arthritis, he is becoming increasingly difficult to train for temperamental reasons, and his fluency at his hurdles has been lacking for some time.
I’m not making claims about him not winning (God forbid!), but he will be opposed by the real layers.
Polite request to ZZASS or DL:
I haven’t been credited my Saturday Titanic yet!
I should be on £47.23
Thanks  ;)
