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It’s a 7/10 from me. Fairly enjoyable but not what it was, but (I suspect like most of you) I’ve been feeling that way about it for a while so it’s not fully about the most recent changes.
I do agree with what Peter is saying about finding a way to bring the reserve system back. The field is already reduced by six runners, surely there is space to accommodate reserves if they want to take the chance of a place opening up at the last minute. However, the cynical part of me suspects it was altered as a back door method of reducing the field size further and therefore they won’t be interested in this. I would love to be proved wrong but they didn’t even try to make it work.
Believe that Corach Rambler is back safe and Mac Tottie possibly dehydrated, rather than injured. Good news if so.
Don’t think I get any money off that but what a run from Kitty’s Light, if he hadn’t got in it would have been a travesty, and how well was the winner going at the end.
I didn’t mind that actually. They made a reasonable line and it can so quickly turn into a complete shambles if the starter wants to be pedantic.
Zaaki has recently been retired.
https://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/275911/multiple-group-1-winner-zaaki-retired
I guess it counts as a retirement, Cloudbreaker is being sold as a horse out of training due to an unspecified injury. I know VTC always thought she had a nice race in her, so it’s a shame she won’t have a chance to build on that next year, but at least she seems to have recovered well enough to move onto a second career in the paddocks.
The article at https://www.racingpost.com/bloodstock/sales-reports/havana-grey-breeding-right-headlines-tattersalls-online-december-sale-catalogue-atkWN5L5I4I3/ doesn’t mention the injury but it’s in the vendor notes on her sale page (lot 59).
“Stakes placed See The Stars mare. Non racing prospect due to injury. Good for breeding.”
Oh. Oh.
I see one of the horses that was blocked from running at Ludlow has already been transferred to Paul Nicholls. Presumably, the owners just want to be able to run it before January, but with such serious allegations, who knows if he will even get his licence back then.
Half the problems with the start are that it goes off right in front of the stands, not exactly the kind of atmosphere that’s conducive to a calm jog forwards (or standing still for that matter, so good luck to them with that).
If we’re moving the start, why not do it properly. Either put it up where the first fence is (so race is shorter and second jump becomes the first) or go the other extreme and move it far enough backwards to get the horses into a rhythm before they come past the crowds (increasing overall race distance). Both will get an outcry but just pick a direction and do it rather than cutting off a few yards at a time.
I have mixed feelings about the changes.
On one hand it was almost inevitable that they would feel the need to “do something”.
On the other, I am not convinced that this will be the last time they decide to tinker. Although reducing the field size should give more space to jump cleanly from the start, we’ve all sadly witnessed horses sustaining fatal injuries in races with less than 34 runners. So where does it end.
“So with such a person it can’t be any surprise a retirement announced at a time he was low has been somewhat changed after the year he’s had.”
That’s a fair enough point and might well be what has driven his change of heart. I just think, if his US tour doesn’t go so well, he might regret not sticking to the original plan. Always better to go out on a high imo.
Hopefully these images work.
Two of Indigo Five posing as Ano Manna:
Two of the real Ano Manna:
I can see how someone who knew both fillies well would instantly spot it was the wrong one standing in the stable, and also how someone going off just a description could mix them up.
Interesting! I can see why they would have wanted her and I’m sure she’ll be treated like royalty.
I’m also glad to see that Tony Mullins got to say goodbye to her before she left.
https://twitter.com/tonymullins84/status/1705590722286477703
“Now, according to a well known saying … ‘things happen in threes’. Therefore, since there are currently no AOB horses with an ‘All in one’ name in next year’s 2000 Guineas, it appears that a third group of three will be completed in 2024 by City of Troy.”
Better keep an eye out for Emperor of Rome, House of Aviz, Master of the Hunt, and the currently unraced Admiralofthewhite (who cunningly ticks both boxes) making unnatural improvement to muddy the picture.
Back on the subject of coincidences I remember the media making a fuss over a horse named Punxsutawney Phil who was entered up for a race on Groundhog Day and duly won. Sadly it seems he was unable to repeat the trick a year on.
