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The governemnt bans it under pressure from the electorate that has been riled by those dedicated to ending animal participation in human entertainment. There are a few surveys out there showing the much increased awareness among the young generation of and sympathy to the fate of animals in general.
A fifty year trip back in a time machine would see your question asked in pretty much the same words in the smokey, elite rooms favoured by the hunting fraternity.
Very interesting that they deleted it after I had messaged D Johnson with a question. Too wary of upsetting jocks.
BTW, I discovered today that Timeform now have Jumpability Ratings for horses and jockeys. You’ll see some of them mentioned in this piece. Timeform’s David Johnson tells me they are not available to the public and he has no current timeline as to when they will be.
Aha, I just double checked that page and they have removed the Jockey ratings: from memory they had Bryony in 3rd, Ruby in 5th and Bryony’s old adversary Robbie Dunne in the 100s (I think it was 127). Should have saved an offline copy. The Jumpability reference remains for I Am Maximus.
Apologies, I should have made clearer that it is all that matters in practice, in the cold light when emotions are removed from it. Of course it matters to individuals, personally, who’ve been in the sport for years like we have. I’d much rather that all they had done was reduce the drop at Becher’s and remove the timber cores. But that opinion matters not one jot to the race, the sport, and its future. Threads like this are important for grieving, if you like, but nothing we can say or do will put the race back as it was.
The sport will be banned one day. I won’t live long enough to see it, but it’ll happen, perhaps by 2050. It’ll certainly be long gone by the end of the century, perhaps even flat racing too. The length of time we have before that will be down to public opinion and the way that is manipulated.
Whatever we old purists think doesn’t really matter. Anybody here going to stop betting or watching racing because of Saturday?
The 90% or whatever it is who’s only racing interest is the National, how would they have come away from it on Saturday, happier than before? That’s all that matters.
I think there is one more alteration they must make; If Glengouly hadn’t found a leg when leading over the Canal Turn there would have been an almighty pile up. They need to rail the landing side to remove the cut-across advantage. As it is, it’s just a matter of time until a major incident there.
Ginger, I had and have no opinion either way abut Maxwell, but I did suspect under the barrage of negativity on social media – close to hateful at times – people were targeting and laughing mainly at his riding style, and focussing on times he ‘fell off’.
I then went to look specifically for stats because, assuming the algorithms are properly programmed, stats do not lie. Those charts were what I found. You make strong points about the price of his mounts, and maybe Timeform would do well to add an A/E measurement, which, I think, would produce more accuracy. At the moment they do not have that. It might be available by way of a query on Horseracebase; I’ll see what I can find.
Even allowing for a lower performance under A/E, isn’t he entitled to a compensatory allowance given the age, race fitness, and experience of those he is being directly compared with? And not least the fact that most are pros, people making a living in a very hard business.
Charts tell a better story and remove any opinion-based angle. I’m sure someone will instruct me how to post a screenshot.
I don’t know how to paste screenshots here. If you can instruct me I’ll post some charts. Ta.
He’s being humble, which is his nature. I think many are writing him off purely on his style, which has nothing to do with skill. Whatever your eyes tell you, the facts could not be clearer. To continue dipsuting them is like arguing black is white.
Corach Rambler race report from Timeform
met with a fate that had befallen Gay Trip, Aldaniti and Hallo Dandy by exiting following an awkward landing at the first in his repeat bid, falling whilst loose at the next for good measure.
Well, that’s a personal opinion. The facts say different. The 100% objective stats say he is well above average.
Had the same debate on twitter with, of all things, a lawyer, who despite the facts and charts I sent her, thought that she was right, and apparently still does. It’s Like Trump’s alternative facts with some people.
DM’s strike rate is miles ahead of Derek O’Connor’s. And it’s 3 percentage points ahead of Sean Bowen and only about 1 point behind Cobden. Timeform’s statistical jockey dashboard – no human input – has him well above the average jockey.
I doubt we’ve seen the best of I Am Maximus by any means. Wins an Irish Grand National as a novice, comfortably wins a G1 over 20f on his seasonal debut, then ends the season by galloping clear like a fresh horse in the Grand National. After the race Mullins said: ‘He’s quirky, he’s immature, but he’s learning all the time’
I’m more tha happy to take the 20s for the Gold Cup in ’25.
And very well done to D Maxwell in 6th – a much better jockey than he gets credit for.
Ahoy Senor’s handlers believed they had found the key to him – keep him on his left lead at take-off. They studied all the videos and worked out that his mistakes came when taking off on his right lead. My understanding of a rider getting a horse to change leads while riding short and at racing pace is non existent. Perhaps Miss Woodford or others can comment?
One of the dangers of working on a perceived flaw relentlessly is confusing the mind and diverting concentration on other matters – Ask Bryson De Chambeau. Such a shame for the big horse. He has so much talent. Scu says his next target is the Coral Gold Cup. I think that’s a huge mistake. The horse has trouble enough concentrating in small fields, and for all his normal front-running style, he will not be left alone in what looks at the moment to be a hot race. In my book he’d be fav to pull up.
Cobden can be deceptive in the way Carberry used to be. Often when he is sitting still in the late stages it’s because he knows there’s very little left underneath, and that’s what happened yesterday with Bravemansgame. He’ll come on a fair bit for that, but even if he wins the King George we ought to be mourning the quality of our staying chasers when our best horse, even first time out, is beaten by a virtual novice built like a police horse.
Having said that, Gentlemansgame is on the fast track to the top and how he is twice the price for the Gold Cup as his victim yesterday only God knows. The grey will be at much more of an advantage, even at levels, with that hill to face, while Bravemansgame will gulp and swallow hard when he turns into the straight. 25s is a daft price and you ought to take it.
