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Never before has a flat horse been taken to heart by the racing public with such fondness, than in the case of Persian Punch. Truly there will never be another one like him.
He would never have been one of my absolute "all-time favourites", but we all liked him. His Goodwood Cup win last season has been played over and over again by me since the day it happened. More so now.
Goodbye Punchie, you were truly remarkable.
Aintree is a flagship meeting, but I can’t help but feel that it isn’t always looked upon as one.
The quality of the racing is tremendous, some of the most valuable races of the season are contested at this meeting, many of them with graded status and four with Grade 1 status.<br>The mildmay course rides very quickly. The 2 mile chasers tend to scorch grass when they go round there, it’s wonderfully exciting and it provides a stern but fair test of a horses jumping ability.<br>Three races are run over the Grand National Fences across the meeting, culminating in what I cosider to be the most exhiliarating event on the racing calendar, the Grand National.<br>The 2m 4f Championships are held at Aintree each season, the Melling Chase has been won by Champions such as Viking Flagship and Martha’s Son, and the Aintree Hurdle by Istabraq, and probably the best 2m 4f hurdler in Britain for a very long time, Morley Street.<br>There are four valuable novice hurdles, all graded, one with Grade 1 status and over various distances. Not to mention two classy novice chases, and a valuable novice handicap.
The fact that there are only 2 weeks between Cheltenham and Aintree this season is not a positive thing and I hope the three week gap can be restored as soon as possible. <br>I also concede that the meeting can be hazardous from a betting point of view, with lots of horses having run at Cheltenham and it can be hard to gauge just how much the festival exertions could have taken out of them.
However, this meeting is still the second biggest of it’s kind in Britain and I for one look forward to it enormously.<br>
A great idea for a poll jairducochetfan.
It does seem in your list of options that the flat does outweight the jumps quite heavily though. What about Sandown’s Tingle Creek or Whitbread Meeting, Kempton’s King George Meeting or Cheltenham’s Open Meeting? <br>The Cheltenham festival is an incredible meeting, wonderfully exciting. However, no race on the entire racing calendar gets close to exciting me as much as the Grand National and the supporting races are of a high standard too, so just to be a little different, I will vote for the Aintree Meeting.
He could have won this years’ Gold Cup.<br>Racing has lost a horse who was in the process of establishing himself as a real star. It is terrible that he never got to truly prove his critics wrong. I cannot imagine how all those concerned with the horse are feeling.
What a sickening blow before Cheltenham.
I don’t agree with the idea of adding Group races to the all-weather programmes at this time of year. I too am not the biggest all-weather fan, but I would like to see a few more 0-100 handicaps added to the non-regional cards now and again.<br>The reason why I am against the addition of Group races, particularly at this time of year, is that they could easily turn out to be soft affairs and unworthy of their status, due to the fact that the majority of Group race performers are on a well-earned break after last seasons efforts.<br>As for regional racing, I think it is a good idea as it gives the low-grade horses, and their owners, the chance to win a race. It is not the sort of racing I would put my money on though.<br>
(Edited by Suedehead at 10:50 pm on Jan. 4, 2004)
My top three horses:
1) Strong Promise – One of the most natural jumpers there has ever been, and without doubt one of the best steeplechasers not to win a Gold Cup. He was placed twice (1998, 2000) and also won a Grade 1 chase at Ascot (beating One Man). Tragically, just when it seemed he was back to his best, he was killed in the Martell Cup at Aintree.
2) Pridwell – A really classy hurdler, even if he did have his own ideas about the game. I remember the 1997/98 season when he picked up the West Yorkshire Hurdle, Elite Hurdle and Ascot Hurdle in quick succession, all with the greatest possible ease. At the end of that season, he conquered the mighty Istabraq in the Aintree hurdle, under a vintage McCoy ride. Some may say he wasn’t quite top class, but how many hurdlers managed to beat Istabraq?
3) Cyborgo – A champion staying hurdler, who also won two top novice races at Aintree, one over hurdles and the other over fences. Its a shame his form declined the way it eventually did.
Other favourites that just missed out on the three include:
Lord Sam<br>Bishops Yarn<br>Self Defense<br>Baracouda<br>Southampton<br>Calapaez<br>Morley Street<br>
(Edited by Suedehead at 9:05 pm on Jan. 6, 2004)
