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Richard 88 “The implication is that it primarily happens amongst Muslims although quite why anyone in Reform thinks that Muslim women would vote for them if their husbands didn’t force them to vote for someone else is beyond me.”
Yes, I am sure those Muslim families were really desperate to vote for the racist who threatens to deport millions of immigrants and were forced to vote for a party whose leader is the openly Jewish, indeed changing his name from Paulden to Polanski to acknowledge his family origins.
Reform will invent any kind of sinister untruth that suits their purposes and no doubt their hardcore followers will believe it, just as the MAGA halfwits do in the USA.
Meanwhile BBC is doing its best to undermine the Green Party spokespeople with Nick Robinson constantly interrupting while nodding deferentially to Reform’s.
Is it the pride of an old man which will bring about the end of a great champion? For a year, Constitution Hill has been telling Nicky Henderson the same thing, but he will not listen. He seems incapable of accepting that a great champion serial winner at the highest level can unexpectedly develop a catastrophic fault. His response to something which is beyond his experience is denial. Any objective viewing of Constitution Hill’s three falls reveals a horse which has lost its confidence altogether. In the last race at Newcastle, he only managed one hurdle and fell at the second.
After the first fall at Cheltenham last year it was not unreasonable to believe that that was a one-off an event that can happen out of the blue for an unknown cause. But the second fall at Aintree was confirmation that something was seriously amiss. That third and last fall was a flashing red light.
“no other champ has had as many falls over hurdles in their entire career as he has had this year.” That was Chris Cook trying to explain it all in the Racing Post last December.
https://www.racingpost.com/news/the-front-runner/how-the-mighty-have-fallen-has-any-champion-lost-their-love-for-jumping-quite-like-constitution-hill-agRny4F7gOGo/
In that article he did go on to cite Istabraq’s two falls at the end of his career, at about the same age as Constitution Hill.Great actors can suffer from stage fright, which means they cannot perform. There is no explanation and for most it passes away after a time. For some, it is career ending. When it happened to Laurence Olivier, he went to the front of the stage and said, “I’m sorry ladies and gentlemen, I have been taken ill”. There is a long list of well known actors and performers, Hugh Grant, Alison Steadman, Stephen Fry, Barbra Streisand, Ian Holm, Lenny Henry, Juliet Stevenson, Tim Roth, etc.
Horses are sentient beings and we do not really know how they perceive themselves or the world. A trainer told me that when a horse has a bleed, it frightens it and it does not forget it. He said that those horses are never the same afterwards. Many comments here refer to the white topped, padded hurdles as a factor. That may be true and may be related to something that Constitution Hill once experienced, its perception, vision, judgement, any one of many unknown factors.
Constitution Hill has, for whatever unknown reason, then, developed a disastrous mindset about jumping hurdles. However many it jumps at Seven Barrows in training makes no difference. Unless Nicky Henderson can discover, incontrovertibly, what is causing Constitution Hill to make these elementary mistakes at hurdles in races, he would be wrong and foolhardy and more, to put the horse through what must be a nightmare for it again. There is a terrible risk that it could end in a tragedy that is not worth taking.
The horse is telling Henderson the same thing each time. He must listen and accept that there are some things about horses that have no explanation and which even he, the master of seven barrows, cannot remedy. He should be wise enough to know that.
Constitution Hill has surely given enough to its owner, Henderson and indeed to all of us who revere it.
Great selection there with Holly Bird! Those races where the selection goes well clear in the last furlong are special. Sandy Thomson had prepared it well.
I wonder if the faith in Willy Mullins’s enthusiastic judgement led backers to overlook the obvious risks, risks that the going increased. Then there was (I think) Pricewise picking out Captain Cody. Last year, the winner, Nick Rockett, was similarly heavily supported generally, but the grounds for that support were far more firmly based in terms of form, ratings and speed.
Am I wrong in thinking that the multiple attempts to get a (fair) start (six or seven?) were more than likely to produce a random result. Townend arrived towards the end of the first grouping, presumably to try to find a good start, but it became anything but straightforward. I did not see what led to him being unseated. I guess that it was out of his hands.
Given the going, there were so many horses which had a real chance and I think that the betting overall did reflect that, with a significant number of runners in a relatively narrow band. The winner was well within that band.
A very close call, Joe, very bad luck. I think if Catch Catchfire had not faltered at the last two fences, he would have won. Tom
Inspired selection there, on Imperial Saint. When I saw your post the price had long gone and it was 10s on Saturday morning. However, I see in the Racing Post that they are attributing the “huge gamble” to Pricewise, though admitting no-one is sure where it came from. Mean of them not to give you credit there! What was it that caught your attention, or was it just that the combination of form, trainer, race selection, going, etc, etc, which gave you some intuition? I did not back it, but I fell into the Royal Pagaille groove, convinced that Venetia’s form must turn soon…Puts me in mind of Steeplechasing’s post about the somewhat mysterious ups and downs of stables which can be caused by viruses or after effects of vaccinations, but sometimes the known factors are absent and there is an unknown factor putting the hex on the horses. I think Steeplechasing was looking at the need for research into contaminated hay.
Well done again! I wondered what had happened when the price fell through the floor, I was certain it was going to be withdrawn. I actually didn’t realize it had been placed until I saw the payout on Skybet. Your instinct was correct. Made up for yesterday, maybe, when the withdrawal stymied your Ike Sport.
That was a tough outcome! That arrow that you sent off last January scored effectively an outer gold, half a length behind the leading three sharing noses. That’s no consolation, but immense kudos, nonetheless.
Had Willy Mullins put just one of either Gaelic Warrior or Fact to File in the John Durkan, then today’s race might have seen a different outcome. Looking back, they had no reason to be beating the living kapok out of each other. The nearest to either was 30 lengths behind. None of the other horses had races as demanding prior to today. Will that be a lesson for the future, I wonder? It was a great and unforgettable spectacle at Punchestown, but which is the greater prize?
I think you are underselling yourself here, Joe! As I have known you as a spotter “value” horses over a longish period, I must remind you that you picked Tornado Flyer in 2021. No odds at all, indeed! (28/1) That made up for the others over a period of time? In my short and uneducated following of NH, I have been struck by the number of times that the unexpected has confounded form. Good luck over the break and I for one shall certainly be looking at your well informed thinking. Tom
Leave of Absence came up as a notebook horse and I backed it last night. I think Rex Dingle is a quietly effective and thus, sometimes underrated, jockey. But as you say, is this the right race for LoA?. Agree about Doddiethegreat and El Jefe, too. Let’s hope the latter gets us off to a good start for the races over the break.
Joe, that is a really substantial contribution with a host of facts, observations and arguments. There was an article about the Kempton closure plan in 2017, which focussed on Thierry Doumen’s dismay and the setting up of a battle by green belt protestors to stop the planning pernmission.
Doumen’s contribution strongly supports your arguments and Lydia Hislop’s about the suitability of the ground in the winter.
Jim Mullen’s approach, having come from the publishing industry and Ladbrokes, through whose eyes he probably sees UK horseracing, is, as you say, entirely lacking in imagination. He is just reaching for the first and most obvious means of raking in a capital sum. All the entirely valid and indeed, straightforward means of raising funds to develop the sport in the UK which you outline have probably never been considered. It must be asked what the credentials are of his financial advisers? Do their interests encompass the well being of the sport which could see it developed across the whole spectrum of tracks with the application of imagination and the sort of funding streams which you mention.
You have commented many times on the paucity of the leadership of UK horseracing given the nature of the tripartite organisational structure. The Jockey Club has a real opportunity to launch a real programme of re-vitalisation of the kind that you outline, but which is about to fall at the first hurdle. It is indeed depressing.
Lavida Avida was an inspired selection, there, Bobby. Pulled away from the challengers pretty smoothly.
Well done, Moehat. (See my response to Archipenko below). You are right. You did exceptionally well to take on the bully at your workplace. In general, these people know that they can get away with their appalling behaviour. I remember a case in my employment where a line manager followed a member of staff into the women’s toilet, where this person had sought refuge. They were brought close to breakdown by the interminable harrassment.
On Bryony Frost, she was the victim of wrong and unacceptable practices. I think the reports at the time are well worth reading again.
Louis Weston successful in BHA disciplinary case against Robbie Dunne. Reasons now published.
It took immense courage for Bryony Frost to take on the covert establishment. I think it is likely that she knew the consequences for her future career would be harmed, which only makes her determination all the more laudable.
It is very good to hear that she has found a better environment in French racing and is thriving.
