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Can someone explain to me how weighing horses works? When are they weighed and where? Is it a day or two prior so that it can be printed on the race card, or the day of the race and announced at the course?
Easy to do in Hong Kong, as all the horses are in one place. And maybe someone could explain, giving particular examples, how an informed decision on a horse’s form can be deducted from it’s weight. I believe the Hong Kong jockey club makes this info available on their website http://www.hkjc.com, so it should be easy enough to pick a particular animal and demonstrate the methodology/thinking involved.
As it stands, racing in the UK is too expensive to be considered a form of weekend family entertainment. People would rather go to a movie or football game. Tracks that have offered free admission have almost always increased their revenue, because more people=more people buying food/souvenirs/programs=more people betting.
You have it backwards. Racing in UK and Ireland is much better attended than racing in the US where admission is either free or just a couple of bucks. Outside of the boutique meets, the only people you see trackside at most US tracks are middle aged "capper" dudes who bitch about the price of a hot dog. People don’t go because it’s seen it’s seen as cheap, and therefore worthless, entertainment (of course it doesn’t help that most US tracks have all the charm of an industrial estate, and little variation in the races offered).
You get a much more varied client el on the other side of the pond, and more families too.Fortina.
Won the Gold Cup himself, then went on to sire multiple Gold Cup winners, Irish National winners, and an American champion.Saying that european horses can’t be considered great because they didn’t run 20 times makes about as much sense as saying American horses can’t be great because they never won going right handed or won on an up hill finish.
The cultural and historical dynamics of each code of racing means greatness is measured differently in different places. The likes of Kelso or Forego could never have been great in Europe, at least not on the flat below 2m, as they would have been ineligible to run for some of the biggest prizes.Thanks, The Vintner.
Hors La Loi is the only III I can think of offhand, and his dam was a III as well.
I’ll see if I can find a comprehensive explanation on the Internet, but I’m not hopeful.
Interestingly Hors la Loi’s full siblings, Loup and Ouest have no numerals after their names, so I wonder if the "III" was just part of his name. He was not a full TB, being a French bred AQPS. He also raced with the III in France, so it’s not something that was added when he crossed the channel.
VI means the horse is not in the General Stud Book, and is technically not a full TB. These horses go into the Weatherbys NTR (Non-TB-Register). Used to be very common in Ireland, though many on those horses were in fact 100% TB, just they had a dam, grand dam, or great grand dam that someone never got around to registering.
VII is more or less the same thing, but is for horses that didn’t race and are just breeding stock.
IV not sure what that one means.
II is an American thing I believe, it is used to distinguish imported horses that have the same name as an American bred horse. I think it is only used with stallions though, and in fact may not be used anymore. There was a race at Fairplex in California a couple of years ago with two horses with the same name, one US bred and one Irish bred. Don’t remember seeing a II after the name of the Irish bred one. I think it’s unnecessary now given that horses invariably have the country suffix (IRE, GB, USA, FR etc) after there names.
Vodka’s earnings are now 1,304,876,000Yen, or £9,158,407 at today’s exchange rate.
Not too shabby.I also wish there was something like the Breeders Cup in England, Ireland or France, several G1 stakes on the same day, that would draw American horses.
Arc day at Longchamp is a European championship day of sorts. It has the Arc 12f (Classic), Prix de l’Opera 10f (Distaff/Ladeez Classic), Prix de l’Abbaye 5f (Sprint), Prix Marcel Bousac 1m (Juve fillies), Grand Criterium 7f (Juve), Prix Cadran 2½m (Marathon… a real one).
The two 2yo races may not be outright championship races, as there are other ones that are arguably more important later in Oct and Nov in England and France. The card also lacks a big Mile race.
Outside of the Arc the purses for the other races are hardly enough to tempt American horses (most are in the $400k-500k range), but the $6m for the Arc should be more than enough to tempt American horses whose trainers are brave enough to run without Lasix.They aren’t compulsory Gerald and tbh I’m not sure exactly what they bring to the party so to speak.
Martaline has the potential to be a topclass sire of jumpers Ven – I guess it doesn’t bode too well that his brother Reefscape’s jumping career has yielded just the one win at Lyon Parilly from four starts.
That will be of no consequence, jumping ability isn’t heritable.
The Holstiener verband, the KPWN and Selle Francais studbooks must have missed that memo.
Fair play to Precious Passion. We haven’t got a horse like that in the UK. Incredible effort.
I told you… he just doesn’t slow down. What a game run, made Conduit earn it.
Rip Van Wink is 10/1 on the US parimutuel at the moment.
US bettors not too inspired with Ballydoyle form so far.presious passion ran the arlington million and got stuffed by the likes of stosfold , we are not sure he ll stay the trip , just a nice pacemaker for the europeans imo
The Million was run on a soft course. PP
hates
anything to the left of good to firm. That race was a throw out. Completely different horse on firm, and SA turf is notoriously hard.
If they keep him within striking distance, then all bets are off. But let him open up a huge lead and it’s a different story. He amazingly doesn’t slow down. It’s a very unusual running style.Presious Passion may be one paced, but he doesn’t slow down. Give him too big a lead and he may not comeback to them. Loves firm turf too.
For betting in-running, if he has a big 15L+ gap opened up after 4f or 6f, lump on him, they ain’t gonna catch him.Sea the Stars and Zarkava??!!
Perfect breeding…for a Champion Hurdler.
My thoughts exactly Bosranic. My immediate reaction was that it will end up in a claimer at Auteuil where a certain Mr Pipe or one Mr C Smith will get it for a knock down price and end up at Newton Abbott under Tony McCoy or Ruby Walsh.
Alternatively, Paul Barber buys it and it wins a West Country Maiden at somewhere like Holnicote or Bishop’s Court or Shipley Park,then runs in the Foxhunter before moving to Mr Nichols yard for the stable amateur to ride
What odds it shows up in the Dingle Derby under the assumed name "Aga’s Pride"?
Would be a nice touch if the young Kerry lad riding it was wearing green silks with red epaulets.Hardly all owners are wealthy.
The question is a valid one. Given the amount of betting turnover generated in Uk and Ireland, the amount of money that finds it’s way back into prize money is scandalous. It’s also scandalous the amount of money it costs to go racing in both countries. Just about everywhere else takes a percentage of every dollar/euro/yen bet and plows it back into purses, usually 5-8%. You can get into many famous racecourses worldwide for a fraction of what it costs to go racing in the UK. You could have gone racing at Santa Anita or Keeneland yesterday, a Sunday, for a 1/4 of what it costs to go racing at Leicester on a Monday afternoon.
