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No, I’m a member of the ROA and it was publicised in the ROA e-newsletter I received this morning
I’m not really sure what to make of today’s race to be honest. On the form of his Lingfield win where he had winners Ctappers, Foster’s Road and Dalmo in behind, Rapid Heat Lad was entitled to win a race of his own at some juncture. I just didn’t see him winning today, least not by 13 lengths. Just with Hilali (although in reverse fashion), the change of tactics seems to have done him the world of good although to be fair, he seemed to have simply run this lot ragged.
I think people seriously underestimate how much energy these hurdlers use up if they slow down approaching a hurdle and then have to speed up again between hurdles. Any horse which can just maintain the same speed both before and after the hurdles has a real advantage in these contests. That’s why you can see the form change so much in these early juvenile races.
Personally I favour the ‘start slowly and creep into the race’ approach but as Rapid Heat Lad showed yesterday, if you bounce a horse out and keep up an even pace, the others in behind will struggle to get to you if their jumping doesn’t hold up.
Just a little update on Ballyalton for you. I watched Harry Skelton school him in the indoor school this morning and his view was that he wouldn’t look out of place next to the best of the novices in the Nicholls yard.
Tomorrow at Bangor will see the long awaited debut of Donald McCain’s well bred Right To Rule who first appeared on this thread after he passed through the sales ring back in July. The ex William Haggas gelding has already missed four possible engagements but now we’ll get a chance to see if it was 40,000gns well spent. He faces a fair examination on his hurdles bow against the likes of Sedgefield runner up Kealshore Again, Ian William’s Cool Hand Luke, another likeable newcomer in My Guardian Angel and Tim Vaughan’s Alborz who will be looking to leave his Market Rasen run behind him after a win at Ffos Las. Despite the small field, it should prove a nicely informative contest.
I’m told that Cool Hand Luke’s jumping shouldn’t hold him back today. Whether he’s good enough to beat the likes of Right to Rule is a different matter though.
Excellent stuff Tuffers. Cheers for that
I’m glad to hear of his progress. It’s a bit of a shame that he won’t be running at Ludlow next week as I could have been tempted to offer a pint as a token of gratitude for the information. Still, I’m sure I’ll get an opportunity in the spring when Poetic Power attempts to complete the Triumph/Aintree double
I’ve just watched Poetic Power have his first schooling session outside and I haven’t put a line through the Cheltenham race yet
He may also run this month now rather than waiting for Warwick.
I think it’s a shame that the poor quality and the surface have been conflated. The racing isn’t poor quality because it’s on the AW, it’s poor quality because the races are framed that way. It would be just as poor quality if the same races were held on turf.
I’m in general a big fan of AW surfaces and I don’t imagine anyone would denigrate the racing at Deauville or Dundalk in the way they do Dunstall Park.
I must apologise by the way for accidentally omitting Poetic Power from the list of hurdlers to come. What’s the latest on him?
Ian is really pleased with his progress. He’s done some schooling indoors and will school over hurdles outdoors for the first time this week.
We’re still tentatively looking at Warwick in the first week of November for his hurdles debut mainly because that’s one of our local tracks.
Needless to say I’ve already worked out a campaign which includes a triumph hurdle trial at Cheltenham
A really good attitude from the winner there – that must put him straight to the top of the list of juveniles seen out so far.
Looks like a really interesting contest at this stage. I think Hilali will take a bit of beating.
From the BHA website:
The Stewards held an enquiry into possible interference 1½ furlongs out. Having heard their evidence and viewed recordings of the race they found that the winner, POSITION, ridden by Luke Morris, had interfered with VALIANT GIRL, placed fifth, ridden by James Doyle, which in turn interfered with TIGERS TALE (IRE), placed fourth, ridden by Richard Hughes. The Stewards found Morris in breach of Rule (B)54.1 and guilty of careless riding, in that he had made a manoeuvre to his left. They suspended him for four days as follows: Wednesday 10, Thursday 11, Friday 12 and Sunday 14 October.
The in running comments on the Sporting Life website are pretty revealing:
The winner:
Prominent, took keen hold, switched sharply left and barged into rival over 1f out, led 1f out, driven out
the 4th:
Tracked leaders, ridden and edged right when badly bumped over 1f out, every chance entering final furlong, no extra close home
and the 5th:
Held up towards rear, headway 2f out, badly hampered over 1f out (wiped out), not recover, ran on inside final furlong
The one I am looking forward to seeing this year from the Ian Williams stable is Ballyalton. The yard isn’t known for its bumper winners, especially on debut, but Ballyalton made a remarkable bumper debut (had already won a PTP in Ireland) beating the well fancied Key To The West by 18 lengths despite looking very green with subsequent winner Whisky Yankee a further six lengths back in third.
The bare form of his second start when he beat another subsequent winner, Kaysersberg, by a neck was much less impressive but he was very fresh that day and also struck into himself quite badly. Despite that, he showed a good attitude to win.
He’s a really imposing type and provided he takes to hurdles should have a good season.
Afaik you cannot reserve a name, I think the story was they had been waiting to use the name for 10 years and they decided this was the colt they eventually decided was worthy to bestow the name Camelot on.
You must name a horse when it is registered to race and it cannot use a name currently on the register to race or the name of a horse that has previously won a major flat or jump race. e.g. you can never call another horse Camelot or Arkle.
You can reserve a name as I’ve indicated above.
You can use the same name as another horse in training provided it has a different suffix ie (GB), (IRE), (FR) etc.
I think the horse of Gerard Butler’s was actually Camelot I.
In terms of reserving a name, you can reserve a name for a year, renewable once for a further year so I’m not sure how the name came to be reserved for 10 years unless there were a succession of different applicants reserving the name for 2 years each.
If all horses had equal amounts of speed and stamina then I’d agree with your point about the best place to be in a slowish run race is nearer the front. However, these horses weren’t the same. You could expect a 2000 Guineas winner to have more speed than these in a slower run race (provided Camelot settled which he did) even if coming from further back than many.
It would have been interesting to have the fractions for the final furlong. I suspect they would show that Camelot faced in impossible task in trying to overhaul Encke given the lead he had entering the final furlong.
