Thursday's Meetings Newcastle N/H 8 Races 11:45-3:25p.m. Taunton N/H 8 Races 12:07-3:47p.m. Warwick N/H 7 Races 12:22-3:32p.m. Tramore N/H 7 Races 12:30-3:40p.m. Chelmsford(E) A/W 9 Races 4:00-8:00p.m. Racecards At The Races Racing Post Sporting Life Good Luck
What is the general consensus on Easysland, last year's Glenfarcas winner, being ruled out by connections this Friday after they weren't happy with the handicapper allowing his last time conqueror and those who finished ahead of him to race on even better terms for this race? David Cottin said the horse is ready to race and is in good form but they won't allow the horse to run due to his view that the handicapper isn't being overly fair.
It’s very much toys out of the pram time. It’s the obvious race to run the horse in and the sensible prep route for March. The handicapper probably believes the horse didn’t run on merit last time, it certainly wasn’t a performance you could equate to the Festival win last year. A JP horse not running on its merits.....go figure.
Newcastle 11.45 Border Victor - 7lb below last winning mark - last run better than the result (pulled up) suggests (prominent for a long way than making mistakes and weakened). The winner of that race Cudgel went in again yesterday - small stable had an outsider placed recently - booking of Blair Campbell eyecatching in this conditional event Wouldn't be surprised if Border Victor reaches a place at least.
Sorry old bean but I completely disagree, I think its perfectly valid for them to pull him out before declarations for this reason. The horse won this race last season off 139, and then was rated by the handicapper 152 before the festival. At the festival he sluiced up, but he beat Tiger Roll who could feasibly have been on an off day (much like in his race last time out), yet the handicapper then decided that Easysland went from a good high end handicapper into a horse of Gold Cup standard, he put him up to 167!! He then ran two lengths behind Potters Corner (151) off handicap marks, and both were well beaten by horses out of the handicap. Now my issue here is you either have one of two positions - 1 - Kingswell Theatre and Beau Du Brizais ran to a mark much higher than their handicap marks. Both ran from what was in theory 145 last time out, the former is now 140 and the latter 135. If you believe this point then surely they both should have been put up above the 145 mark that they ran from? 2 - KT & BDB ran to their normal handicap marks or slightly better. This is what the handicapper seems to think. He has put KT up to 140 from 128 and BDB up from 132 to 135. So both ran under the weight they carried (5lb and 10lb respectively) so surely Potters Corner and Easysland were too high in the handicap and should be put down? Potters Corner only got dropped 1lb and yet Easysland stays at 167!! (I can't confirm this mark but that is what it looks like on the RP) Now, given Easysland ran on strongly and Potters Corner is a solid yardstick for handicapping, you would have to say that he ran some sort of race, it wasn't as if they gave him a blow out run. The handicapper actually rated Easysland run at 153, a stone worse than his mark. So why didn't the handicapper relent? I have no idea. If I owned Easysland I would be in the ear of Cheltenham racecourse suggesting that if they want the best Cross Country horses to run in their races they need to change them back to stakes races. Perhaps a fairer system would be penalties for winning/placing in previous Cross Country Chases?
Or maybe the handicapper knows that racing is full of fiddling ****s and is trying to not let them get away with it
On what grounds would they have been running last seasons Cross Country winner as a fiddle? I don't see any reason to do so. Look at his target, they said prior to the season that his sole target was the Cross Country race at the festival, a race run off level weights. The best way of winning that race is by beating all of your opposition senseless in the races at Cheltenham prior to the festival. Prior to that race, his two main rivals in the betting were Tiger Roll and (don't laugh) Might Bite! So, you turn up to a handicap getting 4lbs from Tiger Roll and you think about fiddling? Not a chance. He might not have been 100% fit, but there was nothing in that race that suggests that they weren't trying. Then throw in the market, he was well supported from around evens to a 8/11 shot at the off, if a JP horse isn't going to win the market quite often shows this! The handicapper once again has shown that they are very quick to raise a horse up the handicap and very slow to drop them. Connections of Easysland will probably run him in France now, as a prep for the festival, meaning that UK racing loses out on seeing him.
What is the point though? The race he is targeting is a stakes race. He could be rated 180 and will still run off the same mark. This is simply a case of the handicapper rating a horse incorrectly on one run. He is about a stone higher than he should be because the handicapper wants to stop Tiger Roll winning another Grand National. It is stupid and it is impacting these Cross Country races. Instead of having a quality horse in the race they have now got a top weight of 145! All eight runners in the rearranged Stow On The Wold Chase (Sorry, Peterborough Chase) are rated over 150! They've got to put this back to a conditions race, or risk the loss of all good Cross Country horses to Punchestown and France for all races except the one at the Festival. It is clear that the handicapper is now worried that horses running in these races could be targetting the Grand National and is handicapping them accordingly. It is wrong and if I was JP et al, I would have done exactly the same.
Rumour has it that he is getting ready to jump out of a cake. Holding a bottle of brandy and little else.
I just hope that all this mess with his mark doesn't take away his idea of running in the Grand National. Maybe now they'll change their minds.
In the 1.50 Newcastle Cuba Ruba could respond well to the first time combination of tonge tie and blinkers for Tim Easterby.
