Hi all, In a week where Goshen returned from the wilderness we have seen lots of good quality racing, but we have also seen the sad side of the sport with the deaths of five horses over the weekend with the sad loss of L'Ami Serge, The Conditional, Sevarano, Yalltari and Here Come's Johny. Jumps racing is a tough sport, injuries and death for horses and jockeys is something that the sport has to understand as being possible. However this weekend it has really hit hard and my thoughts are to those impacted by the fatalities. One story that it brings me to is the story of Alaphillipe who won the graded novice hurdle at Haydock for Nic Brereton. Nic is a new owner for national hunt racing, having his first runner this season with the beautiful Dusty's Choice who sadly lost his life on racecourse debut for Nic. Fortunately Nic didn't turn his back on the sport and instead purchased Alaphillipe who has since gone on to win four races for the yard. Alaphillipe looks another top notch prospect for Fergal and his team, who knows where he will end up. Review The racing this weekend has thrown a shake up in the Champion Hurdle market with Goshen returning to form at Wincanton, in a race that I really can't fathom. He beat Song For Someone who had been a consistent and improving sort before this run, however he was off the bridle a long way from home and didn't seem to be staying on particularly well at the end. Goshen was impressive, but what did he achieve? I have no idea!! We saw Cyrname flop again, a horse who now has so many questions to answer (much like Lostintranslation who will be later) but that did allow Dashel Drasher to win in fine form for Jeremy Scott. He is a course winner who jumped very well and stayed on resolutely. He beat Master Tommytucker who jumped well (see what happens when you put a different style of jockey on) but didn't muster enough battle against the resolute Dashel Drasher. Remastered jumped his field into the ground in the Reynoldstown, whilst also looking slightly green and potentially one who will continue to improve. The race didn't take a massive amount of winning thanks to lots of non entries and the sad demise of Sevarano and mistakes by many of the field. That said the winner looks a proper staying chaser for the future. We saw a good Betfair hurdle card at Newbury, where Secret Investor outbattled Clan Des Obeaux and we saw the sad demise of The Conditional. The race was interesting but what was startling was how quickly Lostintranslation went from travelling to being virtually pulled up. He must have some serious health issues for that performance to follow bleeding in the King George. The Conditional was a very sad loss, a very talented horse for a small stable. We saw Champ return to a racecourse and under an inspired front running ride he went with lots of zest and only found Sceau Royal too good. It was a great return to racing, and it makes it interesting to see which race he goes for at the festival. I think they must be tempted by the Ryanair, but he is 9 years old and this could be his best chance at the Gold Cup. Interesting times ahead. The race though did show what weakness there is in the two mile chasing division in the UK. We then saw Soaring Glory win the Betfair Hurdle, giving Jonjo*2 a big win. He has the form in the book to be a graded horse, and that performance suggests that he still has a chance of stepping up into graded company. It was an interesting race, with fancied horses finishing in the places and a few running taking races in behind. We saw Tiger Roll run in Ireland, and then stop. Will he won't he? To be honest if that is his true running, who cares? Then earlier in the week we had Allmankind jumping around Warwick in the rescheduled Kingmaker, taking a few fences home with him but showing a good performance. Then Chantry House started his road back from that poor Cheltenham run with a good victory over Coconut Splash. Eyecatcher In the Betfair Hurdle the Nigel Twiston Davies trained Guard Your Dreams caught my eye with a very taking finish from off the pace. He is a Sandown winner in heavy ground and he looked to find the fresher ground slightly too fast. He stayed on very well and a return to Sandown for an Imperial Cup would seem an obvious route for him. And Finally Young Connor Brace rode out his claim this week, with the most unusual of winning rides, having won the Hunters Chase. This probably makes him the only jockey to ride out his claim in an Hunters Chase!! Connor is a stylish and dedicated young jockey who is riding very well. He has ridden some big race wins for Fergal and I think he has a massive future ahead of him. He also won on Project Mars so that shows what a talent he is!!
Loved Goshen but can’t explain Song For Someone’s run. Too poor to be true. Thought Champ was in the wrong race but ran well under an aggressive ride. First Flow can hopefully serve it up to Chacun in the QMCC. Kicked myself for missing Jonjo’s in the Betfair Hurdle - liked him a lot early in the season and mis-read “putting him away for the Betfair Hurdle” as “lost his way a bit”. Hopefully we will see My Drogo again this season. Monmiral looks special and it was somehow refreshing to hear he won’t go to Cheltenham and they will wait for Aintree. Talking of which - sad for Davy Russell that he misses Cheltenham but even sadder that Tiger Roll looks like age has caught up with him.
While age is definitely a factor in Tiger Roll's lack of spark recently, today just was never going to be his day, the ground was desperate, and he never has went well on any sort of heavy ground before, all of his wins and close runs have been on good/good to firm and good/good to soft and soft. He's a proper spring ground horse and I felt he travelled OK until the home straight before flattening out and being eased off. I wouldn't write him off at all on today's going. The last day he ran on ground near today's going was in 2016 and he finished 40 lengths back in a race won by the Gary Moore trained Ubak. Visually Goshen was good, but as alluded too, its hard to know the form of what was in behind. I was dubious of Song for Someone before the race and even more so after. It was hard not to be impressed by the performance though. Oddy, I couldn't see First Flow getting to within 15 lenghts of Chacun Per Soi in any race, I'm there to be proven wrong though. Just to round off my post, Hugh Morgan must have booked himself a date night at the award ceremony for ride of the year on Young Dev. Incredible, and no doubt the phone will be busy in the next few weeks for his services. Good luck to him.
Eh? his two national wins were on good to soft in 2019 and soft in 2018. That's using the official irish racing website on ground description. The gospel. Navan was heavy last year, I was looking at a different date, but he finsihed 5th and once again travelled well and couldn't see the race through on heavy ground. The main point is that he doesn't act as well on heavy ground, there's no disputing that.
Heavy for both with the reliable Racing Post. Interesting that Timeform also have last years Cross Country as being heavy too. Im not having any of this “we are happy” rubbish, prior to the race it was that we’d got the old Tiger Roll back etc etc. I still think he is more likely to miss both races than run in them.
I'm all over the shop this morning Strange then, the ground the Irish racing website describes it has it as I have above. I think the website is the best racing website around so I have to keep the faith. Its irrelevant anyway, he won the National and he ran a stinker yesterday. The cross country is down as good to soft on my screen from last year. I don't think he is the horse of old, I think the warning signs have been there since Easysland beating him and they've been making excuses and whinging since to try get some ease from the handicapper, a desperate attempt I might add. If he's fit and able, he should run no matter what, he has nothing to lose being a double champion barring a fatal accident, but the fences are just like brush hurdles nowadays. Edit: I just checked the ATR website too and March 13th 2019 was good to soft? Racing Post using fake news Nass.
The issue with the Cross Country Course is that the going is different to the normal courses. I like Timeform for these things, they’ve got the XCountry as heavy and the rest of the card as soft. I assume everywhere else has just the one going reading for all races on the card.
That must be the case then. I figured they would all use the one reading and spread that across all media platforms but i can see how they might just stick the same rating down, especially for the X country.
Turfrax have an archive which states Wednesday 11 March Wednesday 11 March at 10:25 Old C:and H: Soft. Cross Country: Soft, Heavy (in places) New: C and H: Soft, Good to Soft (in places) Old: 5.7 CC: 5.1 New: 5.9 on 11-03-2020 at 10:00 They had scattered showers that morning so the heavy does make sense. Anyone want me to explore any old mysteries?
Similar looked to have happened to Lostintranslation yesterday, travelling well in the bunch then a sniper took him out.
Did we see the winners of both the Champion Hurdle and the CGC in action this weekend??? In Goshen and Champ I rather think we might have done, people. Also, an honourable mention to Champagne Platinum who did his Pertemps prospects no harm at all up at Haydock on Saturday. Overall though was a terrible weekend for the sport with the loss of, amongst others, L'Ami Serge and The Conditional.
