Saturday's Meetings Sandown N/H 7 Races 12:50-4:20p.m. Wetherby N/H 7 Races 1:00-4:25p.m. Leopardstown N/H 7 Races 1:20-4:40p.m. Musselburgh N/H 6 Races 1:40-4:35p.m Wolverhampton(E) A/W 7 Races 3:55-7:00p.m. Kempton(E) A/W 8 Races 4:45-8:15p.m. Racecards At The Races Sporting Life Racing Post Good Luck
Leopardstown 15,00 Park Of Kings 25/1 e/w Lads, Coral, PP and betfair five places, 22/1 WH six places, 20/1 sky seven places
ROCK DANSE - 1.25 Sandown I’ve heard whispers that with a little bit of rain today/tomorrow a big run can be expected. The ground drying out won’t help this beautiful animal. This comes direct from the stable
Over 2 Million in prize money over 2 days at Lucious Leopardstown and no representation from Britain?
You‘d be running for place money in the grade 1s - Mullins has scared off most of the local opposition too. The handicaps look decent though. I confidently predict WP will win between 8 and 10 of the 15 races.
Soz STH I was planning on coming over but the Misses pulled rank and has insisted on a week in Morocco the week after. I will try to hide my disappointed stoically . I will get over to the DRF one year though. As for the lack of English trainers I agree it’s piss poor. Indeed one is bemoaning the good ground at Sandown in his blog today meaning he can’t run his soft ground horse in a top race. And the ground at Leopardstown is…
"Nothing ventured, nothing gained" - UK owners and trainers who own racehorses with a bit of class (and there are quite a few) need this very old idiom (apparently dates back to Chaucer (ca.1374) shoved down their throats?) Certainly hope I would never have chucked the challenge if I had ever been lucky-enough to have been one of them during my earlier days. One never knows though.
Seldom do UK trainers send runners to Auteuil either - there is some incredible prize money on offer there too. Maybe they don‘t understand the strange “€“ sign in front of the prize money?
Racing in the UK for most owners is about going racing, and are many going to travel to DRF or France with just hope? Especially handicappers, are you really going to have a better chance of picking up prizemoney in Ireland? Now I wish the top one or two horses (Constitution Hill and perhaps Jonbon) would have been looked at for the DRF, but can you name any others who would go over with a good chance of winning? France is a bit different, but again, who in the UK could compete in the top level French races? Now Leech and a few others do target France for prizemoney and that should be applauded, but that’s with horses who can run in different races than the handicaps here in the UK. That takes knowledge of French racing, and how many British yards have that knowledge?
For the absolute top notch UK-based horses it is always about Cheltenham and (if that goes well) try and follow up at Aintree. But as an example - L‘Homme Presse could have gone Irish Gold Cup instead of Lingfield. Possibly Ahoy Senor too (never really performs at Cheltenham). Probably quicker to get to from Lucinda‘s yard too
Jonbon and Constitution Hill should definitely be coming if they were both well. Plenty of nice money for placing as well, also the handicaps anything could happen. Hearing trainers complain about opportunities and prize money and then they don't bother. A few "raiders" always came over but it seems less and less frequent nowadays, if ever. Always added a bit of interest. Shame really but sure it's their choice.
You‘d have to do the business case of course - I guess the cost difference would be the ferry plus a night or 2 in a hotel. But there is €50K for 2nd in the Irish Gold Cup.
That's a shame, I would think you are devastated at having to go on a Holiday to Morocco though Leopardstown is great, a really nice atmosphere, very friendly, good racing and easily accessible for everyone. If you are ever coming over let me know and I'll meet up with ya. I won't be going this year but a few of us usually meet up for it and make a day of it.
