Horrible looking fall for the jockey in the veterans chase at Exeter - horse landed right on top of him and couldn’t get up. Not sure who it was but fingers crossed he’s ok Edit: it was McLernon on Conkwell Legend
Jebus Oddy. If we were assessing races like that we'd be picking the bones out of them all. It was the manner he won his point, there was quite a bit of a stir around the scene after it as winning a P2P like that doesn't happen that often regardless of the quality of the field, it is rare to see one hack canter to a 41 length win. I actually had forgot all about the horse until a family member sent me a message saying he was running the weekend to keep an eye out. Anyway, he did it pretty nicely at Exeter there yesterday. Never out of 3rd gear to win. I am not sure we have the best crop of bumper horses this year as opposed to some other years and I'd rate Teeshan a massive chance if lining up. The one race I think could be worth tracking is from one I actually put up a while ago - Mywayofthinking was the horse, who was backed from 10's into 3/1. He was subsequently beaten by Goldinthemountains with the Mullins trained Cantico back in 3rd ( won a bumper in Naas yesterday easily) Cantico is currently as low as 10s now after that but I think the two aforementioned are much better horses, especially Mywayofthinking who is 16/1 at the moment. Always a hard race to assess really as often some haven't shown their true hand yet. Teeshan and Mywayofthinking would be the two I'm leaning on currently so that leaves it open to which Mullins one will actually win it
Yeah I didn’t mean to sound overly negative, I am just generally a bit leery of point form. Remember that horse with Jonjo who beat Constitution Hill in a point? I agree Teeshan did it nicely given the testing conditions but do you think Nicholls will go Champion Bumper with him? He doesn’t often throw an arrow at the race. I wasn’t too impressed by Cantico in terms of being a Champion Bumper horse - the Munir-owned mare looked really special to my eye - Jasmin de Vaux. She is just about fav for the race though.
Anyharminasking was the horse, decent but obviously didn't kick on to the heights CH has. CH probably would have won that too barring a few mild jumping errors late on. That's the big question, he could well put him away for the season but has he really had much star quality to challenge the raiders in recent years? He likely was thinking, what's the point? This guy could definitely make the frame in what would be a strongly run race, could see him powering up that hill. Be nice to see him there. Shame if he isn't.
As i’ve spent most of the last 4 days sat by a pool i’ve had a bit of time to look at a few bumper stats as well as the odd Cheltenham preview on youtube. So bumpers stats. Since it’s inception only 4 Irish bred but British trained horses have prevailed at the Cheltenham bumper. Dato Star and Monsignor in the 90s, Liberman in the 00s and lastly Moon Racer in 2015. Since 2015 43 that fit the criteria have lined up with very slim pickings returned. Admittedly a good half were considerable odds. But it rather suggests the Irish trainers snag the good Irish breds (and quite rightly so). One glimmer of hope for Teeshan is that Captain Guinness came as close as any since Moon Racer last year for the same connections.