Agreee totally with you princess! Very sad indeed! Would have been a great horse! Had the size, scope and speed Big loss to the sport!! I hope now even more so Binocular can show his true form and win it for his pal! RIP
My condolences to all concerned with the racehorse. Very sad. That JP McManus has some rotten luck. I remember Synchronised 's death which was very tragic!!
I realise that this is an emotive subject, but I'd half agree with Boston Bob on this, I'm not willing to watch a replay, but my first impression was that McCoy had him all wrong approaching the last flight, and tried to remedy this by firing him into the hurdle, hoping the horse would get him out of trouble. I can't help but feel that if it had been another jockey on board, that Darlan wouldn't have met his demise today. Thats not an empty lazy dig at the man, I'm just being honest. I'm genuinely gutted, but what I'm feeling won't be a millionth of what connections and even McCoy himself will be feeling. I just think he got it wrong, nobody means to make a mistake, unfortunately in this sport fine margins can be the decider between life and death
McCoy had produced the horse at the perfect time and at that speed its easy for horse or jockey to get it wrong. McCoy eased him away from Rock On Ruby in my opinion in case that one came down in front of him. Thus poor Darlan jumped the hurdle at a slight angle. He looked like he wanted to put an extra stride in, guessed it and paid the ultimate penalty. He raps the top of the hurdle and pitches forward forcing his head into the ground. Its an awful awful sight seeing a horses legs twitching like that but I am pretty sure that it means they are instantly dead. I hope he didnt feel a thing. It's all very sad and very distressing but sadly a part of racing. I dont suppose anyone is feeling worse about it than McCoy. He may be a rough tough jockey but tonight he will be asking himself if he could have done anything different.
I would agree with most of that Stick, but I just found myself thinking why didn't he just let him put an extra one in, pop the hurdle, and let his speed win the race for him? All too easy to say in hindsight you might say, but I was genuinely thinking that he would let him pop it as they were approaching, after all it was only a prep run for the big one. As soon as I saw Darlan move to the left for some reason the fall in the hurdle race he was in that Zarkandar won, came to mind, and I just had a horrible feeling he was going to come down. As I say these impressions are all after one viewing, as I can't bring myself to watch a replay. Of course McCoy will be feeling terrible, he cares about these animals after all, but his unrivalled will to win, may just have cost a life this time
It's all too sad for words. First Synchronised and now Darlan. How must JP be feeling? You could say that 'life gives and life takes away.' Yet why should it take away from someone who has put so much into the sport?
Thoughts are with everyone connected with the horse. Horrible news and this was supposed to be a good news story putting an extra race in the calendar. Such a shame this talented youngster never got to reach his full potential. He will be sorely missed RIP Darlan
Exactly Stick. That was the point at which I quickly switched off. I knew he had gone and it made me feel sick. I doubt he knew much about it, as you say.
For those that want to know, the lad that looked after and rode Darlan every day is called Andy Llewellyn. It was said on ATR yesterday that a reporter at the final hurdle said the horse died on impact. There would have been no suffering, a small mercy.
