Anyone think Barry Geraghty might end up riding Hurricane Fly? Mr Henderson still has 2 in the field but neither look capable of placing, indeed it is debatable that they will even run. With McCoy on Jezki I am struggling to see what Geraghty might ride. Purple Bay for Ferguson? Surely not good enough. Assuming Ruby rides Faugheen, I could see a situation where Townend rides Arctic Fire and Geraghty gets the spare on The Fly ..................
Surely Townend will get the choice of the two an he surely has to pick Hurricane he rides all his work and is the better horse! But will he get the pick ?
Townend rides work on the Hurricane Oddy. Used to ride him in the early days as well when Ruby was busy with Nichols. I'd be 100% certain he picks up the ride on the Hurricane should Ruby select Faugheen.
Is there no chance at all of Geraghty getting the leg up again on Jezki given his record with the horse?
As thought Ruby will desert 2 times Champion Hurricane Fly and ride Faugheen. Traitor!!! Annie Power also confirmed to run in the Mares Hurdle.
The right decision from Ruby, no point riding that old mudlark Hurricane Fly, as he has no chance of winning. I'd be surprised if HF was even in the first 4. The winner will be Faugheen, as The New One is a plodder who'll get done for speed again, and Jezki was a pretty average winner last season. Faugheen will gallop away from him up the hill
Im with you on this Shergs... If im honest it's great to see the Fly back but I didn't fancy him with Ruby on top and even less now... Though im not sure that Faugheen will romp away from the rest, he is prob the one to beat, and the market is showing it as well...
Hey up Red, nice to see you back on here. Faugheen is obviously the one to beat and I hope he is by TNO. No investment from me...yet, but to quote King Kev I'd luv it if TNO won.
Cheers Chan... Yeah, its goona be another whirl wind four days of action where we are all gonna do our nuts in over why such n such didn't do this or that.. But ultimately were just gonna have a good time watching the racing arnt we... Hopefully to the tune of a little in return from the crookies...
Hi All, just been looking at some of the stats for this race and they make for an interesting read..... No unplaced horse from last years renewal has won for 21 years (negative for Hurricane Fly) 82/84 have been aged 9 or younger (another neg for HF) 22/23 Xmas Hurdle winners have been beaten (neg for Faugheen) 24/25 International Hurdle winners beaten (neg for The New One) 19/20 Had prep run this calendar year (another neg for Faugheen) Fighting fifth has produced 3 winners and 4 places in last 7 years (only Arctic Fire ran in this) Obviously stats are not the be all and end all but was quite surprised when I looked at this. Any thoughts?
I think this race has now become a really interesting one in terms of tactics and jockey ability. Here's what I mean: Surely Ruby will make it on Faugheen - I can't seen anyone keen to take him on. The challenge for STD and McCoy will be to keep their mounts covered up whilst keeping close to Faugheen. I think HF will struggle to go with them on the ground and can see him being scrubbed along down the back straight. The other 4 might keep tabs on them for a while but as they come down the hill, to the business end of the race, the question will be whether Jezki and TNO are close enough to Faugheen, with enough left under the bonnet to have a crack at him. I still think that, if STD gets it right, TNO is the one with the gears that could trouble Faugheen. A mouthwatering contest.
He has gears, its just it's takes him too fecking long to go up through them lol Will be interesting watching the jockeys body language between 3 out and 2 out. Could be when the real class tells
At what time do we think the non runner will be declared in this race to reduce the field to 7 and take away any realistic chanc of some EW value?
I was expecting Bertimont to be withdrawn, but Dan Skelton was on ATR yesterday talking as if he was running, so hopefully they'll all run
