It's a lot more complicated than that Chelsea Seriously though, it's more to do with how the horse gets on with the rider. I just get the impression that Rob Havlin gets on better with Squire than any of the others that have ridden him. I'm sure stick has a much more informed view
Interesting reading on here fellas and in the main I would like to say a big thanks for all the support. Personally I have never come away from the racecourse feeling as empty as I do tonight. Its not about money as I dont bet fortunes but I absolutely know the horse is better than that and not doing himself justice. I am also gutted for the many people who would have backed him today and really never got a run for their money. A couple of points; The trainer; He bought this horse for £4500 and since then he has won us around £22k in prize money. We could probably have sent him to the HIT sales last year and collected circa £60k. Nearly every partnership horse has won in the last twelve months and at least three of them have paid their way. The majority of the horses in the yard are not selected by him. He more than anyone wants this horse to do well as he owns 30% of him so the notion that he is having us over is frankly ridiculous. I regard Michael as a personal friend and yes he is no Michael Stoute but he knows his horses and cares passionately about them. He is at least as gutted and frustrated by tonights performance as we are. The horse; He is definitely talented but definitely complicated. G Lee got off him and told us to hold him up, J Crowley got off him and said we should be up with the pace. I agree with Ron that Havlin knows him best but the guy goes where Gosden sends him which isn't usually local. He came second last year in the Silver Cambridgeshire and what this should tell us is that the more competitive the race the better he will run. If they go a pace he will settle and travel. The tactics; Different tactics were tried tonight because Epsom has the lovely long straight that you can get him going up but then they went no gallop. Crowley rode him to the letter when in reality he should have changed tactics mid race and said to hell with this lets get on with it. Turning in everything was racing faster than Squire and his chance was ultimately gone before Jim ever got after him. I said to the Don tonight that we may as well be running in an even higher grade as dropping him in class will only mean he gets no gallop to aim at.
As it appears to be time for us non-financially committed owners of Squire to have a whinge, I will add my penny’s worth. I was a bit surprised that Squire was running at Epsom at all. I know it is not a long journey but I looked at his previous runs at Lingfield (another switchback track) and that gave me the impression that it was not his sort of course. The race itself was run at a crawl, which I think was what was not needed. Crowley should have made more use of him although perhaps it had not been made clear to him that he was riding a horse that does not have a Dancing Brave turn of foot, so sitting at the back (where he did not seem to settle) in what was going to turn into a sprint was a bad idea. I appreciate that if the trainer says hold him up, he is loathe to ignore the instructions but sometimes you have to improvise.
The previous Lingfield runs were on the AW QM. I don't know but I suspect that isn't switchback like the turf course.
Don't worry Stick, a couple of pound off from the handicapper and the right sort of race and he'll be just grand. He's a real galloper who needs a strongly run race- what he got tonight was a farcical crawl around a track that wouldn't play to his strengths. A couple of pound off might just be what he needs to rebuild with before thinking about tilting at a Cambridgeshire. The positive tonight was that he did seem to settle better, which I felt was unlikely at that crawl wouldn't you think? If they can get him switched off in a strong run race that will get him much closer to that elusive victory again.
