Is not a horse that too many of you will be aware of but I predict that before long he will be on your lips. Before we trooped off to Newbury at the weekend I told the missus I thought we may pick him up for £100K (LOL) but sadly we were outgunned by one Jonjo O'Neill, no prizes for guessing whos money he was spending. This horse made his debut at Ayr in April going down to the useful River Maigue by just a length. There was nothing flashy about this performance, he just put his head down and battled a far more experienced and useful rival all the way to the line. We will soon be seeing him in the green and gold and I predict we will be quite impressed when we do. £140K well spent MrMc!
JP or O@neill Nass? JP's debutante tomorrow is deserted by AP, a tip in itself in a nice little hurdle race. I do like the yards MINELLA FOR STEAK though, think it could be pretty decent but has obviously had a problem or two.
Interesting Stick. I like Jonjo but I think it's fair to say he has had an awful lot of expensive JP acquisitions that never amounted to much. AP often laments the lack of "Saturday horses" within the yard. His horses are woefully inconsistent imo and he hasn't had a stable star (Synchronised aside) for quite some time.Perhaps I'm being unfair and this fella will hit the heights. I suppose what I'm saying is that if I had spent £140k on a beast it wouldn't be going to Jackdaws Castle!
You would have to question who does JP's purchasing? he has been totally eclipsed of late by Gigginstown, who have made rapid progress in such a short space of time & who it would seem, have a far greater knack of picking the right ones.
True. Giggenstown buy their horses almost exclusively from the PTP arena and really do pay top dollar which helps bolster the owner/breeder scene in that sphere.MO'L has stated all his purchases are bought to go steeplechasing under rules after a short career over hurdles. JP buys a totally different type..many more unraced NH bred,a lot of ex flat racers and horses who do well on debut in bumpers/novice hurdlers. O'Leary has a clear out every year and refreshes his string where as JP seems to persist with a lot of low grade h'cappers.The man just loves the game and his horses I suppose. Be good to have a boss like JP...you'd never get the sack for underachieving! As you say,he lacks the quality of the Giggenstown operation and owns more than three times as many horses.
