Shame for ATLANTA ABLAZE. She ran an absolute belter until Discorama crossed her and put her off 2 out.
What a nightmare day especially reliving Annie Power mark II just as I was about to collect .. then I had Riders On the storm and in the last race went for Ballyward. So basically 3 fallers in a row - I m sure that's never happened before! Who would ever have predicted all the top 3 in the market for the champion hurdle finishing outside the first 3 in the race.
My God, the Irish wetback from Glasgow now appearing in full 'Carnival Time' gear as an Arab who looks a bit like the one in charge of the murder of the journalist?
The 4 Miler was a sham yesterday. Even the decent jockeys were falling. 3 hit with big bans for keeping horses in the race when they plainly should have been pulled up. Do we need this race? The best amateurs like the Codfather and Patrick and Lisa O’Neil and Biddick etc will get rides throughout the week. The ones who don’t have a place in a professional arena won’t. Isn’t that right anyway?
i agree with you bob , it was an unpleasant sight seeing so many animals obviously being forced to go beyond their tolerances , jockeys unable to plot a course . It adds nothing to the quality of any event , i wonder if the winner will ever win again ?
We do need this race, but what they need to decide is whether we should be letting horses of such mixed ability into it. Perhaps what they need to do is as they’ve done with the national, have requirements of horses having to run a certain amount of times and over long trips prior to the race. I don’t have a problem with the race at all, not sure I agree with the punishment of jockeys either, the stewards have been very harsh in my book.
Maybe a mixture of your suggestion Nass and enforcing some kind of experience restrictions on the jockeys. I don’t see why we need inexperienced jockeys riding. The classier acts always fight out the finish as it is.
Surely it belongs in a different type of meeting , along with that cross country thing , a few hunter chases over long distance , maybe an arab race and a donkey derby , a jamboree , but not at the pinnacle of nh racing . Yes they’ve padded out the meeting to extract more profit , but another case of less is more here , quality over quantity every time .
Don’t agree at all, this race is about NH racing it’s about stayers who jump well and jockeys who are the lifeblood of the point to point scene. It might be a bit of a throwback for many but it’s a very valid race which in recent years has seen an increase in quality at the top end (Ok Corral wouldn’t look out of place in today’s RSA) whilst this has caused an imbalance in quality of horses running. It’s no different to the Foxhunters other than these are professionally trained horses near the beginning of their chasing careers.
That’s because they are jocked up on the classier horses. We’ve seen in the Foxhunters that this isn’t always the case and that the races can provide a launchpad for amazing careers.
