A week of good racing stories, with a Cheltenham festival winner returning to rules racing with a win, another Grade 1 winner for Kim Bailey and a few upsets in the graded races over the weekend. We have also seen negative stories around doping of horses, the murky world of laying horses on the exchange and a sport that is open to abuse. I won't go into the case on here, but I think everyone should read the reports on the whole sad affair. Review We saw an exceptional handicapping performance in the Peter Marsh by Royal Pagaille, for Ms Ricci and Venetia Williams. This horse ran from a mark of 156 and hacked up on the bridle, winning by 16 lengths hard held. The handicapper will have his say and I assume he will be rated around the 170 mark, making him a serious prospect for the Gold Cup. What impressed me most about his performance was how he looked to be doing it so easily, making it hard for Tom Scudamore to hold him from getting to the front. He jumped soundly, travelled well and pulled clear with ease. The field might not be vintage, but the performance certainly was. Talk of which race at the festival seems a little odd to me, he is a third season chaser, he shouldn't be targetted at the RSA (or whatever its called) or the NH Chase. He should be on his way to the Gold Cup. He is a 7 year old french bred, who knows if he is likely to be at this level of form next year! We Saw Roksana hack up in the mares hurdle at Ascot, she travelled supremely well and then went away from decent opposition with ease. It will be interesting to see where she goes next, given her strong form over staying trips, will they tilt at the Stayers Hurdle? We saw a welcome Grade win for Fergal, with the lovely Silver Hallmark jumping well and taking the novice chase with a good deal of ease. His competition faltered slightly with the fall of the Nicky Henderson odds on favourite, but I was quite confident that we would have seen the same result after Allart pulled hard through the first section of the race. We saw a graded novice hurdle win by Bridget Andrews and the last ditch efforts of Faivoir, who beat a progressive Donald Mccain horse. Then it was down to Donald to win the big hurdle race, with his improving Navajo Pass, who made all and kicked clear of the returning Buveur D'Air and the awful run of Ballyandy. I was pretty uninspired by the effort of the returning champion, but I guess this will add a bit of intrigue about him before Henderson declares him injured in the weeks leading up to the festival. A very good Saturday of racing, all thanks to the great work of groundstaff at Haydock & Ascot. Eyecatcher Miss Seagreen on Thursday was the eyecatcher for me, probably because I had backed her, so I was following her efforts in the first Hunter Chase of the season at Ludlow. She was relatively well supported in the market despite having ground questions to answer, and after the first few fences I was expecting her to be a very disappointing selection. She jumped economically and then got impeded a couple of times by horses jumping across her, before they reached the water jump, where she made an awful mistake and dragged her legs through the water. She then made progress onto the heels of a certain Hazel Hill, travelling in behind the pace setting Ravished, before being outpaced slightly before 2 out. She then could have folded in her effort, but she stayed on stoutly to the line and finished 3rd beaten 10 lengths. A return to a sounder surface should see her run to the very best of these and I can't wait to see if she progresses. A massive word for Hazel Hill, a wonderful old horse and very gallant in his victory here, very weak in the market, but showed his ability is still retained despite his ageing legs. And Finally Colin Tizzard is having an awful season, his strike rate of 9% is well below his average and his horses haven't been running very well for a long time. He has gone 42 runs and 33 days without a winner, and a run of seconditus on Friday suggested that a win might not be too far away. However a poor weekend of runners has made it look even worse for the trainer of a few of the best chasers around. The question is, when do they have their next winner? and can we expect to see a return to form for stable stars like Native River and Lostintranslation? Lockdown has been awful for most, but Tizzard must be slightly relieved his owners aren't on his doorstep asking for answers!!
Excellent write-up Nass. Shocking that Charles Byrnes story and it just shows how easily this sort of thing can happen. For a few hundred quid too by the sounds of it. I've been reflecting a little on the NH season and the much-discussed dominance of the Cheltenham Festival. I must say that ITV Racing have done a lot to lessen that in my eyes. I mean, OK, the festival is what it is and its here to stay but I like how the ITV Racing team always find other things to draw attention to each Saturday, rather than just focusing on the winner's likely festival target. I also like how they bring a lot more of the human side into racing - virtual interviews with connections before, during and after the race, reading out messages from ordinary folk who find the racing a godsend in lockdown and of course the various features and stories during the programme and the fact they always try and talk to the lad or lass leading the horse up. I think they are doing a fantastic job and it makes me feel very proud of the sport. Onwards and upwards, Cheltenham trials meeting next weekend and then the Dublin Racing Festival the weekend after. Good times to be a racing fan
Well i am impressed with the efforts being put in here, wise words have not been ignored. The stellar work being done will hopefully inspire the talented tipsters to become more involved. I also hope it encourages those that are not as confident to post their thoughts after all it is only your opinion no one will slate you for it. I am the polar opposite of talented tipster but i love the sport and love having a wee punt just a word of warning to anyone out there. Listen, thank you for this as i would hate to see this site going down the tubes.
Cheers oddy , you're right about itv coverage , a lot more inclusive than previous programmes, moving the right way ,
I seem to recall last Summer, especially at Galway and maybe once or twice in Listowel, Charles Byrne had at least 3 or 4 runners that were backed from opening prices of say, 5/2 etc into odds on, I was on one of them in Galway, I backed it at 3/1and he went off at 4/7, I was delighted as when one of Charles Byrnes horses is punted like that, you almost know before the race you are collecting. But these times it didn't pay off and I can recall 3 or 4 of these type of gambles failing for him and the yard. It got me wondering was he finding it hard to compete then as he thought these horses were laid out to win, yet he still wasn't able to produce them to win, so did he turn his attentions to the other side of the market in laying then, by using the sedatives. Certainly irked me, I don't mind a gamble that the public can latch on to, at least you can see that and potentially win a bit too, but the fact that the animal had been sedated and has no chance of winning really annoys me from an animal welfare and punting aspect. On Royal Pagaille, I'm not sure I read on here or elsewhere but the Ricci's have had 68 runners at Cheltenham and 67 have been sole representatives in races, so that would maybe point towards the Gold Cup and National Hunt chase, surely they must be thinking Gold Cup, these horses are fragile at times and there's no guarantee he will come back another year and be in similiar form so I'd roll the dice this year with him, I think the Gold Cup race is there for the taking and he could be the one from left field to knock them all of their feet.
I tend to watch ITV racing just around post time, with a three year old in the house that is about all I get away with!! The videos with connections have been brilliant, and I think that is a brilliant thing for them to continue. As a sport I think racing has done a lot to promote itself in the pandemic, ITV generally do a good job and some of the bigger stories of races have been heartwarming. My issue with the sport is the farcical funding of prizemoney, and this is getting worse, the sport is full of takeout merchants, which mean that owners are the ones that suffer. I do think we are going to have to see a fundamental change in the way the sport is funded, but the government don't seem to want to do this in any hurry. I hope the new head of the BHA can get some action on this, its clear to me that the bookmakers should be funding more of the sport, but its also down to the big organisations that run the courses to provide fair prizemoney for owners. Otherwise we are going to see a loss of good owners in the sport, and that will mean some more yards going out of business.
A good proportion of races these days seem to be sponsored by Bookies though Nass - from the Betfair Hurdle to the Ladbrokes Gold Cup right down to the tote.co.uk novices hurdle at Plumpton today and the Kempton card which is almost entirely sponsored by Unibet.
A couple of hundred quid for naming is half the issue, it makes them look like they are funding the sport but are just taking out much more than they are adding.
How do you attract other sponsors nowadays given the precedent set by banning alcohol and tobacco. A gambling addiction is just another form of addiction, much the same as the above mentioned, shouldn't they also be banned from sponsoring racing? It's like cutting of your nose to spite your face.
It is a really good question, especially at the current time where hospitality isn't available and the sponsorship is literally a name on a race. Given the mediocre cost of sponsoring a race, I would suggest that courses don't have the will or need to look outside of the bookmakers market. However, in the real world when all of this malarkey is over, surely courses should be using hospitality and their facilities to get local businesses and/or innovative organisations involved. Given a day at the races can be a really good way of treating clients (although perhaps not at Worcester or Hereford!) then racecourses should be doing everything they can to get a varied clientelle and to try and move away from bookmakers if possible. I was at Cheltenham for the last meeting, and stood in earshot were the sponsors of one of the races, they were picking the best turned out runner and I must say I thought the vulgar conversations they were having whilst stood with a racecourse official was just a typical signal of what racing is at times. If I recall the chap and his partner were discussing the fact that he was probably going to bury her in the garden and replace her with a further younger model. Given I was stood five metres away with a young child, you would think people have decency. I guess not. Racecourse clientelle there for you!
the nouveau rich eh , money but no class ! these types have risen in businesses that are about asset stripping , takeovers , and so called financial investments , they’ve gone hand in hand with some of the political types we see in all parties , mediocre but single minded and ruthless , it reflects our society in some ways ....
Not the man's biggest fan but when a return to form does occur the Tizzard's are going to have quite a few very well handicapped horses (as a result of them falling down the old handicap when the yard were out of form). Then could be the time to follow the old barn. Not a immediate return to the top table likely though as I see at Cheltenham, this weekend, they have made just 2 entries - and that is in the same race. What do you make, by the way, of Lust for Glory's novice handicap entry??? Although the Waley-Cohen's could go to Huntingdon the day before and secure some black type instead.
