Daily Racing Thread Thursday 16th. March 2023

Ran a shocker

 

Saved in the last with Angels Dawn landing the "lucky last"

Didn't see any of the racing today but looking at results thru the day I could tell it was going to be one of them days for punters.

Sire Du Berlais making a miraculous turnaround of form on the big stage...
hmmmm

 

Pulled Up

 

Ah sure it's swings and roundabouts Chan, Bravemansgame won his point down the road from me here and now he's in England for Nicholls. Such is the nature of the game. Hopefully he runs well tomorrow as well.


Also see Elliott had two owners fork out over 800k for 2 horse today. Romeo Coolio and J'alon Doudaires. They'll be heading to his yard now so ones to lookout for.

Mullins and Elliott are just the two dominant figures of racing at the moment, be nice to see a few younger British trainers starting to consistently come to the fore and get a big owner(s) supporting them with some nice purchases. The money for National Hunt horses is madness nowadays, how it is sustainable long term is hard to see. Nice to see the lesser lights do well with smaller purchases and home bred animals but it feels like the core of NH is drifting to another part of the stratosphere currently.

 

With the Irish trained horses dominating in recent years I did just put it down the Mullins/Elliott/De Bromhead domination. What has struck me as different this year is the Irish trained domination of the fields in most races. As you say plenty of success for the lesser lights from Ireland as well which suggests the quality at the top has led to a raising of standards across the board. Contrast that with the traditional UK based top tier trainers like Hobbs, King and McCain who seem to have hoisted the white flag on even having runners at Cheltenham. Even the lovely Rebecca Curtis is missing in action this week with no runners. Every festival needs a Curtis runner.