Sunday's Meetings Cork N/H 8 Races 11:30-3:20p.m. Punchestown N/H 7 Races 11:43-3:35p.m. Windsor N/H 7 Races 12:07-3:28p.m. Exeter N/H 7 Races 12:21-3:46p.m. Racecards At The Races Sporting Life Racing Post Good Luck
The John Durkan has a stellar field to honour his memory with last season's Ryanair winner, Gold Cup winner, the first 3 home in the Aintree Grand National, Aintree Bowl winner and the Brown Advisory Chase winner. Last year's winner Fact To File is the most likely winner but what a fantastic turnout.
What a race between Gaelic Warrior and Fact To File - would have been worthy of a dead heat. So good that Mullins runs his best horses against each other.
What on Earth did we just see. What a race that was, Gaelic Warrior was superb on the front end, how he had more in reserve to battle back when Fact To File came to him was seriously impressive. To go that pace from flag fall and win is incredible. Be hard to top that this season.
and the trainers of all bar the first two want fining for schooling in public and every other jockey fined for not achieving their best position. a great race was turned into a farce. everything that racing needs and doesnt need in one race.
I'm not sure the others could have gone that pace on that ground, even if they had tried. Fastorslow would have hated the ground (and was coming back after a long injury break), I Am Maximus and Grangeclare West are National horses, Lecky Watson won the Brown Advisory over 3 miles and Iknowtheywayurthinkin won the Gold Cup. Only Fact To File and Heart Wood could even try and go with the leader, and Heart Wood paid the price late on when getting collared for 4th. I'd love to see the sectional analysis because I though Gaelic Warrior had gone off too fast on that ground and I was convinced Fact To File would collar him. Amazing bravery from the horse to find more on the run in and win it.
I do get where Tigerscave is coming from it is a fairly common sight to see on these shores for a long while to be fair. Not many Gold Cup winners would be going off at 18 or 20/1 or whatever it was, I know the horse wants 3m + but the classy Gold Cup winners can usually still be fairly competitive if not good enough to be challenging for these middle distance type races. You wouldn't be expecting to see them type odds brandished about for most in that position.
So why was the press creaming itself as a 'race for the ages' when essentially it was a two horse race and a cobweb buster... its not a good message for the sport IMO. Its about time some British trainers woke up and smelt the coffee..or are they happy to be seen as cannon fodder...
It’s fair comment but I think Henderson (Jango Baie) and Pauling (The Jukebox Man) will be more than happy with their weekend’s work. We have seen Galopin des Champs beaten in the last 2 renewals of the John Durkan if memory serves me correctly and I wouldn’t normally touch Gold Cup or National horses in the race. Perhaps some thought the going would level things up but it would appear the chase course wasn’t nearly as testing as feared. Either way it was a truly memorable race and I take my hat off to Mullins for entering so many. Even though most of the field didn’t get involved, it was a better spectacle than a 4 or 5 runner race and I think the memory of John Durkan is so strong that connections always want to make it a decent contest.
