A surprise to me. You would have thought that they'd be planning on selling him as a stallion prospect, probably to the Japanese!
Stick, he's surely worth at least 20k as a jumping prospect....? "Bonfire is going through a growing phase, and appears a bit weak at the moment. He is just a shell of a horse. We sat down with Andrew and had a chat and decided it would make sense to geld him, give him the rest of the year off and allow him the time he needs to develop and mature." I don't agree with the above at all. I thought he looked small before the Dante on TV, he definitely looked small before the Eclipse when i saw him in the flesh. He isn't growing, he just doesn't have any scope to progress. You will, I'm sure, have noticed that there was none of this talk before he flopped the last twice. Obviously the gelding might help but I'd be amazed if he was physically superior next year. My advice is not to even pencil his name back into your notebooks. Unless he runs in the Fred Winter off a good mark.
Gelding Bonfire him might keep his mind on the job at hand but I do not see why that is any guarantee that the horse will improve his performance when he matures into his frame. I would hold Triumph Hurdle bets until there is some evidence that he has substituted prospects jumping hurdles for prospects of jumping the fairer sex.
To be fair I think talk of the Triumph Hurdle is very much tongue in cheek. I imagine that Highclere still have Group prizes on the flat in mind . . .
