OK Chippy, I thought I could detect a similarity between you and an esteemed member of 606 and Fugees. But he certainly wasn't a big fan of Nicky! I will hazard a guess to say that K Fallon is not your favourite flat jockey either then?!
Fallon's all right - think he had a better Ascot than he was given credit for - some cracking last day rides for example but my favourite is Johnny Murtagh or Jamie Spencer.
Pocket talking but I would tend to agree with you on that, Fallon won me a few quid on Drunken Sailor e/w at 16s in the Hardwicke just getting up for third! However I'd have been more happy should he have managed to keep third in the gold cup rather than fourth on Cumanis horse, the name of which escapes me at present....
Aye that was it indeed, he ran very freely early on I think scuppered his chances of getting home well. Nice ride by Spencer on the favourite too, settled him nicely on the inside then pushed the button and bye bye.
For me Workforce should go exactly the same route as last season - King George then put him away and train him for the Arc. That would still give us Workforce v St Nicholas Abbey over 12f. The 2010 Derby Winner v The Antepost Favourite which would be something I'd be keen to see. After that I'm unsure if SNA would run again before the Arc? So You Think will go down the 10f route IMO. Eclipse; Juddmonte & Irish Champion. I think then they'll look at either stepping up for a tilt at the Arc or they could go back to Ascot for the Champion? The key to it for me would be the form of SNA - without him do Ballydoyle have another real Arc contender apart from So You Think? Canford Cliffs I'm hoping takes Frankel on in the Sussex Stakes - certainly one race I am keen to see! If he steps up to 10f then he could cross swords with SYT and I'm unsure if the Ballydoyle connections would want that? However after the Sussex its a long wait for the QEII so maybe he could line up at York if they choose to give SYT a break? Plenty of top racing to come though!! New Approach for me was a top class horse; good Derby winner but well shy of being a great!
Flyingbolt, I think you will find that Workforce was not put away and trained for the Arc last year but he was jarred up after Ascot and Sir Michael Stoute will not use the Longchamp Arc trials because he perceives that they are too close to the race itself (three weeks) so there were no other suitable races. If Workforce runs (and does well) in the Eclipse Stakes, they may decide to run him in the Juddmonte International, dependent upon the owner’s plans for Frankel. If they plan to go to Saint-Cloud on Sunday, they have to supplement him on Thursday but that looks unlikely.
Since 2000 I would say the top 10f races in Britain has been (In terms of top class winners): Juddmonte International - Giant's Causeway , Sakhee, Sea The Stars, Rip Van Winkle The other 3: Eclipse - Giant's Cayseway, Sea The Stars Prince of Wales's - Dubai Millennium, Ouija Board (maybe) Champion - New Approach In terms of quality you attract the Champion fails because it is too close to the Arc. Regardless of prize money this does not make it the premier race as King Shergar claimed. The race can only be judged on the talent it attracts and in recent years that race has been found wanting. Having said that the Eclipse has also been fairly weak in recent years and obviously the Prince of Wales's isn't open to three year olds. As a result I feel the International has become the best 10f race in Britain and that is evident from the high quality fields it has continued to attract.
Kicking King I'd agree the Juddmonte International is the best 10f race in GB but it's still a fair bit behind the Irish Champion Stakes in terms of quality. Even horses beaten in the Irish International like Galileo would have little trouble taking the York race, based on their exploits! In fact quite a few won at York but found the Irish Champion Stakes beyond them- Rip Van Winkle and Falbrav spring to mind. It's also worth pointing out some runnings of the Juddmonte International have been dodgy affairs- Notnowcato, Sulamani or Electrocutionist anyone? Sulamani was decent horse over further, perhaps notnquite top class 10f horse IMO.
QMII - Whatever the reasons the break between the King George and Arc it didn't affect him so if it worked then why not do it again? May not have been the intention but it worked and then hopefully he'll take his chance in the Breeders Cup.
Beef or Salmon - Yes I would agree with you that the Irish Champion is on average stronger than all 4 of the races I have mentioned in England. There have been some very good winners of this race in the past 10 or so years and I think the reason for this is because it falls quite nicely before the Arc so it is possible to take this race before moving onto Paris as dylan Thomas did in 2007 and Sea The Stars did two years ago.
