Fully agree Beefy,Willie is the best in the business followed by Nicholls.Mr Henderson would do well to stay in top five
Out of the modern era the jump trainers people will talk most about will be Mullins, Henderson (his heyday is well gone though) and probably Paul Nicholls. On the Flat Aidan O'Brien would be head and shoulders above with his achievements but behind him you'd think probably the late Sir Henry Cecil and Stoutey (as per Hendo he's a fallen star in recent times).
Can't agree with you there, Rainer, a different jockey on Acapulco would have made no difference. She was beaten by a filly who was suited by the prevailing ground conditions, and one who had damn good sprint form. Unfortunately, I didn't back her!
Reading back my original post I had to turn round and remove the splinters from my backside on the way I posted that! I'm coming round to thinking it was jockey error too the more I watch it. The same ride may have won on fast ground and to be fair he was harder on her at Royal Ascot and she hit the line hard there off the fast turf. But today if he had have held onto her longer she surely wouldn't have paddled through the last 200yards the way she did. The way the entire field closed her down suggests a more conservative ride was in order.
Not sure she can be ridden any other way though, before the start she was on edge. If they held onto her she might have just pulled her chance away
I think that a key factor here that may have been overlooked is that Acapulco is just pure speed. Her debut race was over half a mile and she has not raced beyond five and always on quick ground. Watching the race real time, I think that most of us thought that Acapulco was going to win by half the track, but then in the final furlong she did seem to stop like she was shot. Had it been an ordinary five furlong handicap we would all have immediately said that he went too quick and nothing more would have been said. It is not impossible that the jockey got it wrong as he has never ridden over here before (as far as I know) but I was inclined to think that it was the sticky ground. She had never raced on anything but fast ground and theoretically she had a couple of lengths in hand of the rest of the field (hence the short price). We have seen several at this meeting look like they were going to win with a hundred yards to go but most of the others were not as high profile.
I have no doubt that the ground stopped the filly from winning.I actually thought the jockey rode a great race..no excuses on that front. The time was exceptional on the surface and the winner was well on top but was favoured by conditions. Distances of 2L and 2L suggest they are both very good and nice to see there was no real draw bias. She is a cracking filly herself and great to see Dods and PM bag a big one.. both underrated operators. Interesting that James Doyle,amongst others,said the turf was riding worse than the going report and described it as testing...the debate goes on..
Worth mentioning as well that today was the third run of her career against older opposition in a G1 over 3000 miles from home..twice she has been home and back as a 2-y-o. How many times have we seen our crack horses blow out at the BC because they didn't take the travelling..?
I had thought that the most dappiest post on this thread would be from the chap who claimed he would run down his local High Street starkers if Acapulco didn’t oblige in the Nunthorpe but no, I say no, even he’s been trumped by predictions on this page that Mr Henderson ‘would do well to stay in the top 5’, ‘his heyday is well gone’ and he’s ‘on the wane’. And these are comments from forum luminaries as well! I was so shocked when I read them that I had to go and lie down in the sick bay for half an hour! Cor bally blinkin’ blimey! Mr Henderson will once again be competing at the ‘top table’ this term, don’t you types worry about that, and I tell you what I would expect him to reclaim the ‘trainers championship’ to boot. The established stars in the barn will be supported by a host of promising youngsters from last season and some exciting new arrivals. One of the best indicators of how a yard will perform is to look at the previous terms top 3 novice hurdle events at the Cheltenham Festival and if you do that out of the 12 horses placed 1-2-3-4 Mr Henderson had 5, yes 5, animals – way clear of Bill Mullins who had 3 – Mr Nicholls, incidentally, didn’t have a single animal in this list. Peace and Co, Top Notch, Hargam, L’Ami Serge and Vyta Du Roc should between them win a host of Grade 1 races this year and add fortunes to the old prizepot. As I say these, allied to the establish stars and the new recruits (I’ve spoken before about how excited I am by Mr Henderson’s Red Hammer) should enable Mr Henderson to establish himself back at ‘number 1’. Reports of his demise, people, are greatly exaggerated...
