This Melbourne Cup is a hell of a tough race to win but everything is screaming MOUNT ATHOS at me. He is well in with everything that beat him last year and is surely the best "treated" of the overseas challengers. 10-1 if you have 888 account! Slightly miffed that none of our tightarsed bookies are going five places!
âPishâ, Stick, âPishâ?!? Thatâs not a word you find in the minutes of the âcounty setâ meetings! I take it though itâs some form of word to say you donât concur with yours truly. I do think though that this building âauraâ around McCoy is total nonsense and quite frankly is media driven to fill column inches and air time. The snowball effect is that the uninitiated then buy into the whole myth. I still maintain that in NH racing provided one of the top 50 is aboard your beast (and thatâs of riders based in the UK and Ireland, old boy) it doesnât matter which one it is as they are all truly gifted and eminently capable. Take Sam Waley-Cohen. For ages on the old 606 we had people (some of whom should have known better) saying Long Run could never win anything big because of his inadequacies in the saddle and what has happened a few years down the line â Sam has a record over fences comparable with anyone,a nd I do mean anyone, (2 âKing George VIâsâ, a Cheltenham Gold Cup, wins in âopenâ races at both the Cheltenham and Aintree Festivals plus a 2nd in a Grand National). If a âdentistâ and part-time rider can achieve such success so, in my view, can any top saddle monkey if simply given the chance. But to be given the chance is I think the big thing and what several riders never get. In many instances to get to ride the âgood thingsâ and the short priced favourites you have to be in the right place at the right time, have good fortune or get your talents showcased in a big terrestrial race as the media will âbig youâ, big time. In Richard Hughesâ excellent autobiography he talks about how right now these chances just donât exist in Irish Flat racing as the top 3 jobs are held by either the trainers son or trainers son-in-law. He calls it a closed shop (although itâs ironical that he himself is the son-in-law of his current retaining trainer!). How many âMcCoyâsâ in Ireland right now arenât been given the chance because of what Hughes describes?!? McCoy is I think a terrific rider but his âGod likeâ status at the moment is doing my head in and although I think we should credit his achievements to go overboard is I think daft as others if given his opportunities would have equal success.
SBC: Well, I'll try to be more polite this time. Don't agree with this deplorable 'saddle monkey' term you use, but I would ask you how about this 'God like' status you give one N.Henderson all the time? He's a good trainer of racehorses but he ain't no God, cor blimey!
Swanny, yep the ‘saddle monkey’ term is a bit derogatory and I shouldn’t really use it, I suppose. The truth is I heard it mentioned repeatedly, a while back, in an old TV prog repeated on, I think, ITV3 or ITV4 one day. Just made me roar at the time and I still find it quite funny. Mr Henderson is an icon to so, so many on the forum and his accomplishments in the sport unsurpassed. Plus he’s racings shining light, its most trustworthy competitor, its biggest bastion and the most recognisable figure on a racetrack. His status as a living legend is both deserved and assured. On the trainer / jockey comparison I’ve always held the former group in much higher esteem. Afterall anyone can arrive at the course with a saddle and an ‘attitude adjuster’ and swing their leg over an animal but to train a racehorse takes months of careful preparation and also a touch of genius to get one ready for a target.
