You have to admire Barry Geraghty, all the media training wasn't lost on him and using the classic narrative of an injury, jumping off at the end as well if there was an Oscar for jockeys, BJG would be among the nominees. No blame laid on his back anyway! Lost the race at the start, jockey stole x amount of lengths and did it the hard way, nothing good enough to peg him back, BD closed all the way but it was too late even with Cornerstone Lad wearing a big come and get me target on his back. BD is the better horse though and he will still be thereabouts in March as there isn't a whole lot of classy 2 milers around who can win it.
Gerraghty lucky that piece of wood got him out of jail allowing the leader that much rope. If only Davy Russell could ride him every time, horse was made for Russell.
Right I’ve had enough of winding you up for the evening. I look forward to waking up to read a report by Grendal reciting all of the horses RPR ratings by ground type and race conditions.
hopefully its not a season ender but doesnt look good, id be quite surprised if he made it to kempton, could be sandown then Cheltenham at best
That photo is probably quite misleading too, given that is probably his first impact with the ground which presumably removed the wood from the leg. I seriously doubt he finished the race with that in.
there was a piece of wood still in that was removed after the race, not the original big piece I dont think but bit must have snapped off
That's not a splinter ……….. this is a splinter Yes, clearly not a sand line. Thanks for that. I think that probably broke off on impact with the ground and left a splinter in the wound. Otherwise that extra weight could have cost him the race. We'll have to wait to find out how far it went in and how serious it is. Hopefully he will be OK and be trained for the big one Personally, at 10/1 I would be tempted to gamble it's not serious and take the price ew
It's a pity this photo is cut off. It would have been interesting to see if anything was visible as he crossed the line
Theatre Legend was only put up 1 pound to 135 for this 2nd to Cornerstone Lad, might be well in next time
The Racing Post guy took ages to produce a figure. I suspect if Buveur D'air had won he would have given him as high as he possibly could get away with and fudged the other ratings to suit. As it is, he settled on 159 for Buveur. Cornerstone Lad was rated on 158, a figure 10 lbs higher than his official rating. Silver Streak was rated on 156, 2lbs higher than his official rating. I would reckon a 3 lbs deduction all round would be more likely a scenario. It still leaves Cornerstone Lad a new PB of 155 and Silver Streak running to within a lb of his official rating. Lydia Hislop had this to say earlier in the season (Road To Cheltenham Column) regarding Buveur D'air's true form level:- "After his no-longer uncharacteristic mistake at the Festival, Buveur D’Air went on to job-swap bride and bridesmaid with Supasundae – finishing second at Aintree and then winning at Punchestown – but that rival had also been firing on fewer cylinders than the previous season. In short, this is a readily attainable standard of form." Lydia's sentiment is roughly the same as mine. I backed Buveur D'air ante post for his second Champion Hurdle win but was left feeling underwhelmed and perhaps a bit lucky to have collected. Given the poor quality last season I backed him ante-post again, hoping wind surgery might have sorted what ailed him the previous season. It all started well with his defeat of Samcro but given that horse's subsequent efforts one could only conclude that the high rating awarded for Buveur D'air looked well over inflated. The rest of the season showed frailty and I didn't feel confident as the tapes went up for the Champion Hurdle. It's nothing new for the Racing Post to go off on a strange inflation of a horse's Rating. Going into today's Royal Bond hurdle Midnight Run had a RPR of 148. I said at the time that it looked very high for winning a maiden hurdle and Timeform later awarded 136, which looked a lot more realistic. Midnight Run was rated just 1 lb behind the favourite Envoi Allen today but finished stone last, beaten 50 lengths. The rating for winning a Maiden hurdle was clearly too high. I thought Midnight Run looked small and scrawny in the company he was in today and I was surprised he wasn't pushed out for races he is quoted for at Cheltenham. I reckon they need to go right back to the drawing board with Midnight Run. They need to decide on the horse's path to reveal his identity. This seemed an odd step and a badly chosen one in tackling a Festival Favourite in Grade One Class at 2 miles straight after winning what was basically a match in maiden class last time. Oh well. We will all be proved right or wrong next March. It's all opinions and excuses for now.
this is desperate the horse is running the albert bartlett like I told you, multiple albert bartlett winners have been beaten double figures in this race, hes following a successful path to albert bartlett glory I would have been gutted if he was beaten any less than 10L today but to say he was beaten 50L is disingenuous and shows your agenda, the horse was pulled up, the funniest part is you wouldnt have written one word about this horse if I didnt put him up
