Born to Win,horses dont have 360 degrees vision,so if he did sit behind him,Bb wouldnt have seen her,until it was too late.He mightnt have won ,but he did lose 3 or 4 lengths before the last.

It wasn't about whether he could see her, it was about whether she could see him.  Difficult for a female to go past an alpha male at close quarters.  Was worth the gamble.

As for worst ride check out Condon riding into a brick wall on Dirar in the County. 2nd year in a row they've given that one absolutly no chance due to dreadful raceriding.

McCoy had every right to expect that tracking H Fly was the best way to approach the race and pounce as late as he could. It just didn't work out and Bino was simply not good enough.

That is nonsense Lion King.

How much of a start did McCoy give ROR at Kempton and how far did he beat him?....

Only just stopped laughing at the comment that Rubys best days are behind him!!! That goes down as one of the most ridiculous comments I have ever heard. HF never picked up as expected but I think ROR deserves far more credit than he is getting.

for my eyes there was a track bias where too far out of your groound was costing you(unless they went crazy up front like Bellvano in the last)

first 2 days it seemed to pay to be handy but by Friday (following watering and with longer run between 2 out and last) the races were overly strongly run and suited those held up imo

Binocular is a speed horse, you hold him up to get the best out of him and come with a late run. He wasn't good enough but that's how you ride him.  In hindsight they could have tried something different but the result would be the same unlike Kazlian who clearly may have won with a better ride.

For me, Scu seemed to have at least one or two rides where he was either too handy or made too much of his horses. However, he's a professional jockey and I work thngs out for banks, so he's probably better qualified to race ride.

EXACTLY.

Tom Scu on Kazlian. Went far too soon and was clearly the best horse in the race at the weights.
Harry Derham on Edgardo Sol. Always too far out of his ground,ok he got there but the amount of ground he had to make up cost him imo...........and yep I'm pocket talking in both cases.

Problem with that is AP left a horse he only just beat at xmas far too much distance between them.
ROR was not gonna stop in front,he stays 2 and a half,and AP should be aware of that.

Schadenfreude.Having read your post I was compelled to watch both races again. As a layer of Boston Bob and Hurricane Fly, and a place backer of Binocular,I was under the distinct impression I had read the races completely wrong but my opinion has not chaged one iota, as in my view both Boston Bob and Bino were the recipients of very poor rides,instigated by gross errors of misjudgements by the riders.

Firstly Boston Bob. They definitely were going faster than what BB had ever encountered before, and Ruby was niggling from an early stage. he niggled then stopped,niggled then stopped and he done this throughout the first circuit and was content to keep the horse at least a dozen lenghts off the pace.He only got after the horse properly, halfway down the back straight where he pushed and shoved to get him anywhere near contention and was at the horse all the way to the line, but all too late.When he was niggling early,he should have kept at it and got the horse much closer to the pace. If he had done so,he could have given the horse a blow going down the hill,but he was too far back and used all his energy,over the last 6 furlongs getting to the eventual winner

You state in your post,that he was probably expecting some give in the ground to come to his rescue. What do you mean by that? Did the jockey not walk the course in the morning or ride in earlier races to know exactly how the ground was riding? Even more reason IMO to know that the jockey got it badly wrong,and indeed you only had to have a look at Rubys body language after the post to know that he had c0cked up royally.

Binocular. Why would McCoy's pre race tactics been based around waiting to pounce on HF when he had been soundly beaten by Overturn in the fighting Fifth and only just about got the better of Rock on Ruby in the xmas hurdle? A gross misjudgement before the start of the race then. Hurricane never jumped the first couple at all well and he was at least 8 lenghts off the pace with McCoy a lenght or 2 behind him. It was pretty obvious, that IMO that Hurricane wasnt travelling that well, and the champion jockey surely would have been aware of what was happening up front. As it happened he was completely unaware, and was content to sit behind to my utter bewilderment.Once again he going all too late and even followed Ruby up the home straight challenging on the inside,instead of going towards the rails. A manouvere which cost him the 3rd spot

When henderson was interviewed after the race, and was asked why Bino was held uo up so far out the back,it was testimony to his tact and diplomacy that he avoided saying it was a p1ss poor ride

I dont wish to take anything away from the winners of these 2 races as they were both worthy winners and the 2 jocks in question got it wrong on the day, but as we know that dosen't make them bad jockeys because they are the best in the business.

Anyway,just my views for what there worth, as obviously im not as "clued up" as you good self

Giddy - all relevant & reasoned opinions welcome here I reckon, even if they are polar opposites...your views too

When I made that comment about some give in the ground coming to Boston Bob's rescue, I was talking about the horse...not the jockey!

As for the Champion Hurdle...I wasn't suggesting those were proficient rides from two of the greatest jockeys to have graced the sport, but merely trying to state a defence - isn't Walsh often 'accused' of fooling people with his body-language in the saddle?

Or is that only cited on the winning rides?

It's his style, in giving his mounts confidence, and time to find their stride, and obviously some will go awry, and be under the microscope.

Also, McCoy did attempt to urge Binocular into contention around the third last, when he realised Walsh was asking his mount for more, and the horse (under those tactics) was just not good enough to close the gap on a canny ride from Fehily who pressed the button at exactly the right time, as if he had wing mirrors!

Furthermore...the big gap in the early stages was closed GRADUALLY (and so not expending too much energy in one fell swoop, by Ruby & AP) and reduced to about four lengths on the turn down the hill, which is something I'm sure backers would have been satisfied with I/R.

As for McCoy on Binocular...if he couldn't beat Hurricane Fly (ONLY) when he's on an off day, those tactics were never gonna prevail in actually winning the race.

FWIW, I agree that he didn't have much in hand of Rock On Ruby (pre-race) and with hindsight it should have been given more consideration, but if it eases the pain for backers of Binocular...even if he'd realised sooner that Hurricane Fly wasn't up to the task, he still wouldn't have got near Overturn, never mind the winner!

AND that's taking into account his mistake at the last which in all likelihood cost him third place.

As for the 'clued-up' comment I made...I'm not being remotely facetious, but it's a regular feature of this forum that some very intelligent & knowledgeable forumites' views radically differ.

There's a fine line between a good ride and a bad one and I figure only the awful ones are worth slating.


I've seen some terrible winning rides over the years when a much superior horse has only just scrambled home and had a much harder race than it should have.

Johnny Murtagh in my view has very few peers, but even he has fcuked up when winning!

Anyone remember the Group One Matron Stakes a few years back when he nailed Attraction late on with Soviet Song?
He knew he had the beating of that filly, as she showed previously at Newmarket.

I'm certain that the unnecessarily hard race she had at Leopardstown cost her any chance in the QE II just two weeks later, and she was battered at 5/2 fav - a confident win and place lay as I saw it, and for once I was spot on!

Come to think of it...that's an interesting topic for another thread if anyone has any other suggestions.

By the way I was never satisfied in running. In fact I wil go further. As soon as I saw what McCoy was doing with the horse before the start which made it clear he would be jumping off last I thought to myself, "that's me fecked then."

They're fair enough comments I suppose, and I did actually state in the earlier 'essay' that Binocular could well have won the race with different tactics.

"If however, he was handier, he could well have won, but it's a very convenient & smug attitude to have AFTER the event"

I know where most of us 'expected' Binocular to be, and his position was surprising, but a planned change of tactics occurs in virtually every race, of every day!

The rough has to be taken with the smooth, and many big races have been WON under a different type of ride - remember Bregawn's Gold Cup?

Nevertheless, I'm sure connections of Binocular are still ruing their change of plan

Even though he won last years Champion HF had to be stoked up quite a bit though and you'd say that all of his better runs have come with more ease in the ground over in Ireland thus bringing the question in of how good was last years race??

As for Binocular's form, he can hardly be called consistent, apart from needing a run 1st time out over the last couple of seasons, he's not the kind of horse you would be comfortable having a large sum on at shortish odds.

Well,however you look at the race,AP had Bino further back than any other race hes ridden him,that is fact.
Imo,thats cos he chose to ignore the front 2 and concentrate on HF,thats how it looked to me.
The fact that the front 2 were horses that one, Bino has lost too this season,and two,only just beaten,tells me he did not do the smartest thing in trying to win the race.
Thats my take on it.

bud I agree with you, the front 2 caught them all on the hop imo. AP was worried about Ruby and that's it, while Ruby was more concerned with AP than RoR who he knows and Overturn who's been beaten out of sight before. If both were ridden close to the pace they'd have had less to do, and both closed on the front 2 when asked to but that was their energy spent.

But I've looked at stable form of Mullins too. Pretty much all his horses finished well down the field not even featuring in most races bar the 2 superstar certs that are Quevega and Sir Des Champs. So it looks clear that his string weren't 100%. Especially given what Ruby said post Gold Cup when talking about Kauto.

"Something was still hurting him, horses can't talk and tell you this. If they could most of the horses I rode this week wouldn't have run".

So for me, that makes me believe Fly has better that the run he gave at the fest. Next season with hopefully at least 2 prep runs this time and ridden closer to the pace and with Mullins string in better form he has a good chance of recapturing his crown.

He's 6/1 which is a plenty good price imo. Plenty of juice there for backing now and laying stake back closer to the time. Rubys choice of ride will be interesting.

I'm not getting carried away with RoRs win, it's his first grade 1, Sublimity won his champion hurdle in very impressive fashion too and never replicated the form.

I remember the year of monumental defending of Kauto Star I had to do after 2008. I took the 7/1 after he was beaten at aintree that year for 2009 and I've done the same with Fly, it's too big imo. Horses aren't machines, they can have a bad run.

Boston Bob ran a blinder to be 2nd in AB too, was off the bridle after a mile. Will be miles better over fences.