Cheltenham Festival
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world hurdle 2014
world hurdle 2014
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Eeternaloptimist 27 Jan 14 13:22
Whichever way you look at it I think Mullins has taken the pi55 out of the owner of Annie Power. The owner has stated that she was going chasing this year but that he had a change of heart because he wanted a shot at the champion. How many races has she had to assess her credentials? Not one. She hasn't raced against a single champion hurdle contender in England or Ireland and given the sheer number of possibles this year that is simply staggering. She hasn't raced against the contenders and she hasn't been asked to race at proper 2 miles pace to see what happens. She wins a mares? To an extent she wins the stayers? So what? She could and may still win a champion but she hasn't had a champion preparation. She could have won an Arkle and be well into the groove with a chasing career at the same age as Sprinter Sacre was and looking forward to the big races like the King George and gold cup next year. She's a mare. She's a horse. Who knows about the future? Yep. Mullins has let the owner down in my view. Great post that, how true, she may well line up in the CH, but how much wiser going into the race about her ability to handle it as we were at the start of the season....ZERO. |
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Am I missing something here? The owner of Annie Power is a multi-millionaire banker with a string of top horses in the Mullins yard for which he pays not insignificant bills, I would have thought he is Mullins' biggest customer by a long way.
He will listen to the opinions of the professionals as he should - if the boot was on the other foot you'd hardly expect him to take financial advice from a racehorse trainer - but if he really wants Annie Power to run in the Champion Hurdle then that's where she'll run. He's certainly smart enough not to have the wool pulled over his eyes, and will be well aware that the advice he gets from Mullins and Walsh is likely to be coloured by considerations for other horses in the ground, which he does not own. I think Ricci said he'd had horses with Mullins since 2005, it's surely in both their interests to make sure that relationship continues for the next 10 years.To me, he does n't look like a bloke who is easy to take the pi55 out of. |
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On the subject of Rule Of World bar the winner he was least inconvenienced by last year's farcically run Neptune. He has no form of any substance over three miles so unless they go an unlikely crawl in the World Hurdle I doubt that he will be a significant player.
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Rease
Agree with all of that, I was referring to the races that AP has contested this season, which Ricci would be just as at fault as Mullins with regards to fact finding...if he wants to find out about the CH and her capabilities. |
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yep, fair enough - did see a clip of an interview with Mullins where he said they chose the Doncaster race to avoid other Championship horses!
Not sure why they feel the need to do that. For what it's worth, I've backed her for World Hurdle but am increasingly of the opinion that she'll end up in the Champion Hurdle - despite Boston Bob's no show on Saturday! |
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@ReaseHeath -- However, it concerned me when Nicholls was asked about the Big Buck's jockey issue on Saturday morning that he talked about Jacob and Zarkandar teamimg up without mentioning Celestial Halo at all which means to me that either the setback Celestial Halo had which prevented him running in the Long Walk is worse than it originally seemed or they fancy Zarkandar more or both.
Fact: Daryl Jacob has not sat on a Stewart-owned horse this year. Fact: Stewart owns Celestial Halo as well as Big Buck's. Speculation: all this guff from Nicholls about confidence and commitment to Big Buck's is to cover up a rift between Stewart and Jacob, and this is why he is putting Jacob on Zarkandar and did not mention Celestial Halo. So I'd not read too much into it, but I may be wrong. |
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yeah, you could be right - but Jacob has ridden Celestial Halo in all his races since Ruby left and Stewart stated after Newbury that he intended to run both Halo and Big Buck's in the World Hurdle - my interpretation was the other way around and that Stewart was keen for Jacob to maintain his partnership with Halo rather than getting off him to ride Big Buck's.
Was n't aware Jacob had n't ridden for Stewart this year and, off the top of my head, can't recall a Jacob ride on a Stewart horse that might have caused a rift.Or maybe he chose a Hales one instead of a Stewart one at some point? Who knows? All idle specualtion and probably a sign I have too much time on my hands! |
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If Mullins had ran Annie Power yesterday he would know exactly to the yard if he had a Champion Hurdle horse on his hands. That's the point. Instead, it's been
let's go chasing erm no..tell you what? lets run over 2m 4f and plan for the world perhaps erm hold on..won easy over 2m 4f and wasnt stopping so how about the champion? erm it's now 6 weeks to go and I don't have a clue Rich..what do you think? You own her after all! |
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 You were there for the conversation Bally. |
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Of course, I was in the front row for the pantomime.
Seriously though, 6 weeks before the race and they've seemingly "no idea" |
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Ach **** it let's run her in the Arkle eh?
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Come on Bally. Surely the 4miler. Let's be serious.
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Fact: Daryl Jacob has not sat on a Stewart-owned horse this year.
Mind you, only three have run in 2014. |
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Rease
You'd have thought that all your contentions regarding the owner are true but one point I'd raise. If Annie Power runs in the champion there's no way Ruby is getting off The Fly at this stage. If she had run in the December race or indeed yesterdays and won by 5 lengths going away and under a different jockey with Ruby left in her wake on The Fly then I'd be pretty sure Ruby would have been on her in March. So, even if she goes the champion hurdle route she doesn't have her regular jockey who is arguably the best round Cheltenham in the big races to add to the list I gave previously. And if she goes for the stayers she goes for a race the owner didn't want having deferred a chase career and over a distance she has never raced over. |
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Townend would be fine and theres Plenty of other decent jockeys that wont have a ride in the CH.
Cannot use not having the No1 jockey available as a reason not to run a horse that should be in the race. Same goes for Un De Sceaux. Its bl00dy embarrassing really, we are almost in Feb and we have 2 horses that connections are supposedly undecided as to what to do with,and one of them they admit they don't even know how good he is!! Any other trainer,and I mean any other,would have entered these horses accordingly during then season,and would know their capabilities by now. This smacks of protecting HFly and a 3rd CH,im bl00dy convinced of it. No other reason I can think of that makes any sense. Not that that does!!,and I could never prove it,and trainer and jockey would never admit it. |
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Bang on
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shockster 27 Jan 14 09:44 Joined: 26 Oct 05 | Topic/replies: 1,076 | Blogger: shockster's blog
Brandyontherocks - you state on The Champion Hurdle Thread that even though Capt CB (a 13 year old in a G1 Championship) finished close up all connections would be relatively pleased, yet on here it is a big negative for Knockara Beau to narrowly win in another slowly run race. I don't think you can have it both ways. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying it is a positive in any way for KB to win, it obviously isn't, however it is not the end of the World (Hurdle). At levels he would have won and I'm sure BB will come on a fair amount come March. Rate reply: | report block user Sorry Shock. I think sometimes we twist things slightly to back our views. My thoughts are; in the Irish Champion. The field was covered by just 3 1/2 lengths. The best horse still won the race but the runner up's connection will still have taken some positives from the race. But most importantly non of the horses had an overly hard race. The Cleeve; there was 70 lengths from first to last. Big Bucks is entitled to come from the race but he was given a very hard race. I have never said he can not win. I was disappointed with the ride and he certainly looks like he can be beaten now unlike previously when he was a world away from his challengers. |
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budd
She could still be going irrespective of jockey availability but I don't think anybody would argue that you'd rather not have her regular jockey on if the chance was there. Not allowing her to take her chance in December or yesterday prevented that possibility and may well have resulted in her missing a champion she could win. As you say it smacks of Mullins wanting the history of a third champion for The Fly which would be darkly funny if he gets short headed by one of the others and Annie runs out of petrol after the last in the stayers. |
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No worries Brandy, it's all debate. The one question I would ask all on here is; We had the Irish Champion hurdle on Sunday and all 4 runners were race fit and whichever way you look at it a 13 yr old was within 3l of the winner and no horse had much of an excuse. The Cleeve hurdle on Saturday had question marks over several runners. Which of the 2 races will have its form upheld in March? I believe we all know the answer.
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There is a good stat being re-tweeted on twitter at present first highlighted by Timeform that horses who return from over a year off the course and run close to form have a 36% chance of doing so again on their second start back…which isn’t great. However, that drops to 11.4% for those who underperform on their comeback and Big Buck’s underperformed to the tune of 20lb.
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Jacob rode celestial halo at Newbury in November and also ride rocky creek on Saturday!!
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Jacobs knows more about that stable than any of us, what if he thinks zarks has the better chance.?
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At Fishers Cross for me
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At Fishers cross is too big. He is proven at Cheltenham. He is still improving
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You'd be hoping the ground doesn't dry out for that one as his jumping wasn't the best even on saturday.
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AFC had everything in his favour Saturday,fitness and ground.
He had to win that fairly well to be fancied to win the WH,imo. Not be losing to KB. |
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Why is there no talk of quevega going for the world hurdle and annie power for the mares race. Surely this option suits all parties involved. Annie power is a chaser in the making so this seems a better option for the future and quevega still gets chance to continue her streak at cheltenham but gets a chance to finally win a big one.
At least we know Quevega stays 3miles and at this moment in time 2m4f seems the best trip for Annie. To be honest odds wise I would have Annie Power shorter than Quevega in the mares race and Quevega shorter than Annie in the world hurdle. |
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The_Silent_Assassin
If one (Mullins/Ruby) was trying to spread these three potential winners across three different races, this is spot on imo. However, if I owned AP, I'd want her in the Champion Hurdle, likewise if I owned HF and Quevega would be going to the WH depending on how she looks in training. |
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Quevega really should have had a pop at the stayers some time ago but at this point having won so many mares the logic seems overwhelming that they should seek to create more history with another victory. People remember multiple winners of big races.
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I don't think knockara beau has been given enough credit for his victory,perhaps because it is a northern horse,maybe the wind op has made the world of difference
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Listening to the sunday forum on ATR, one thing you can be reasonably confident about listening to Ricci is that AP won't be running in the Mares race.
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fair play to chapman for keeping him on the line for so long..
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100/1 chance the thing was gonna run in mares anyway. Will be in World Hurdle and after all this fuss on this forum embarassing if she doesn't win
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the thing??!!!
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very good film...that bit when they were testing the blood was good!
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Annie Power 18s for champ hurdle so help yourselves if you feel like backin a non runner
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ANNIE POWER WONT RUN AT CHELTENHAM
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Lay her for both races then
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OK WE GET YA HUNTER
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let's assume AP is a confirmed runner in the WH. And all the principals stand their ground. What's her SP do you think? I reckon 7/4 AP, 11/4 Big Bucks...
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