Cheltenham Festival
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07 Mar 14
00:55
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Date Joined:
28 Jun 10
Reported as being willing to water to prevent the ground drying out any more than good to soft? Did last years debacle on the Friday teach him nothing?
With the water table this high and his own antiquated going readings based on the top few inches if he waters this ground he risks turning it into a quagmire.
It just isn't possible that with this winter of weather that the meeting could be held on unsafe ground. At the worst there will be a crust of a few inches which has dried with the next few wetter inches helping create beautiful ground which horses will bounce off perfectly safely.
For the love of good somebody cut his hosepipe in half.
With the water table this high and his own antiquated going readings based on the top few inches if he waters this ground he risks turning it into a quagmire.
It just isn't possible that with this winter of weather that the meeting could be held on unsafe ground. At the worst there will be a crust of a few inches which has dried with the next few wetter inches helping create beautiful ground which horses will bounce off perfectly safely.
For the love of good somebody cut his hosepipe in half.
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For the love of good somebody cut his hosepipe in half. is that GOD BIG LAD
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Be good going by thursday m8
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DECALEC
07 Mar 14 01:01 Joined: 03 Dec 07 | Topic/replies: 1,098 | Blogger: DECALEC's blog For the love of good somebody cut his hosepipe in half. is that GOD BIG LADConfused WELL MAYBE YE HIT THE NAIL ON THE HEAD WITH GOOD  |
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Even I wouldn't be so brazen as to claim that as some kind of play on words.
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jasey
The point is that there is good ground becoming fast which can jar and good ground which is safe. I'd certainly be happy with good safe ground because I don't want horses breaking down on road like conditions but how can that possibly be the case after most of the south has been buying planks of wood at Wickes desperately building arcs this winter? |
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Where has this quote come from? Is he planning to water the whole course or just the new course?
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Think the quote may well have come from an unofficial Facebook page, and as such, is nonsense. Nothing from any of the reliable sources mentions watering.
Latest from Claisse on going is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGGacPlvwKQ |
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They have wanted good/soft at the festival for a few years now.
Their is no rain forecast next week from what ive heard,so if he needs to water to maintain that,thats what he will do. Good safe jumping ground. Sounds fine to me. |
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Paddy Power 2012 meeting he went Good to Soft / Soft in places to Soft / Heavy in places in one fair swoop when there'd not been a spot of rain all day.
You won't know what the ground is until Ruby's interviewed after winning the Supreme and tells you. |
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What's up with you lot.Hes telling you what's happening.hes said for many yrs now that he aims to start with good to soft unless the rains make it soft or heavy but no way will it start with good going.And this is exactly the right way to do it too.
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What's wrong is that given the high water table any significant watering will have a huge effect on the state of the going.
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Drying like hell up here at winchcombe and the farmers are all out in their tractors doing field work.Watering by Monday I reckon.
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They should ban watering and let the ground be natural.
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if they end up watering after the wettest winter in history then it is time to review the drainage
they spent all that money to ensure meetings are not lost in winter due to water logging but if it is going to compromise the going at the Showpiece every year they should consider reversing/slowing the rate of drainage putting water on ground that has been saturated for weeks, then dried out in the top layer but is is still wet underneath is going to produce horrible conditions very bad situation |
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Unless the ground becomes truly unsafe to race upon (ie firm), the course should be left alone absolutely. Why do people always want to play God with these things? The soft ground horses have had all winter to mop up big races, and the fact is the Gold Cup is run in March when for once we have a couple of dry days and slightly drying ground to help the others so what do we do - turn on the hosepipes to make it artificially 'fair'. An absolute joke.
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^^ spot on!! 100% agree
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animal rights appeasing >>>>> everyones heads >>>>>>> aeroplane
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it wouldn't be so bad if watering actually helped...
but it doesn't, it makes false going that horses don't act on and often injure themselves |
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I wouldn't worry about it. If he pours a glass of water on the course, he will tell everyone it was a bucket.
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..... two glasses two buckets .....
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if they end up watering after the wettest winter in history then it is time to review the drainage
they spent all that money to ensure meetings are not lost in winter due to water logging but if it is going to compromise the going at the Showpiece every year they should consider reversing/slowing the rate of drainage putting water on ground that has been saturated for weeks, then dried out in the top layer but is is still wet underneath is going to produce horrible conditions very bad situation 1) how many meetings have been lost to waterlogging at Cheltenham in recent years? 2) Does the water table find its own level or does it always stay at the same depth below the turf despite the undulations? 3) being a hilly course, does the surface dry out to the same degree over the entire course? 4) Has the OP ever been to Cheltenham Racecourse? |
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On the youtube quote, which I think was filmed yesterday, Claisse said his best guess of the ground on Tuesday, would be soft, gs places. Hours later, he changed it to GS, soft in places. There is no rain forecast. He has stated he thinks it's very unlikey he will water.
So despite the absence of any water being put on the course by nature or man, and an expected 5 days of sunshine, the ground is expected to get a bit softer. As has been stated, the water table is high. Presumably, Simon thinks that at night, when the world turns upside down, some of this water will fall back to the surface. I agree with the OP on his fundamental point. Claise is a lunatic, and it would do us all a service if he simply wasn't allowed airtime, as he talks complete and utter **** and misleads people. I don't think he does it on purpose, he seems like a nice enough chap, in a "Tim nice but dim" kind of way. He's just a bit clueless. |
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Claisse is thinking of watering for the Boat Race.
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water finds its own level, be it above ground or below ground.
It does not follow the contours of Cheltenham Racecourse which is a variety of hills and hollows with no level ground. Anyone who has walked the course will see that the ground can change every furlong, dryer on the higher points and more moisture in the hollows. Any watering that will be done will be selective and will target the dryer parts of the course only. The OP seems totally deranged and probably housebound to boot. |
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The OP does some very good posts on this forum the majority of the time, but I can't agree in this instance.
It seems inevitable that the new course will have to be watered, given the excellent drainage and lack of rain forecast. Claisse is forced to do this as a failure to do so risks damaging racing's image. If he didnt water and there were fatalities, the section of the animal rights brigade that despises racing would cause an immense amount of negative publicity. I agree that it's not ideal given the winter we've had, but I don't think Claisse has much real choice. |
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In answer to the question I've been to the festival several times and I can say with some degree of certainty that I bet far less often when the ground is artificially altered than I have when nature has taken it's course. That aside and being a vegetarian I take the point about the animal rights lobby but I think there is a difference watering what cannot be unsafe ground given the conditions a few inches down and watering when horse welfare is compromised by a long dry winter.
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Maybe when he's finished watering he could maybe level that steep hill off a bit?? It's awfully tough for horses that don't finish off their races too well and would be much fairer if flattened out a bit imo.
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The poster of this thread seems to be talking out of his a$$.
Some people really need to get a grip Claisse just said "highly unlikely a need to water between now and Tuesday" |
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Thought he was absolutely spot on in that interview. Every year he gets heavy criticism on here, and every year I hear him speak, I think he makes perfect sense.
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^ aye, the stick he gets is unreal.
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It s Racing in general which is the problem. Giving into the general public who watch the game for a couple of hours a year
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wonder how many animal rights groups were infiltrated and controlled by the cops ?
same as the bbc and rspca with their hidden agendas ,how much of that is totally contrived . its a fckd up world ,the general public dont give a flying ....in fact the general public do not even exist |
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http://www.racingpost.com/news/live.sd?event_id=1137752&category=0
Jesus christ the mad man is actually thinking of watering  Obviously horses for the hunter chase meeting cant be important has them running on quick ground doesnt matter |
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The ground is good-soft at the moment SJ, with a week of sunshine it really good get on the quick side by Friday. I have no problem with watering to keep it good, I have a big problem with watering to make it softer than good. As Nicky says, why shouldn't the good ground horses have a chance. Of course, Nicky has 2 good ground horses in the Gold Cup, so he probably isn't entirely unbiased. But as Judorick says, it creates patchy/false ground which is much more dangerous than racing on proper good going.
The big problem I have with Claisse is the drivel he talks/writes. He just doesn't take care. He gave a statement on Friday saying his best estimate of the ground on Tuesday was soft, GS places, and less than 12 hrs later it was officially quicker than that. He isn't that dumb, he can't be, he just isn't thinking before he speaks. But when millions of pounds are changing hands based on what he says, that is very disrespectful to his customers. I think it's about time we had independent going reports. It wouldn't cost that much, in the grand scheme of things, to employ a guy with a van and some measuring equipment to do that and nothing else. Betfair could sponsor it even, it would probably be worth it for the PR ("official Betfair going report" would be quoted throughout the media) and the increased turnover - because a lot of us hold of betting on certain horses because we just don't trust the going reports. |
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Beautiful day in Cheltenham. I've just been out for a jog and it is sunny, warm and breezy.
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Whatever anybody says and no matter how they try to disguise or what words they use it is about slowing them down and safety and reducing injury and fatalities.
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Good ground is fine for October. Good ground is fine for November. Good ground is fine for December and fast ground is fine for April. Why then does it need to be good to soft in March?
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because that's when the non racing media and the animal rights nutters get involved.
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Eeternaloptimist
Eeternaloptimist 09 Mar 14 13:15 Joined: 28 Jun 10 | Topic/replies: 23,723 | Blogger: Eeternaloptimist's blog Good ground is fine for October. Good ground is fine for November. Good ground is fine for December and fast ground is fine for April. Why then does it need to be good to soft in March? Rate reply: | report block user yeast yeast 09 Mar 14 13:17 Joined: 09 Mar 05 | Topic/replies: 558 | Blogger: yeast's blog because that's when the non racing media and the animal rights nutters get involved. Both spot on. No watering ever for summer jumping round Market Rasen and Stratford it s utter bollox |