Annie Power

By February you mean Monday 9th March in Mullins world?

Bang on Fidway.
Leave camp Mullins alone till the tapes are ready to go up

No disrespect to the mares involved but it remains a Grade 1 in name only. You can't invent tradition but more importantly competitiveness. The owner clearly isn't in the game just to pick up baubles.

MARES HURDLE

She'll be fiddling about in the same races as she did last year before winning the mares hurdle for the next 4 years.

What's she going to run in then buddeliea ?

by that i mean, ruby isnt sure staying is her game. she obviously stayed the 3m trip in the WH.

Blacktype is blacktype when it comes to breeding.

Still, at least she will have a bar at Cheltenham named after her in a few years.

yeh I know all that,and its fair comment,but I just like to see horses reach their full potential,i don't think this is the way to do it with AP,but it is just my take on it.

Also there is no way that RR sits back and lets WPM do a Quevega on her as you can see he is just itching to aim her at the very top. imo.

He's sat back so far and allowed mullins to run her in the stayers when the whole reason she stayed hurdling last year was to see if she could run in the CH...and she deserved her place in it last year.....now they're still keeping her hurdling, with no apparent target for her in the top hurdle races.......how much better it would be if these horses were spread out a bit more amongst a few more trainers.

So they are given every chance to run in the races they should be,and not in those that suit trainers and jockey agendas

Completely disagree,plenty of decent trainers in Ireland,or even England!! End of the day they keep sending best horses to one trainer then we will miss out on seeing competitive races,or at least less competitive races anyway. Spread them around we get proper races with best horses clashing more often,and the horses get to reach their full potential running in the races suited to their strengths and not running in races just to avoid stable mates.

So you're a multi-millionaire. You walk into a car showroom and have narrowed it down to 3 choices. You can have the Ford (De Bromhead, Meade etc). You can have the Audi (Nicholls, Henderson, Jonjo etc) or you can have the Ferrari (Mullins).

Let's be realistic here, if you're the man with the horse and money do you put in the best hands possible or do you settle for 2nd best?

If anyone believes for one minute Rich Ricci doesn't get a say in where he wants his horses to run you are deluded. Of course Mullins will advise him what he thinks best. And yes that may come across as he would like to avoid another stable star but if you genuinely believe, for example, Vautour will sidestep the Arkle because Un De Sceaux is a potential runner please re-assess your sanity.

Well Mullins has the best record as a trainer in Ireland in recent years, but I know there are plenty of trainers around capable of getting a horse to reach its full potential.
The way this is going in Ireland with Ricci sending all his horses to 1 trainer just aint good for the sport imo, in the fact that it affects the horses owned by others in his yard.
Thank god for JP and Gigginstown who recognise the qualities of other trainers and spread their horses about,at least then giving us some competition.
If I had enough money to buy a quality horse their is no way I would try and compete with Ricci and send it to Mullins,i would look elsewhere ensuring my horse had the best possible chance of fulfilling its potential and running in the races he should be.
No one in this world can tell me how good UDS is......even his jockey last season was saying he did not know!! And that's purely cos he was not declared for the races that would have told us. Different trainer he would now be exposed as to how good he is........and maybe would be a Churdle winner!!!!! Same can also be said about Annie Power who along with UDS wpuld have run in the Churdle imo, had it not been for the Fly.
I just don't like The politics of this yard at all,its my opinion,it harms my enjoyment of this great sport.

Thought it was pretty clear.
What do you think?

It is clear to me that WM has been given carte blanche to make decisions on Riccis horses. You just have to look at how AP was campaigned last year running in mickey mouse races across the pond. And when she did run in Ireland they chose the Mares race over the much more valuable World Hurdle, which in hindsight she would have won in a hack canter. It's great to see wealthy owners willing to pour money into the game but when they aspire to only "win any race at Cheltenham" this is bad for spectators who, like buddeliea, appreciate competitive racing. JP on the other hand would have 20 runners in the top races if he could.

Massive conflict of interest in that yard with so many above average horses and it is only going to get worse. imo.

The only politics that exist are between punters,if the owners of UN de sceaux are not happy with the way it's been campaigned they should move it,this season Ricci,gigginstown and wylies horses cannot avoid each other for long,ruby going to have to choose between a few,even though he doesn't ride for gigginstown,there is too many but the people that pay the bills continue to send him more horses,as I say it maybe isn't good for the sport but their doesn't look as though any of his owners are bothered,when jp mcmanus has 2 or more in a race with different trainers people complain about that.

Watching MTOY and Jezki in the Churdle was pretty good...would we have seen that had they been owned by Ricci,and trained by Mullins??