Cheltenham Festival
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Nichols Canyon
Nichols Canyon
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Could he be a Champion Hurdle horse, i know Willie Mullins has an abundancy of 2 milers but they keep saying this one has so much speed, would rather the Champion hurdle than the World hurdle.
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TAKE the 16's lads
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Didn't look mad on the track to me in the Neptune.
Would want to se him handle Cheltenham well before I took anything like 16's personally. |
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Certainly put in a below par effort in the Neptune but was given a poor ride, well not to his strengths. I too need to see him run at cheltenham again under a positive ride.
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aintree hurdle prime aim for him owner says,
would have to get some near faugheen beforehand to go for the champion imo, stayers no chance at all |
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Place in a champion is a good prep for aintree. Did nicholls canyon himself and arctic fire and jezki no harm last year.
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how long between Cheltenham and aintree next year?
Anyway,If you take Ruby for his word,then no way is NC going champion hurdle,all he kept going on about was that he stays and stays!! My gut feeling is he only goes CH if Faugheen has a setback. |
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I still personally think he'll end up in the WH.
The Morgiana will tell us a lot imo. If he can keep to within a couple of lengths of Faugheen, then I can see them aiming for the Champion, but I think if he's beaten fairly easily, Ruby will be quick to let the cameras know he needs to be stepped up. Despite it being very early in the year, it could be a pivotal race for NC. |
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I would agree Chief,WH is the race for him.
Cannot believe wylie would want him running for a place in the CH,especially after hearing Ruby saying about him staying. He will want to have a go at winning,not playing 2nd fiddle. |
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Nice to see him running and adding some interest to the race rather than it being another walk over G1 in Ireland.
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still a walkover. Faugheen could win the CH or the WH ... and probably the QM too if he got the chance. Simply a totally different class.
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yeh,would be a real shock for me if faugheen don't win easily.
Not for the first time are we gonna have another grade 1 in name only. Mind you this season we won't have a competitive top grade hurdle till March,and even that is dependant on Hendersons juveniles from last season!! |
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I don't know how anyone can say this is a G1 in name only when you have a novice coming through that won all but one of his completed G1 races last season: 4 in total, 2 flat horses rated 110+ and 2 others rated 92 and 85, 4 horses rated 150+ over hurdles and a supplemented unexposed horse that comes just after a G2 this season. The last 5 Morgianas didn't had this kind of quality COMBINED.
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well then the last 5 were pretty poor I would say.
What I mean is that none of these are imo good enough to trouble the fav,he' and AF are the only ones with CHurdle form and we all know who will win with those two. Yes,NC has good novice form,but he will probably just make it a Mullins 123. To have a proper grade 1 we need horses from other stables at a similar level,we seldom get that these days away from the festivals. |
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apologies,AFire don't run,so we have WBrave to make up,the 123.
Sorry,it's not my idea of a Grade 1. |
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If NC was allowed to win then the race could be worthwhile.
We have had so many seasons of every g1 hurdle before the festival being a farce. Maybe down to Hurricane Fly's brilliance. Cant wait til boxing day and the 5 runner christmas hurdle. |
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Before we all get carried away with Faugheen winning by half the track , (which he may well do ) its worth revisiting the last time he met WB at Punchestown , with the latter giving away 20+ lengths at the start and being close up and going well at the second last where he fell , probably wouldnt have found a huge amount and its 18mths ago , but interesting .
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its the best renewal in recent years, this years County winner WB, a/the top novice hurdler of last season NC - 4 G1 wins, a G2 lto winner IT who was supplemented(when was the last time a horse was suppl. for this race?), last year Galway Hurdle winner TE whos rated 150, and the outsider Plinth who's a fair 140 yard stick trained by the best trainer on flat AOB. Plus Faugheen. The only thing preventing this resulting in a proper G1 is the lack of a prep race for the top 2.
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"he' and AF are the only ones with CHurdle form" this theory is proved wrong season after season, the CH form is not necessarily the ONLY good form. Faugheen was the pick on form for the CH last season(based on Christmas hurdle) and he wasn't present in the previous `14 CH.
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this is a grade 1 for the top hurdlers.....Faugheen is the only proven top hurdler in the race.
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I can give you examples over flat in the BC or Champion Stakes or Arc and you'd say there's only 1 or 2 top horses in those races, does that mean that all of the other G1 flat races should be downgraded to G2-3? The G1s is a measure of how competitive a race is and when 2 G1 last season winning horses and a G2 recent winner is present in a race then it deserves its G1 status, unless at least 2 underperform and you can then make a case. Its not a walkover for Faugheen.
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Its ok,we have ideas on a grade 1,mine is different to yours.
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GTFI
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There goes my World Hurdle bet on him down the crapper!!!
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Wicklow Brave being so close. I'd say Faugheen has run well below his best. It'd be different if the 2 were well clear.
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Cat amongst the pigeons springs to mind.
So what will they say about Faugheen? Be interesting. Looks like I have to eat Humble Pie re Nicholls canyon,good performance from the front. |
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Wicklow Brave had a big fitness advantage.
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Certainly made the 2m hurdling division more interesting anyway.
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I think an interesting part of what's happened today is the fact that NC was actually allowed to run rather than the red carpet being simply rolled out for a faugheen procession....maybe I'm looking into things a bit too much but I'd like to think the Wylie's rolled their sleeves up a bit and insisted....nice to see that jumping put under pressure.
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That £250 ew at 20/1 looking pretty good now. Although I did have £400 faugheen at 6/4 too.
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@duffy the race only began before 2 out, before that it was a sub-moderate pace and NC was full of running in the home straight. Faugheen maybe thought the one in front was a mare and just didn't wanted to get off her back but when he did after the last it was too late and when he was getting the better of NC in the last 50y NC veered left into him and it was over.
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thought it was a bird...I take it that's a wind up
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Faugheen made a horlicks of the 2nd last which got him un balanced and off the bridle just as Nichols Canyon kicked for home - but for that he would have won a length or so imo. His jumping has always been a touch sketchy so no great surprise.
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Agreed...his jumping has finally cost him.
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Claram beat Vautour last December. Worry is that Faugheen could have an injury.
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Nichols canyon has to be the most under rated horse in training. Take away his neptune run which was a poor ride by ruby pulling all the way round whilst held up. arguably in the wrong race to accommodate rich ricci and ruby, and people would be absolutely raving about this horse.
Hes A 5 times grade 1 winner (would of been 6 if he diddnt unseat against sizing john) putting it up to faugheen and winning fair and square, paddies been 8/1 all summer about nc for the champion hurdle and still people are making up excuses for why he's won. They will both come on for the run and wicklow brave was already fit of the flat. The Tony Martin horse in behind won the galway plate and is no mug. When nicholls canyon wins his next race then finishes in the first 3 in the champion surely people should appreciate the horse for what he is. A very good horse. |
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Faugheen is THE champion Hurdler, and based on today's running was nowhere near his peak. First runs of the season should be taken in the context of what they are, a pipe opener. Faugheen was so much better than others last season, and I'm in no way losing faith that he'll win the Champion Hurdle in March.
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I couldn't believe NC was put into Neptune after deloitte win .. Imo, deloitte is best Supreme trial and he should have been in that. And as many have already said, he's won 5 G1s!... Still can't believe that was a fully fit Faugheen tho'... And will be interesting to see how PAC goes in senior company now..
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Faugheen wasn't at his best today, but I think Nichols Canyon is, as he always seems to have been, underrated. If he made the running in the Champion, I think he would at least make it a contest for Faugheen.
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That's the last time NICHOLS CANYON will be HELD UP ! WD Mr Wylie
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