The "what am I missing?" thread.

Nothing. Rich Ricci says he's a monster so he must be.

agree with OP joke price hype hype

Punters who are on at 20+ well done but if you're not on now I would say leave alone as must be worst value in the race.

I'M ON AT 33/1 £10 EW,WAS OUT FOR A PINT TUES NIGHT AND SAID AS MUCH BUT HOW COULD ANY1 BACK IT AT THE PRICE NOW IS BEYOND ME

for those about to get stuck into 9s watch the hennessey

has he grown an extra couple of legs?

I will wrap up if he wins this.How many horses yet to win a grade 1 race win the GC?

On his own almost did it last year.

That's true but more experienced than Djakadam mind.

Just about every Mullins horse is now a false price, no doubt he'll come away with a few winners, but a few will also get beat, and whoever beats them will be bigger price than they should be, I'm going to try get his short priced horses beat in every race over the 4 days....

AS willie says himself"only one in every four favs win at Cheltenham"

That's it jasey. Thought about the lack of experience myself, but if he had experience and  a favs price as a result, i wouldn't have got 16/1 close to the festival. Kinda hoping this horse could be an exception to stats etc. Also, i have this thing where if i like a horse i want to back it, simply because i wouldn't want to say 'damn i should have backed that'.  I also wondered why they haven't given him another run. Hopefully he gets there. Agree that the price now isn't up to much.

I think Djakadam needs a little defending here, I admit I'm on at big big prices and he's my biggest ever single win at the festival if he scores, I kept the faith after the Hennessy in the hope he was undercooked rather then a non stayer and I was rewarded in the thyestes with a race full of promise showing plenty of stamina and a good win off top weight, I'm not sure what's not to like about him???
He reminds me so much of long run in that a lot of hype surrounded him before he bombed out in the paddy power losing to little josh, he went on to win the gold cup that year beating denman by 7l.......... He's got youth on his side, totally unexposed and was absolutely cruising last year in the JLT that's not hype that's what I saw when watching the race. I can't say he would of beaten Taquin last year no one can but I would like to think he would of been very close..........let's say Taquin won last time out thus proving he stayed then I reckon he would be trading around the 10/1 mark? So I think 10's is about right and if I have a decent first 3 days will certainly top up! Good luck all

if i was on at 25 or so i would be happy enough too but my question was simply what has he done to warrant his currant price?
the gowran park run off top weight was impressive but horses of his profile don't have a good record in the gold cup.
obviously very highly regarded & it is not the strongest of gold cups but still............................
anyway i don't have a strong view on the race so good luck if you got on at the fancy odds.

I normally form an opinion the year before in some of the top races so I can have some ante post money on and djakadam really stuck out for me being a young horse with plenty of improvement hopefully, never ran in the race before was a must and a decent price was obviously what I was after............. A friend of mine really fancied Lord windermere last year and kept going on about it for months, I tried talking him out of it and saying the horses form doesn't stack up and when it won I walked out the pub!!! But because of his bad runs though last year my pal only won about 200 quid which I told him was absolutely criminal bearing in mind it was hovering around 60's and 70's on here for a lot of the year during the winter and the fact he fancied it for months he didn't back up his judgement at the bigger prices! So I vowed to not do the same after djack's hennesey run and carried on with a few quid here and there around the 90's and 100 mark!
The gold cup is an extremely difficult race this year the hardest I can remember to whittle down the potential winners and if it wasn't the best race of the year I would advise anyone who asked me not to have a bet in it and concentrate on a more attractive race betting wise, but as we all know there is only one gold cup and the stomach is already churning in anticipation for it!

that irish bloke Don McClean who was on the morning line on Sat seems very keen of djakadam although when he mentioned him, a few times,  the presenters never allowed him to elaborate.
he has written about him tho.......

Djakadam was disappointing when he was sent off as favourite for the Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury in November, when racing off a mark of just 142, but he put that run behind him when he landed the Thyestes Chase at Gowran Park last month.

[i]You couldn’t see too much of that race through the fog, but Ruby Walsh had him handy throughout, he appeared to travel well and he jumped the second last fence superbly before staying on well to win easily.  Of course, the Thyestes is only a handicap chase, but it a high-class handicap, this year’s renewal has worked out well so far, and Djakadam won it well under 11st 10lb.  Interestingly, Djakadam’s stable companion On His Own won the Thyestes last year off a 3lb lower mark before going on to finish second in the Gold Cup.

Willie Mullins’ horse is going to have to progress again if he is to win a Betfred Cheltenham Gold Cup, but he is only six, he is just growing into his massive frame, and he has bundles of scope to progress further.  His Thyestes win proved that he stays well, and he was travelling really well in the JLT Chase at last year’s Festival when he came down at the fourth last fence. He still looks over-priced for the Gold Cup at 14/1 with Sky Bet, non-runner-no-bet.[/i]

i might have to take issue the comment on the Thyestes chase that "this year’s renewal has worked out well so far"
there were only 6 that completed & only 3 have run since.
the 2nd was a dozen lengths behind a 152 rated nag in receipt of 6lb while the 5th has run twice since, unseating and being beat 20 lengths.
Toon River way back in 6th has won a couple of races quite well but of an inferior standard so still not sure what has really worked out all that well.
I  suspect he  knows how highly the yard regard the horse rather than have anything concrete form wise to go on.
also he mentions that "he is only a six year old" but it may also have been worth mentioning that it was over 50 years ago a 6 year old last won

^ i forgot about Long Run, he was 6 wasn't he? still rare tho.

he's run in 5 chases, has form figures in UK of F8, is 6yo and has won 1 Graded Chase as a novice but 'Willie would n't be running a 6yo in the Gold Cup unless he thought he was up to it'.

Coneygree is an 8yo who has admittedly run in only three chases but won the lot, all Graded including a Grade 1 and an open age Grade 2 yet because he is a novice 'the trainer should have his license away if he runs him in the Gold Cup'

Novice is a pejorative word and this is basically equine snobbery.

I don't buy the comparison between Long Run and Djakadam either, Long Run was 3rd in Paddy Power off 158 and then won the King George on the way to winning the Gold Cup, Djakadam was beaten a long way in the Hennessy and then won a handicap off 145.

Djakadam looks like going off second favourite and I even read somewhere a statement that he could challenge SC for favouritism on the day - purely on the basis of what Ricci and Patrick Mullins have said at preview evenings surely. Even if you forget the UK based horses, how the hell can Djakadam possibly be shorter than CL,R2R and LW?

He went off 5/1F for the Hennessy so we've been here before. I've nothing against the horse and none of the above means he can't win of course, good luck if you've backed him at big prices. Not for me, though.

Another mystery horse.

Ned Buntline.

Apparently he is a good thing for AP in the Grand Annual because the race has been renamed the A.P. McCoy Grand Annual Chase Challenge Cup (Handicap) Grade 3.

Still, it makes a change from the last few years of pundits telling us to back Nicky Henderson's because it was named after his dear old dad.

^ Ned was 2nd in the same race last year.

Djakadam was great!

The winner was beyond brilliant and I really hope we don't have to put up with any bullsh!t nonsense about how lucky he was to win in a weak renewal without the likes of Don Poli and Vautour. Given the right conditions, he'll have a decent chance of defending his title next year.

Would love to see him try and win the Hennessy as a Gold Cup title holder.

Failing either of the above, he will have a great chance at Aintree next year.

Coneygree is a serious,serious racehorse and he will continue to entertain us imo.

Djakadam justified the hype alright, the winner put in a brilliant round of jumping but given that Djakadam is only 6 then he must be a serious contender for the next couple of renewals.

think they said the same about long run

Mar 15, 2015 -- 8:30PM, 1st time poster wrote:

think they said the same about long run

???not sure what you mean by that. long run was a serious contender for subsequent gold cups. he went off 7/4 fav the following year.
it could be a very hot heat in 2016 tho,