Cant believe they think it can beat Douvan over 2 miles? Better chance in JLT imo.

Wylie wants to toughen up, happened with Felix Yonger amongst others. I do wants what Willie says.

It must be very hard for WPM to keep all of his runners apart, and its easy to sell a trip to England to Wylie I would guess. The horse has enough toe to deal with 2m imo, and will give them a good sighter for Douvan and others. Presumably it gives KV the chnace to go for the Flogas now as well.

Also means he wont run on very heavy ground again. Dont think its a bad choice tbh, as Im sure Ruby said they go flat out in the JLT anyway, and its just a case of who stays best. Doesnt look a bad prep for the race, and also means they have backup to Douvan in the Arkle if required.

Wylie just been on RUK - said tomorrow is to see whether he will take on douvan in arkle or kv in jlt - said lots of other things as well - one comment in particular about being kept in the dark as much as everyone else and that he finds out where his horses are running by looking at the previous days entries.

Interesting...is he a little bit irked....at last!!!

Fair points CCM. Haven't seen the Wylie interview yet. Don't suppose he mentioned the Deloite did he Milton? Wondering whether Bellshill, Yorkhill, both or neither are running!

to be fair to wylie he has always maintained that bellshill has a smuch pace as yorkhill - in fact in one interview he said it had more speed - i got the impression he is just waiting for trainer to tell him.

Difficult position for Wylie. He's in Ricci's shadow to an extent but look how much better he's faring with Mullins compared to Nicholls. Still though Mullins has only sent out two Festival winners for him  Back In Focus & Briar Hill (Stand to be corrected if they were more?) which isn't a great return considering the return Ricci has had. How many seconds has he had - Shanesill twice, On His Own, Boston Bob. Boston Bob, Nichols Canyon, Briar Hill Black Hercules, Felix Yonger beaten favourites when Mullins/Walsh were winning all round him. I wouldn't blame him if he left like he was missing out while everyone else was having a great time.

if the only consideration is festival winners then as things stand you wouldnt leave. Over time as an owner gets more used to winners then perhaps other things start becoming important - a little bit like how perhaps man utd fans evolved from winning is everything to how they win also becomes very important. This is not a comment about wpm - this is a more broad comment. All owners have the right to evolve and factor new things into their expectations regarding return on investment (where return could be many things not just financial). It wouldnt surprise me if wylie and rr in particular reach a point where they think or feel that winning alone is not enough and that they look for more from their overall experience. This may not mean leaving the stable unless there is a viable alternative which many would argue there isnt, but it may mean a significant power shift in the relationship.

These guys are winners in their own right and highly successful individuals - they are undoubtedly very smart and shrewd operators and like all such people know when to take control and when to relinquish it, when to compete and when to collaborate, when to avoid and when to accommodate e.t.c. - they have both up to now given carte blanche to the trainer and stood back and now have many data points to assess what has been positive about that decision and what less so. undoubtedly on the plus side is the success they have had, it would be surprised however if they didnt also question whether they could remove some or all of the negatives without compromising on success and try and orchestrate a change in the relationship to ensure that happened.

As with all of historys greats and powerful figures they always have a flaw that ultimately proves to be their undoing - if a trainer does emerge that proves to be as effective as WPM but also provides owners with the other ingredients as well then what currently makes him a dominant force may also result in him being less so.

duffy - unfortunately i didnt record it so i cannot say 100% i was listening to him live and remember being really shocked and thinking did he just say that but made myself pay attention in case i missed anything - when i reflected on what i had heard i was sure i heard him say 'i am kept in the dark' - if i am wrong then i will apologise to the world and his wife - i am now kind of desperate to see if alzhymers is starting to creep in. One thing you can quote me on 100% - because its clearly subjective - but to me there was more of an edge to him than i have ever detected before and he was definitey helping us understand in more detail the relationship between him and trainer - i have spent my life communicating to very powerful people like this - and in my experience they ALL have a public face - but they all have a private side that includes a really steely resolve and can look very different - its what separates them - imo neither of these guys should be underestimated

Have to admit that I was a bit surprised when I saw that Vaniteux is shorter than him in the betting for tomorrow.  I know it's a drop back in trip and he's got to give 4lbs, but I personally think he is a lot better horse than Vaniteux.

would be surprised if arzal doesnt make the running - they didnt want to take AM on lto and i think that affected his jumping - i think whatever we can be sure of a true run race - FN is no slouch either and trainer rates him highly - should be a cracker

Too bad to be true that run

Shaneshill's jumping was poor and L'amo for the JLT certainly wasn't done any harm there.... shaneshill  looking like another JLT runner..possibly..likely?

Agree Duffy.  L'ami Serge JLT supporters could of had asked for a better result there. Still holding on to a glimmer of hope.....

Don't think Shaneshill will go to the festival after that - soft targets at home more likely.

Call me a cynic but i honestly don't think WPM was trying to achieve anything by running him in that race today except perhaps gaining a perfect out for avoiding Cheltenham. A real head shaker regardless of todays performance.

The time of that race CCM compared to the rest of the card was unbelievable (albeit we got some rain later in the day)

I seen that Duffy came up with excuses about the trip over to Doncaster and the run from both too bad to be true.
I wouldn't be too confident in his chances but atleast willie said he still goes to cheltenham  for either the jlt or rsa and uo for review still goes bartlett. Glimmer of hope for backers.

Won't beat Vic either imo,that was pretty bad yesterday,his jumping don't seem up to winning a festival race.