wellchief 25 Jan 16 19:39 Joined: 17 Dec 09 | Topic/replies: 2,623 | Blogger: wellchief's blog
Jezki's Champion Hurdle was fantastic, and one of the best in recent years.

Hurricane Fly, The New One, Our Conor, Jezki and My Tent or Yours.  You had a dual Champion Hurdle winner, a Neptune winner, a Triumph winner and Supreme second and third.

You could make a case for all of them, was ultra competitive and resulted in a neck finish.

I don't mind watching Faugheen scoot around at 1/3 in Ireland, but give me the above Champion Hurdle any day of the week. It's not Faugheen's fault he is so good, but it usually makes races that he is in largely non events.


Spot on wellchief, my sentiments exactly

I wasa supposed to post a after the MACHINE word cos i personally HATE that term, they are horses not machines

Why? Look at the form book, of the horses that ran in Jezki's win Hurricane Fly managed 3rd last year with Jezki 4th The New One 5th! That's why, pretty obvious really but then again that's my opinion not a fact. Not like horses aren't machines that's a fact.

There are different ways you can look at the form book.  Because they finished lower isn't necessarily a sign of better quality the following year - The Fly was 11 last year, The New One had been largely disappointing since Aintree, and Jezki was looking more like a stayer.  You could argue they were all nearer their peak in the previous year, hence a higher position.

All opinions but none of Jezki's CH horses were able to beat Faugheen so despite the OR being higher for the average which is due to Bertimont running and hardly Faugheens fault.

slowerthanjohn i just think your blindly in love with Faugheen and just can't see or work out what we are all trying to say here. Each to their own, i have never had a fav' horse since Kauto Star and One Man before him, see the gap in years, cos it takes something special to make me want to love a horse in the same way. Something to do with the fact that they came along, there was no others. Well until Denman won a handicap off top weight and got called a tank and then won a gold cup cos KS got a bruised foot 6 weeks before the race but then lets not go there eh

Yeah I never use OR's in Grade 1's for the same reason.....unless they help back up my argument so I pick and choose when to use them

Well budd obviously only your opinion is correct and bonkers? guilty as charged. Yes depth in class, all of Jezki's CH proved in last years CH they were far superior

The funny thing is I don't see too many of WM owners complaining? Horses will always be placed for the benefit of the people paying the bills, end of!

So to all you purists you can honestly say if you were lucky enough to be in RR position you wouldn't do the same? You can argue till the cows come home but it won't change a thing and thank goodness.

I can honestly say I would not do the same.
Had I owned UDS I would have moved him from the stable had he not run him in the CHurdle.
Being RR would mean I don't need the money.
Therefore as a lover of the sport and mega rich I would have some fun and run my horses to compete in the best races that suit them,and not in the races that suit my trainers and jockeys agenda.
If that meant against each other so be it,in fact I would welcome it.
Be nice to be popular with the majority of the racing enthusiasts as well.

We can talk about Mullins as much as we like, the problem doesn't lie with him or any other trainer, the problem lies squarely at the feet of the owners, until the likes of Ricci alter the way they think then precisely nothing will change.

I don't know if you could alter Ricci's thinking, but one thing I'd really like to see is , when interviewing him for the interviewer to actually be brave enough to say that seeing these wonderful horses on their procession around Cheltenham is great, but it does not beat seeing them all being pitched in together to give the racing public the greatest thrill of all, real competition.

You need to get Ricci to realize that loved though these horses are, there is still something missing.

Duffy please don't think me argumentative but you honestly think WM wants to run his horses against each other? Personally I don't have a problem with it. I maybe in the minority but it doesn't make me right or wrong.

As most interviewers they are on the gravy train, they will not upset the apple cart for fear of losing the easy money they get. For example the shocking ride Sam Twiston Davies gave to Vibrato Valtat at the open meeting at Cheltenham 2014, all the Channel 4 so called experts defended him but fair play to Sam he admitted riding a shocker.

RR has his horses with WM as he is the best trainer and RW is the best jockey.


When RW learns how to produce his horses at the obstacles in the same vain as Dunwoody and Maguire used to, or Richard Johnson, Paddy Brennan, Nico de Boinville - up and coming very apt at getting his mounts to the otherside, Noel Fehily to name just a few then i will agree that Ruby Walsh is the best jockey around.

He might get the best rides around on the top horses, but he is by far and away not the best jockey around imo at least! Not very apt at getting a horse from one side to other when they need to be shown how to do it is what am trying to say and in a lot of occasions he gets too far back in races too so not the best judge either!

All this talk of too many races is doing my nut in.  Bar the Ryanair the big G1s have been there for many a year.  And the Ryanair doesn't sound like it's going to take too many horses away from the CC or GC at the moment.

We might have seen Killutagh Vic run in the Arkle or the RSA 15 years ago but apart from that not sure we can say the 4th day or the new races are the root of all evil?

Breaking news on the Racing Post RR has asked WM to replace RW as stable jockey with either  Richard Johnson, Paddy Brennan, Nico de Boinville or Noel Fehily!!!!

STS you are funny but it's unfortunate you aren't intending to be.

I have no time for ruby as a person but to class fehilly in the same league is an insult to rubys class in the saddle but to say it twice

The best by a street!

John,
I think we all know the reason why UDS hurdling firm ain't much.........he was never entered in a top race against other top horses!!
Had he been I suspect we would not be having this conversation. He was packed off to France a couple of times.
He was simply not given a chance.
I cannot think of any other hurler that was winning his races by a street every time,even after his novice year,that never got exposed as to how good he was. Not one,and I have been following racing for a long time.
Yep,I would have taken him elsewhere for sure.

Still at least he's still winning good races,so owners do have some fun with him.....such a shame that some still knock him.
Had he been given his chance hurdling at the top level,I suspect he would not be so unpopular with some.

Duffy you are right - 'racing' somehow needs to get across to RR that while they are huge fans of his horses it is missing out on once in a life time rivalries and match ups and he has the power to change that - racing needs to convey to him that greatness is not just measured by how many notches on your bed post that it is an incredibly judgmental, scrutinised and discerning sport and that WPM while being an outstanding trainer does not own exclusive rights to things like legacy, legend status,prestige, memories etched in racing history e.t.c.e.t.c. - that is why i started the please change your model thread - not because i wanted to debate this amongst you guys -though i was happy to do that - but in the vain hope that he may somehow get to hear how passionately some people felt about this. The racing media really has to step up here and fight for this as they are in a prvileged position of having influence and having air space with the man - but they are all gutless - even MC turns into a drivelling a**e licker when in RR or WPM company - it reminds me of how the media used to approach ferguson - beacsue they were afarid that if they upset him he would refuse to talk to them anymore a la bbc. On this occasion I really really miss Big Mac because this is excatly the kind of thing he would have shouted endlessly from the roof tops about and got huge exposure to this. It may not change anything, probably wont but Racing should at least try imo and not just roll over and have its tummy tickled.

Miltons, I haven't said anywhere that UDS shouldn't have run in the CH; I have said I wonder what would have happened if they had selected his first race differently and not ruined his novice status 3 weeks before the festival.

If they had saved him for novice hurdles the following year, he could have been in the Royal Bond, the Deloitte and a Supreme, and then went chasing at the same as he he did last year if they thought that was his end game.

If they did that route, no one would doubt him as a hurdler, and Champion Hurdle wouldn't need to have even entered the question; just as nobody has mentioned the Champion Hurdle for Douvan this year.

It's easy to use the Coneygree example, because that is a really recent one; but apart from him, when was the last time a novice ran in Championship race? Hardly ever, because it isn't done.  Sprinter would have hosed up in a QMCC as a novice, but they went the Arkle route, Vautour would have won last year's Ryanair, but they went JLT.

Physically, he might not have looked like a novice, but by putting him in Micky Mouse races, without any competition, he would not have been prepared for what was about to hit him in March.  Not his fault, no doubt he had the ability, but he wouldn't have been adaquetly prepared to be chucked in the deep end.

"UDS not running in the CH was a disgrace and travesty of monumental proportions and one of the biggest disservices to racing that i can remember"

In today's RP, Mullins is praised for his softly softly approach with UDS, making the point that the horse was so headstrong when younger that, had Mullins not avoided the top guns, he may well have failed to become the much more settled, professional horse that he is today. To come out with a statement like that, Miltons, smacks of ignorance.