Graham wylie excellent interview

Well done Matt - great interview. Wylie gave a frank and open opinion on every horse. Interesting that HE brought up Augusta Kate when the topic turned to his best chance of a winner. I think that the owners are keen to persuade WPM to let them have their day.
Good summary from scooby - but to be fair he wasn't 100% that Nichols went CH, just 'almost certain at this stage' - same with Felix although it sounds like Japan is a lot less likely than it was.
The one that is really up in the air appears to be Black Hercules. Far from certain to go 4 Miler as the RSA sounds a definite possibility as far as Willie is concerned

What race did he say for yorkhill please ?

I'd be dissapointed if what odds black hercules is for a race became a factor. He surely seems like an RSA horse ?

Didn't know - but reading between the lines I got the impression that it looks like Yorkhill Neptune and Bellshill Supreme. Just the feeling I got anyway.

Yorkhill is clear second fav for the Neptune and you cannot give it away for the Supreme, so it's already been decided where he goes.
Basically Ricci is getting clear passage as usual with Min, and even though Yorkhill would be better suited to 2m, Wylie is getting messed around because Ruby wants 2 good chances rather than one, and maybe the wrong one winning .
They are avoiding Min but taking on Yanworth with Yorkhill. Ruby has a good ride in both races and Wylie gets it up the jaxxy.

Almost certainly he's going to be in the Champion Hurdle but we'll keep our options open just in case something happens between now and March 15," said Wylie.

"I think you'll probably see him in the Champion. It depends how he does this year, but I think we may step him up in terms of distance next season."

Reflecting upon his latest defeat, Wylie said: "Faugheen looked very, very impressive, and I don't know even if Nichols Canyon had turned up at his best if he'd have got that close to him.

"I think he was very impressive that day. I think with my fella we don't know if it was a hard run or whether just trying to keep up with Faugheen took the legs off him. We just don't know. But Willie said to me this morning that he's good form, he's working well and he'll take his chance.

"There is a possibility he might turn up in the World Hurdle, but then Thistlecrack looks a very good horse too.

"I think the fact is that we haven't run Nichols Canyon at three miles at all. I'm not convinced therefore that it would be sensible to take him to the World Hurdle without knowing if he gets the trip."

Wylie also had news of some of his other squad, including Tolworth Hurdle winner Yorkhill, whose Sandown form has now been boosted twice in the last couple of weeks with big wins from O O Seven and Agrapart.

Punters are itching to find out whether Yorkhill will line up in either the Sky Bet Supreme or the Neptune Novices' Hurdle, but Wylie wasn't for committing with four weeks still to go.

"He's obviously one of my best novices this season, if not my best novice," he said. "The truth is he's down for both the Supreme and Neptune and we haven't made up our minds yet. If he goes in the Supreme, he's up against Min. If he goes in the Neptune, he's up against Yanworth. He's got two tough competitors in either race.

"I spoke to Willie this morning and he said he'd make up his mind nearer the time. We'll probably keep him separate from Bellshill - one of those will go in the Supreme and one in the Neptune - but we don't know just yet.

"The truth is that Ruby has ridden the horse quite a few times, Willie trains him every day, those two boys know which is the best race for him and I just leave it to them. They know far more about the quality of the horse and his chance than I ever could.

"He won his bumper at Punchestown on fast ground but the nice thing is he will go on either ground, but I do think he will be a better horse on better ground."

Yorkhill can be backed with Sky Bet for the Supreme at 16/1 or at 20/1 for the Neptune with the same firm.

Wylie said that Bellshill had recovered from a poor run at Leopardstown last time out, and also confirmed that some of his other recent disappointments, Shaneshill andUp For Review, were also on course to come back at Cheltenham despite their latest poor showings.

"Bellshill scoped afterwards and he scoped badly so we can probably still go to Cheltenham," said Wylie. "Ruby got off last time and said when he pulled him out the horse just had nothing. That race was too bad to be true, but if the horse wasn't right they can't run their race, can they?

"Shaneshill I think we went there [to Doncaster] to see if he was an Arkle horse and we got our answer - he'll definitely be in the JLT. He's down for the RSA as well, but I think the JLT is the race for him.

"Hopefully, Up For Review will bounce back and run a big race in the Albert Bartlett too. He's going to be a chaser, but it would be great to see him run well there."

Wylie's recent run of misfortune was extended when Black Hercules fell at the final fence at Navan on Sunday when having victory in the bag, but the owner was still looking on the bright side, even if unable to commit the horse to either the RSA Chase or the National Hunt Chase.

"Ruby said his jumping was superb, obviously up until the last fence," he said. "He had plenty of horse under him, he got in low, hit the top and just crumpled on landing. Just a novicey mistake.

"I spoke to Willie this morning and he said 'The horse isn't slow, he's actually quite fast' and the report from Ruby yesterday was that if he was in the RSA, he wouldn't show you up, he'd run a big race. It's very much options open - we'll make that decision nearer the time.

"From where I'm sitting he's got a great chance in the National Hunt Chase. We've never tried him over four miles, but we do think he'd stay. But Willie is convinced he'd run a big race in the RSA, so we'll see."

Wylie also said that he was looking to run Felix Yonger in the Champion Chase rather than the Ryanair and that his juvenile Voix Du Reve could make a first appearance in his silks in the Triumph Hurdle, or wait for Punchestown.

yep,normal thing with this lot.
Wylie  can say what he likes bless him,but it's coming across more and more who the beneficiaries are when it comes to decisions.
Jockey trainer and ricci.

He can put his horses where he likes, fella. Don't you think there's just a chance he's happy to have them as his trainer and jockey? Cos if he wasn't happy he'd feck off, wouldn't he? Numerous Grade 1's and big race successes? Perhaps he should send them all to Nicholls and retain STD to ride them all.

He had a fair few big race wins before he got involved with Mullins.
I dare say he would get them with other trainers as well.
If he's happy with his relationship with Mullins and the way the yard works,of course that's up to him.
I would be off personally.

So from what ive read, the consensus is Yorkill goes for the Neptune. If Wylie sticks to his word and splits Yorkhill and Bellshill, that means Bellshill goes for the Supreme...Surely the 25/1 about Bellshill is huge value then? He beat most of the supreme runners at Punch and Aintreee last year (admittedly not at Cheltenham)

Well even if you take his last run at face value, do you believe he will go for the Supreme? The market doesnt. you can't lay him, and can back at 40/1, whilst Neptune has a 14-19 spread. Same with the bookies. Best price 12/1 Neptune, best price Supreme, 33/1. Am i missing something? Or is Wylie just lying

Well my issue is Wylie says "we will split them up" which makes sense. But the markets dont agree at all. The exchange points to them both going for the Neptune. Hence my question. If Wylie is telling the truth, there is some serious value to be had one one of them going for the Supreme. If hes lying, which the markets indicate, then you'd get burnt trying to find value in the supreme market...

He's very much a gent from what can be seen and Wylie seems to love the sport. He doesn't try to dictate or even seem to sit in during the planning stage which must put him at a disadvantage vis a vis Ricci's horses because as he freely admits Ricci definitely is hands on in the planning stages.

Festivalfanatic - PFN has had a crap season. Might tempt Howard Johnson out of retirement though......Blush


Well there have been mutterings that JHJ might be returning to the training ranks, He is mad as a box of frogs though so could just be playing around.

Let's hope what happened to Shaneshill last year is not replicated with Yorkhill solely to facilitate WPM and RW personal aims only.

He needs to do what is best for his horses and have Yorkhill, Bellshill, Shaneshill, Black Hercules, Up for Review, Nichols Canyon, etc put in the correct races not dropped from a race because Ruby wants a ride in it or some other feeble excuse.

If he wants Mullins and Walsh so much  he deserves only the crumbs he gets from the Ricci, Mullin, Walsh leftovers.


Couldn't agree more. An owner of his standing needs to be main man and get his horses in 'right' race

Be careful,theres a fair few that will come after you for that.
Some think its just not on to criticise Mullins ,Ricci, Walsh.

Fwiw,i have thought for some time he should go to other trainers.

Well he can do what he wants with his horses he has now ,and I'm sure other people are around that can buy horses for him.
Hes had success in the past before mullins, im sure he could in the future after him.

I think he had greater success before Mullins. I also think he'd have more success taking the horses elsewhere as they are treated like second class citizens so why he keeps them there is beyond me.