Douvan

After today Douvan is unlikely to be Cheltenham bound, in  my opinion, regardless of what connections have reportedly said; betting antepost on horses from this stable must be 'nrnb' only otherwise the poorhouse beckons for sure.

Total Recall for the Gold Cup, another red herring in aid of the bookies perhaps. The horse did not even run in any of the Gold Cup trials eg John Durkan, Lexus or Kinloch Brae, how absurd!

Total Recall is a 9 year old so not really adsurd to run him in the GC. Sure an unorthodox race last time out but he did win the Hennessy. All told this isn't a vintage GC and he deserves to take his chance. imo

True, but Total Recall (TR) was receiving 14lbs from Whisper to win a neck; Might Bite beat the same horse by 2l on level weight. For a trainer to deny Vautour a run in the Gold Cup (GC) despite horse's credentials but commit Total Recall (a handicapper) so early for the GC this year is bizarre, in my opinion.

Doesn't the owner have a say

The only person talking out of their arse is you I123.

Slag Mullins off constantly saying he is a lying snake yet you are only too happy to tell us all how you have 5/1 on Footpad or have had a sneaky bet on Yorkhill for the CH.

Utterly two faced.

i

Ignore the stable, the trainers chase record in the championship chase races is pathetic so not too much to worry about if they do run.

Also good news Walsh is back from injury trying his best not to tell us anything while taking the pundits cash.

where does this leave min ?

can't believe they would both run in the QM

surely goes against everything this stable has done in the last 5 years

Oh well someone had to take it seriously.

Min will run in the Champion Chase.

Eric has a point, WPMs record in the championship  Cheltenham festival chases is noticeably poor when set against his overall performance at the festivals. I suppose there’s only 3 a year however (if we are counting the Ryanair) and it could just be a too small a sample to draw conclusions from and he will redress the balance in time.
Or it could be that he gets the best out of the very top ones early in their career, leaving little improvement (Yorkhill); or even leaving them susceptible to injury (Douvan); or maybe he’s just been unlucky (Vautour).
They used to say that Pipe only got one good season out of horse, as his methods were so taxing.
It will be interesting to see if we can say the same about WPM in another 5 years.

Cant get them jumping well enough for Championship pace over fences and bad decisions (Vautour best chance of Gold Cup winner ran in lower standard Ryanair).

Mikhael D'Haguenet a prime example brilliant hurdler couldnt get him jumping for toffee. Happens over again could be they also buy potential top class hurdlers hoping they will turn out to be top chasers rather than looking at chasing types who might not be the best hurdlers.

Well Mullins undoubtedly should have won a Gold Cup in the Stewards room even it would have been with an outsider.

They always talked about Douvan as being a future King George / Gold Cup horse (similar to Vautour) so I don't see any reason why he couldn't run in the Ryanair if he was well - though I doubt he'll run at all.

Min only has one option and thats the Champion Chase.

A couple of years back it was great to come on the Cheltenham threads and get away from the mainly cr@p delivered on the main racing thread. However now it seems we are being treated to the same childish rubbish over and over again on here.

I believe I read somewhere today BetVic*** are offering 2/1 against Douvan making the Cheltenham journey. They could be correct given there is no movement for Min in the Ryanair or Champion Hurdle either.

Douvan could wait for Aintree or Punchestown.

God you are a colossal arse.

Min will run in the QM whatever happens with Douvan.

that's what he's saying

No, he's saying that Douvan probably not making the trip as there's no movement for Min in the other markets (he assumes Min would be re-routed if Douvan came over).
As usual he's arrived at the right conclusion by the wrong route.

2/1 seems on the short side. A statement will be released during final declarations for Wednesday stating that it's a bit too much to ask on his first run for a year, or something to that effect.

Yes, I mean that he means Douvan isn't coming over...anyway, the feeling from the open day was that they are very relaxed/happy with Douvan's progress which is an improvement from the vibes being given off over the recent past.

None of the Betfair Cheltenham Preview Panel think Douvan will be declared for Cheltenham esp if the ground is very soft/heavy.

Ryanair wtf

Running in the Ryanair

How long until the Un De Sceaux in Champion Chase announcement

If Un De Sceaux remains in the Ryanair I'd still fully expect him to beat Douvan

anyone else think the old course fences are harder than the new course.
douvan hurdles the chase fences thrashing through the birch about a foot beneath the top of the fence
really hoping willies gamble comes off here but im not going to be backing prpbably the greatest horse i have seen jump the cheltenham fences on the new course

RP now saying he does not definitely go for Ryanair, it's only being considered

as usual the Racing Post are a bunch of useless ****s

Racing Post are costing punters a fortune without questioning bookmaker owned horses due to their funding by them.

A lot of switch info late on is deliberate imo to generate talking points on the Festival and sell sell sell for the bookies. Note it is being done by a bookmaker owner of horses in the main.

Its hardly the biggest surprise if he runs in the Ryanair. He hasn't run for a year and the Ryanair is less competitive.The owner already has Min for the QM and Ruby has obviously chosen him ahead of Douvan.

Surely Ruby will choose Un De Sceaux the reigning champion over a horse who has not ran in a year and is running on heavy over a trip 4f than he has ever gone before

I still don't think Douvan will run at Cheltenham myself but if he does run it should be on the Wednesday

Ruby is a cert to ride UDS.

The fact is all the Mullins chasers have so far stood their ground and made it to Cheltenham in one piece, so therefore he has more options and is in a position to give Douvan the slightly easier option.

For as long as I can remember horses have been doubly declared for all sorts of reasons. Unless they have changed the rules, connections are not obliged to decide until 10.00 on the morning of declaration.

yes rules changed - can only declare for one race at the festival - trainers used to keep multiple entries in case one fell early on - however with the 48hr decs, this has been scrapped, all for the far east betting markets i believe

Thx for clarification, so if declared for Queen Mum tomorrow then we know Douvan isn't going for Ryanair, if he isn't declared then he might go for Ryanair.  I've had a saver on at 3/1 nrnb to try an protect my UDS position as I'm guessing he will run in the Ryanair and that Ruby Walsh will stick with UDS.  If UDS switches to the Champion Chase I think that would be it for me and ante-post betting.

They'd be switching because Ricci when it's come to it can't stand having the two in the same race, they must think he can't beat Min so why waste a bullet the extra distance might help him in the Ryanair that is cutting up somewhat.

Don't see it as having any bearing on UDS one bit who must run in the Ryanair.

I thought the Grade 1 non-novice races were exempt from this one race rule? At least that's how i read it. Anyone?

I would imagine with the going as its likely to be,that the owners of UDS will be thinking about the Queen Mother,as they said after his race in Ireland when interviewed.
He must have a massive chance in a soft ground(maybe even heavy)Queen Mother.

UDS a standout 11/1 with b365 NRNB.  Similar bet to nothing as Samcro was

The ground is heavy, surely this one-time beast will not be declared for the Ryanair t 10am today. A dis-service to the horse if connections do.Hope he is not.

Ryanair decs are tomorrow.

Willie Mullins bingo!

Sorry, I'm so ahead of time.

Champion Chase, Ruby rides

Id still back at short odds that Douvan is withdrawn on Wednesday morning!!!

Let's hope this is the precedent for future Mullins/Ricci charges running in the same race. With the ground presently heavy and little prospect of improving by thursday the Ryanair is not an advantageous alternative either.

No late withdrawal please, Mullins/Ricci.

The market on here from 9.45-10.00 said it all

Walsh riding is another surprise on top of the will he, won't he conundrum.

So why did Mullins say he was going in the ryanair on sunday?

He said he was seriously considering the Ryanair but emphasised that nothing was decided yet

Even money Altior, holy fkin jesus

out of interest , what did Douvan drift to on here in the last few days ?

Douvan could still run in the Ryanair, right? It's a non-novice Grade 1 so they could declare him tomorrow morning, switch Ruby to Min and withdraw him from the Queen Mother.

I'm not saying that will happen but the rules allow them to do so if they want to.

was matched at 50 for definite yesterday when it was announced, was plenty between 20 and 40 all day yesterday.

About 9.45 somebody took everything down to around 8 and it stayed between 8-10 until suspended about 10.03

I'd seen 50 and 60.

Last price matched according to the graph is 28

that could have been when I was posting on here that the market was still open after 10am

dangers of laying the ricci/mullins bullshit machine

The deciding reason for running Douvan in the Champion Chase (CC), according to Mullins, was because Walsh would rather ride Douvan here than the Ryanair. As a result I might infer Walsh would rather ride a winner eg UDS in the Ryanair than two losers in Min (CC) and Douvan (Ryanair).

I might also infer Walsh is 1st jockey to Ricci.

If you were foolish enough to buy last weekend's weekender and trawl through the enlightening mullins' four pages of preview for all his runners, most of it is waste of print, (ie for his handicappers "he'll go for the coral cup, or the county hurdle, or the martin pipe"). max Dynamite "he's on course to run in (the county) again". As with Douvan - surely you should know by now whether horses are better over 2m or 2m 5f by the time cheltenham comes round? The havoc caused by mullins and elliott (Dounikos) in their u-turn targets with ante post betting is horrendous. The fact that they cover some 20+ of the top 40 in the handicap for the coral cup, martin pipe and county makes ante post betting like cracking the da vinci code. Rant over but embellished on my memory for next year when unfortunately I'll be forced to wait for the 48 hour declarations to have any idea!

If I understand correctly any horse declared today to run on wednesday cannot be declared to run on thursday as well eg Douvan/Monalee. If so, why are money still left on the bid for £20 and more?

As I understand it the exemption to the rule is the group 1 races..

Presumably the rule was brought in to stop trianers declaring top weights in handicaps in order to give their other stable runners lighter weughts, or keep others out of the handicap, and then making them a non runner.

Really. If so, Mullins/Ricci could have another change of heart and scoop up again on bargain prices here if Douvan goes for the Ryanair (eventually).

Mar 12, 2018 -- 12:18PM, Fistfulofdollars wrote:

As I understand it the exemption to the rule is the group 1 races..

I think it's Grade 1 non-novice races actually - so Douvan could be declared for Ryanair tomorrow but Monalee can't be declared for JLT.

Perhaps someone could confirm?

There are still takers for him in the Ryanair despite today's announcement. Bizarre or shrewd?

Apologies Reaseheath..still had my flat head on . Here's the rules link
https://www.britishhorseracing.com/press_releases/cheltenham-festival-moves-48-hour-declarations/

48 hour single race rule except:

This applies to all races except the six non-novice Grade 1 contests: Stan James Champion Hurdle, OLBG Mares’ Hurdle (Grade 1) (Registered As The David Nicholson Mares’ Hurdle), Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase, Ryanair Chase, Sunbets Stayers’ Hurdle and the Timico Cheltenham Gold Cup.

somebody would want to tell betfair to remove Monalee from the JLT then

thanks Fist

Is it also against the rules to run 2 days running?

No rule stating you can't run consecutive days.

I think it's Grade 1 non-novice races actually - so Douvan could be declared for Ryanair tomorrow but Monalee can't be declared for JLT.

Exactly.

Matched at 16.5 for the Ryanair.

Id say non runner more likely for douvan now then

4/5 non runner
5/4 ryanair
1,000,000/1 champion chase

left in Ryanair

But owner is adamant he'll run tomorrow!

Might fall at the first or be pulled up after a mile sharpener for tomorrow. All things are possible.

needs a new jockey now

That will have set him up perfectly for tomorrow.

Mullins saying that he felt like the Douvan of old just adds to the frustration that we were robbed of the race we wanted.

If they knew he was back to his best he was always going to go for the Champion Chase in my view. Min is not good enough to beat Altior.

Has he been declared a non runner yet for the Ryanair?

I think it would be a stretch to run him again after a fall the previous day. Mullins said he felt liked the old Douvan, take encouragement from that and take him home and come back to take Altior on again on another day.

It would have been a different race if douvan had stayed up. Too many in contention going down the hill. I'm sure mullins tactics were too stretch them midway through the race.

you will never know.
Judging on the way Altior finished that race i know what i think.

Min would have been beaten even further by Altior if Douvan had not fallen. Whether Douvan would have given him a race or even won, we will never know.

One cannot know for sure if there would be a different winner had Douvan not tipped-up 4 out. But Altior, despite running in snatches, only jumped to the front after the last and won by an easy 7l from Min; Altior hated the ground.

I do not think Altior will be Punchestown festival bound nevertheless, should they meet in the Tingle Creek my money will always be on Altior again if the field comprises Footpad and Min too, all things being equal.

I don't see why they wouldn't go to Punchestown when he has only had two runs this season.

Money queueing up to back him in the Ryanair tomorrow. I'm astounded.

He won 't run tomorrow ffs.

He won 't run tomorrow ffs.

I reckon Altior will go to Sandown for the Celebration Chase just as he did last year as a novice.

Interesting that Mullins acknowledged Douvan has not schooled over fences all year when asked by Lydia Hislop yesterday (though he jumped well  until the fall).

Assuming all is well with Douvan it probably suits both parties for Altior to go to Sandown and Douvan to Punchestown - hope I'm wrong though...

No real racing fan wants to see them avoid each other. Lets hope they can get Douvan back to his best and we can all see the big clash we have been waiting for.

Next March....hopefully.

Long way out and there must be a doubt he would have lasted but.....he was very impressive and had Altior looking like a very average horse.

Mind Venn Ottery came down the hill looking like Pegasus.

On Twitter now douvan won't run 1 hour ago via Chapman yeehhaaww thingy me guy

They all had Altior looking like an average horse at various stages!!
That is until he decided to stop moaning about the ground and show his class.

Is Douvan definitely running today?

Down as a non runner now.