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Hope everything's ok Bobby.
Confidence for next season isn't dimmed, I look forward to a stellar year! |
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Please make Twisty send IC to Lexus at Christmas this year. Would love to see him in the flesh while he's reigning champ. I feel a little unlucky to have backed him twice, once at Punchestown and then at Aintree the other day, times he lost.
Anyway hope he enjoys the summer in the field and lets hope for another classic battle with Kauto at Haydock in the autumn. All the best Booby. |
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Yikes, BD revealed as Big Mack's other half.
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Reading this thread with much enjoyment having followed the commander throughout his career, was wiv David England's uncle (Trevor Atkin) the night IC won his bumper (slamming snap tie 8l) and you couldn't shut him up effusing about IC!!After winning bundles off IC in the PP (off139 !!!!!), less in the Ryanair and even less in the glorious Gold cup(although the feeling was the best and i lost my voice !!) it was gut wrenching to see my fav horse put in a shocking display 2day at Aintree. He never went a tap and i was relieved to see paddy unseated when the horse was clearly not A1 and therefore not having too hard a race.
My question to you Bobby is, was it put to the vote amongst your fellow owners to run or did u listen to the mercurial NTD ? Either way, i hope all is ok, but i feel Weapons Amnesty could be the new king in waiting. |
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Nigel really did make the right decision and unfortunately it just didn't work out.If you watch the race again using sky plus x2 or faster you will see that IC isn't moving fluently from the off and jumping was simply not fluent from the first. Horse looked tight and not exactly a going day. Laboured was the word I was thinking of. So its upwards and onwards. Still will win the GC next year because IC is an outstanding athlete.
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He is stiff and sore, but doesnt seem to have suffered any lasting damage. Never really know until the stiffness wears off after two or three days.
Got it badly wrong I am afraid - not one of our finest moments and one we won't remember with any fondness. Three race campaign next year, regardless. He will head the parade of champions at Sandown on Betfred day, and be back in Ireland two days later - large field of grass waiting. |
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BD - good luck and thanks for forum updates.
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GL Bobby, he's safe and sound and thats the main thing.
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Hope he continues to recover well. We live and learn Bobby. Good luck next year
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Fair Play BD. Best news is that the horse lives to fight another day. Lots of quality words written n this thread. Lessons to be learned for everyone imo :)
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bobby who was the chap being interviewed in the parade ring by bbc yesterday?
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Safe and sound, that's the main thing.
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That was Bobby(according to others)!!
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It was the great man himself. Almost repeated his post on here word for word and was proved right.
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Booksielad - that would be me
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were you the guy in the daily star? forgot his name but he supports liverpool & is a carpet fitter by trade?
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Which three races bobby?
Haydock, Gold Cup and? |
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Leopardstown ?
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Cheltenham trials day.
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boom boom kyberthanks again bd
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Missed out having lumped on at Cheltenham, doubling my bet after Nicky Henderson tipped Khyber Kim during the lunchtime paddock interview :O
Looking forward to Perth now then that's it for me until October. |
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Just read the 9 pages of this "MASTER PIECE" of a thread.
Congrats to all who contributed very enjoyable read. ;) |
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Teddy - I certainly was not the man in the Daily Star, have not got the hair and I don't think you would be very happy if I fitted your carpet.
FFT - Good question, either the King George or the Lexus are the only options. The King George has not been his forte, but the timing is right, it is generally not a race that leaves many scars, whereas the Lexus on heavy ground could be a killer and you have got the ferry journey to cope with. We could just run him twice, but he takes a far bit of getting ready and keeping interested so that would be the unknown. The Lexus would hit his GC preparations if he needed an extended rest. In simple analysis his two runs in the King George might not have been memorable, but he won the Ryanair and the Gold Cup on the back of them. We have all summer to think about and discuss - please god he stays sound and we get as far as the Betfair Chase ! |
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paddy power!
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Interesting idea off 185, only 159 and above get in the handicap, could probably list the potential opposition now. I suppose if successful we could try and follow up in the Boylesports off 191 !
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thanks Bobby
The Pillar on trials day a possible option? or is that too close to the Festival in your opinion? |
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FFT - Too close - after his first King George run he had the stable bug so we lost three weeks, and only just got him there for the Ryanair. In fairness it would have helped if we had got a racecourse gallop into him at Newbury, but when we got there the ground was too fast. This year the timing was perfect including his racecourse gallop which really seems to help - (He will have one before the Betfair Chase so should be much sharper hopefully). That is why the Lexus is a worry, as if he needed an extended lay off after a hard race the timings all go to pot.
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Might be worth pointing out here that the Lexus has been run on good to soft ground for the last 3 renewals...
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Good to soft in Ireland is a lot softer than in England
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I find it hard to believe that this seasons Lexus was run on G/S ground as there is no way a soft ground horse like Money Trix would have gone close to winning. As BD said G/S in Ireland and the UK are totally different.
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IMPERIAL COMMANDER HAS PROBLEMS JUMPING STIFF FENCES
I thought it was a bad decision running IMPERIAL COMMANDER in the totesport Bowl at Aintree so soon after his Gold Cup winning seeing how his record suggested he was best fresh and disliked tight tracks. I thought we'd learn nothing from his run but it turned out we did. Imperial Commander clearly had major problems coping with the very stiff fences at Aintree, eventually unseating when beaten six out. It now looks highly significant that Imperial Commander has run clunkers at Kempton and Punchestown, the other two tracks he's tackled where the fences claim a high percentage of fallers. Clearly future raids to Ireland with Imperial Commander will be a bad idea as the fences are stiffer than in Britain. Races at Aintree, Ayr, Doncaster, Kempton, Lingfield and Wincanton should be avoided too because the fences at these tracks claim a percentage of fallers similar to Irish tracks. Now I'm beginning to wonder whether Imperial Commander really needs to be fresh at all and if the truly dislikes tight turns. It could well be that it's only stiff fences that present him with a problem. |
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It's one to add to the mix but I think you're putting the cart before the horse. Stiff fences certainly bring him down when he hits them but in my opinion he only starts hitting fences when he hasn't had a sufficient break. My impression is that when he's fresh he jumps like a lion though I'd need to review his good races to see if that's true ie. when he's well he jumps well at all the fences. In the meantime I'll stick to my view that his key requirements are freshness and left-handed tracks.
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Thats marmite nick m8 not me. Tangents and all that. lol.
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Thought is was a bit anal ;)
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Another large serving of nonsense from the nutty prof. Cheltenham's are hardly brush hurdles and look at the number of times he's jumped round there.
A horse does not know if one fence is stiffer than another. For various reasons, IC should not have run at Aintree - the fences were never in that list of reasons that I saw discussed. Also, I don't know how far Nick's records go back, but the Mildmay fences are considerably less stiff than they were in the mid 90s. |
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Now I'm beginning to wonder whether Imperial Commander really needs to be fresh at all..
^says it all, used to like NM, but he seems to talk more and more bs now. |
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Red and White - Jumps like a lion?
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Well, you know, a lion pouncing up to grab a giraffe by the throat (and even then it's the lioness that makes the kill so it wasn't a good analogy). I'm looking for something powerful and springy that leaps with its paws up. Jumps like Tigger?
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By the way, how do you measure stiffness?
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He judged it by the number of fallers per course according to his article
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