Rip Van Winkle

well soldier any craic? is Rip fancied tmrw?? should at least place imo,one or 2 firms going a quarter the odds.....

Let me guess...he has been training well and Johnny has been impressed by him in training. He's well bred and you(SOF) are expecting a good run with room for improvement because there are other targets including the Breeders Cup ?

Gents there's never any attempt by me to mislead on here.

A very close friend of mine, who I've no reason to doubt, called me on the weekend and said that Rip is doing just fine at home. He's a fragile kind of racehorse but he's had a good build up to this and they're happy with him.

That's all I know.

I think he'll run a great race there and if he's at his best he'll have every chance.

graeme,

If he's as good as he was last summer, he wins.

Come on Rip

What a stunning piece horseflesh he is

Are Aidens horses running to form at the moment ? I know his ammunitions a bit below par this year but are whats hes got running well ?

o'brien doesnt sound too confident

Ran well, Canford very good though

Excellent run, great to see him back to something close to his best.
Roll on the QEII and revenge!

Step him up in trip imo

Go a stronger pace on him imo

Was very sweaty...

Ran well but CC was too good.

Revenge may come but CC has got one hell of a turn of foot

pacemaker failed

rip did really well considering

get starspangled in front for him

good run from rip!he has the ability to beat canford next time, no excuses then!!canford was brilliant, as was hughes!!

and agree it think 10f for rip to see absolute best!

ben10     28 Jul 10 15:38 
Step him up in trip imo

Absolutely - he finished strongly in the Derby. But they seem hell bent at using him to promote Galileo as a sire of speed.

Should add great to see him back to his best. Hope he can land a G1 as a reward for keeping him in training.

Their is defo more improvement their...1m2f looks the trip now. He be near unbeatable at that Trip. I am very surprised they aint going down the Irish Champion Stakes route instead of Fame+Glory. Obviously the Breeders Cup Classic seems the main aim for him and stallion requirements prob require a Top Class Group 1 over 10f for  F+G but i do hope they dont make a balls up like the Epsom Derby this year.

Juddmonte International there for the taking IMO

Good point AT, Good front runners track aswell

Cape Blanco set to run their according to connections

no chance of winning the classic on dirt.

Fair dues to you Soldier for posing his well being on here as the form wasn't there this year.

personally id run him irish champion then the arc (if its fast ground) but looks like F&G will be going down that route. They may go Juddmonte, QE2, Breeders Cup

The mile division looks too hot for RVW  and it will be a missed opportunity if RVW misses York in favour of Ballydoyle indulging their delusion that their 3 year olds can win the big races.

fair play soldier,a good man as ever

im a bit perplexed by the congratulations for Solider tbh.

Obviously he loves his racing and enjoys studying ballydoyle .. but all he said was what has been said in the build up to the race/available on various websites.

Dont people check that kinda thing ?

physically CC definitley looks to have improved. He looked like the 4YO today not RIP.

But a G1 should be around the corner for RIP imo. A good effort.

soldier , do you know if You'll Be Mine has been retired or not .. I did ask you before ..

obrien was visibly excited with rip and said there was a lot better to come if that is the case it will take some beating wherever it goes next.

sintonian     28 Jul 10 23:59 
im a bit perplexed by the congratulations for Solider tbh.

Obviously he loves his racing and enjoys studying ballydoyle .. but all he said was what has been said in the build up to the race/available on various websites.

Dont people check that kinda thing ?

Soldier said he had some insideish info (a close friend) who said Rip was in good shape so that was a useful pointer along with the fact that Ballydoyle didn't get their excuses in first with the usual stood on a nail b*ll*x two days before the race

agree that Rip should be 100% for his next race so no excuses for him when it arrives

no great fan of Ballydoyle but at least they do keep some 4-yr-olds in training and give us something to talk about and some top class horses to enjoy watching in action

I think RVW will have to go to York. He is clearly going to be up against it against the 3yo milers and that's without the Goldlikova machine thrown in. Don't forget RVW was only beaten a neck into 4th in Sea The stars Derby and gave the same hose a real race in the Eclipse. I think he might just be better over 10 furlongs now.
If RVW is anything like his best at York he would be easily the best horse in that race, and he would have an excellent chance, not quite a penalty kick but not far off. The ones at the head of the market like cpae blanco, Twice over and Byword ar just not in the same class.

cryoftruth totally agree. The International is looking like a pretty weak race and will be RVW's best chance to bag a big one this year. Will be a real shame if he bypasses it for the sake of Cape Blanco who is not in the same class.

To be honest I reckon that if Aiden goes with a 3yo for the International, he is likely to go with Jan Vermeer. He still looks potentially very good, better then Cape Blanco.

The thing about jan Vermeer is that he has now twice looked like he just doesn't get 12 furlongs and may well be capable of good things at 10.

It is not impossible that Aiden ends up at York with three or 4 runners, including a pacemaker - say he tries with Jan Vermeer, RVW, and Cape Blanco, and runs a pacemaker for them. Which one would Johnny M be on - its a no brainer for me - RVW every time. The york course is made for him with its tendency to suit a horse closish to the pace and it also seems to let class shine through.

I would imagine he'll be trying for the Irish Champion Stakes with fame And Glory so RVW has few other options unless he wants to keep banging his head off the brick wall that is the R Hannon 3yo's and Goldlikova.

Rip is the only horse ever to give STS a race, It wouldn't surprise me if he went unbeaten through the rest of the year, especially given the improvement to come, some will laugh at this but Francombe thought he didn't look well before the race and to still perform as he did.........., He could win a good ground Arc