Bothy and Menorah

Yes/no. He runs well fresh but stats are terrible for horses not running in same calender yr

So long as a horse has had 2 runs that season I tend to not worry about it tbh. Menorah has had two and won two.

the negative for Rupert, statswise, is that he spent two seasons over hurdles, which is quite uncommon for an RSA winner.

always runs well after a break.
would not worry there.

Bothy showed once again that he is a very good performer in these big field handicaps when there is some soft in the going. It will be interesting to do some analysis on the time of the race today. They looked to be going a reasonably strong pace throughout, as you might expect, though many of those ridden at the front end for a long way weren't wilting acutely in the closing stages.

We have had more strongly run Greatwood's than the one Menorah won, though for the conditions it wasn't a bad time. It is a point in Menorah's favour, imo, that he has those two wins in big field races at Cheltenham (the Greatwood and the SN), with different underfoot conditions and both races run at a reasonable enough clip.

He is likely going to have to run a fair bit faster still to win a CH and people will have different views about whether he will be able to do that. I thought he got there travelling very easily in the SN and held on to win despite hitting the front earlier than ideal and jinking around at the last two hurdles (novicey at those hurdles perhaps or maybe a reaction to seeing too much light in front??). The run overall left a very positive impression about the horse in my mind. I am pretty convinced he will have the engine for the CH; I would like to be a bit more convinced about his hurdling, though when he gets it right he is very good in that department.

But a tough, tough race on paper, seemingly, and perhaps a race where the only punters with good reason to smile at this stage are those who are on the likes of Menorah, Oscar Whisky. Mille Chief and PC at double figure prices from earlier in the season.

menorah is the best hurdler ive ever seen

hes got everything

*horses

The other way of looking at Menorah's comparatively long break is that they have kept him off the worst of the winter ground and presumably his preparations won't have been as much interrupted by the freezing conditions as may have been the case with some of the horses following a different race/training schedule.

I see a lot to like about PC, but running on deepish winter ground at Kelso so soon after reports he had a cough, just makes you hope it hasn't set him back.

Offhand, I can't recall there being any signs of Menorah appearing too fresh when he ran in the Greatwood. Might be worth checking the race again on that point.

Will try to dig them out Sint, certainly.. If I can get my hands back on them, will post.

Fwiw, I treat stats with caution, but figure they are always worth bearing in mind.

Alvarado - when you say best you have seen, what do you mean - over a hurdle, or absolutely everything?

Thanks Al - certainly Menorah travelled better than the great Inglis, but both seem to love a scrap!

reading between the lines .. Hobbs thinks Menorah is better than Rooster Booster, im sure of it.

47/47 in the RSA

cheers Deep my theory is that you want to be "race fit" for the true test of a championship race, other horses may just have that extra edge

Bino it is then [;)][:D]

Peddlers Cross is more like Hardy than Menorah is imo