Wasn't a betting race for me. I would have slightly cheesed off if I had backed Simonsig however. Not because he wasn't hard on him in the finish (as you would not expect him to be with a star horse coming back from injury) but because the race was given away at the start and the effort of making up the ground combined with not settling took a toll on him. He wouldn't have pulled any harder if he had raced in touch in all likelihood and would probably have won.

the trouble is where you draw the line , so a jockey like vitor santos is easy to ban for 70 days but this would never happen to a high profile jockey as he's esteemed to be too good to not achieve a horses best placing which is what the ruling is . barry geraghty is a top jockey but as a one off ride there he was not obtaining the best placing for the horse and instead (rightly or wrongly) looking after it.  an all weather race with the trainer having a 1-2 there would have been under massive scrutiny . of course todays race wasn't crooked in any way,  in my opinion its questionable whether the horse achieved its best position though , committed from the turn the race would have been over and even if simonsig then faltered and came back to bobs worth at least then punters would have been satisfied with the ride.

stu if that was an apprentice or a less experienced jockey up today people would never in a million years be saying it was given a good ride , the jockey would be getting slaughtered 100pc

tim6 exactly and thats where the problem lies

... hindsight is a wonderful thing...


.. look at the races N H is campaigning them for...  hth !

He never gave the horse its best chance of winning- i never back horses from henderson stable but i would be fuming if i had backed simonsig.

Its the dodgiest ride ive ever seen in a NH race, if Barry doesnt face action over that then id be surprised.

Reading some of the comments on here is like being back in the bookies 25 years ago when the ten bob One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest extras were exhorting jockeys to whip the fuccker and flecking the screen with their saliva. If the horse had been good enough to go by it would have taken Geraghty there. He gave it a crack with the stick and Bob's Worth pulled away because that horse kept finding all the way up the straight. That is the reality. Save the wide eyed conspiracy theories and bullshiit for when you've got your tin foil hats on.

shouldn't of run him on the ground then if not race fit

Either the net is out or you have entered a new higher state of stupidity never before seen Bondy.

If they had a clue they'd not start these types of threads Duncan.

must be some very wealthy in-running players on here tonight, 1.07 in-running and half this thread knew it was a dog and wouldn't go past.  do the rest of us a favour, post yer bets and show us how easy this game can be.

similar scenario in Denman Chase at Newbury in 2012, Geraghty on Burton Port (rec. 10lbs)  beaten half a length by Long Run - many thought Burton Port got a less than vigourous ride and conspiracy theoy was that he was under stable instructions not to go by.

When they met in Gold Cup a few weeks later off levels, Long Run finished 5 lengths in front of Burton Port (albeit in 3rd and 4th).

Whatever the rights and wrongs, Henderson gave a clear indication of likely tactics in his pre race quotes: 'It's a means to an end. Everyone has to undestand what we're trying to do. I have to get runs into them.' Nobody is forced to have a bet - though I accept the race would be of much less interest if nobody actually did!

The race fell apart before the start with 5 runners from 3 stables for a £19k first prize and then fell apart again when it started  - Royal Boy (who'd been off nearly 2 years himself) fell, Commissioned was never gonna like the ground after 10 mm of rain overnight/this morning and the flat bred fave, who had been beaten at 9/4 and 10/11 on his only two previous starts on ground officially described as soft, compounded that by missing the break. I think Henderson was expecting the ground to be good and Purple Bay to win when he declared on Monday! One of the worst races of the day to have a bet in for me (thought Simonsig was most likely winner)

Today merely proved BW and Simonsig are both well and have four legs each in the right places, would n't be too keen to back either of them next time out solely on the evidence of today particularly as both likely to race over the bigger obstacles next time out.

Hulk absolutely spot! As for those saying they were at the races and he couldn't get pass BW on the run in. It should never have come to that, BG should have sent the horse for home when going well in-between 2 out to 1 out. No, instead he wanted to look clever. Did he think he could just cruise by BW towards the finish? That's not giving BW much respect is it? Shockingly bad ride IMO.

Post your bet Layingistheonlyway!

How much energy does a horse save by being reigned back on a tight hold (and yet continuing to pull hard for 2 miles), rather than being allowed to race more freely & gaining distance over the field?

That for me has always been the question. I would prefer them to be allowed to get their freeness out of their system, and then be allowed to settle on their own accod, than constantly over-racing for most of the distance.

Surely any bet on the race was fraught with difficulties given the profiles of the horses? 2 returning after lengthy breaks, one sold for £8000, another unproven over trip on the ground and to compound the situation two trainers doubly represented?

Better opportunities elsewhere.

cos they both needed an outing, which they've had

Not easy to find races but far from impossible.