James Doyle - Al Muffrih

he should have let the horse have its head bad ride

That's exactly what he did at Newbury. He shaped like a stayer in that race and had entries in the King Edward VII and the Irish Derby. So Doyle uses all his intelligence to completely lose the track advantage he had been given and allow Crowley to set a slow pace. The winner might be smart but the favourite clearly hasn't been ridden to anything like best advantage. As a punter you want jocks to keep it simple because when they don't that's the sort of thing that happens all too regularly. If you want to mess about with tactics do it on 33/1 shots who clearly need to find something extra to win a race.

probably told to try and settle it tonight trying to learn on the game - on debut ran wiv the choke out at Newbury - looked to have everything beaten 3f out only for something to come out of the clouds to look like collaring him before he found more to win going away again near line

Agree with smirnoff.  Think this is potentially a good horse but that looked like Doyle was riding to orders.  I never understand the reluctance of trainers to let horses express themselves.  He took three furlongs to pull up at Newbury - just let the horse roll and enjoy himself.

the winner was entitled to run very well tonight, sired by frankel, went off 4/7 fav in a newmarket maiden
the 1st and 2nd rated 108 and 98, the horse in 5th has won a 50k handicap, plus going up in trip was a positive, just wished i had checked all this when doing the form, j crowley set a slow pace and rode them to sleep imo, the race was 1.83 seconds slower than the class 3 handicap won by corgi who was carrying 5lbs more.

exactly. Put 5 1/2 lengths between himself and the pony off a 7 month lay off to be fair.

A Haggas shorty stuffed, has this ever happened before?

It could well be that he will never be as good in behind even if he does settle.

What I don't understand is if there is an educational process going on why they chose to gun him out of the stalls from a wide draw on seasonal debut. Surely if it was about teaching him something then that would have afforded a much better opportunity to drop in. Yesterday, he had the draw advantage and it would have made far more sense to go forward and make it a test of stamina.

As a punter first and foremost you just want to see a short priced favourite get the job done.

Al Muffri was not very well drawn and was a bit keen going down. James had to go forward from where he was and there wasn't much pace and the horse probably overdid it early on, but he battled, and he had every chance to give up. From a fitness point of view - every point of view - he'll come on for this. He's a lovely horse and is in the Derby, but it's going to come too soon. William loves him. I think he'd get better with time and with a different draw we could drop him in and get a lead as he's a strong horse. I'd think he'd get 1m4f as long as he settles, and this ground was fine - Maureen Haggas, wife of William Haggas, trainer

This was the post race comment after his last win......

The horse was to keen and you can't get away with that at a stamina sapping course like sandown

agree with most of what op says

there is little more frustrating as a punter than a horse who can make the running dropped in on a steady pace (and pulling as a result of that) particularly at a trip that's short of what he'll be best at, of course this was all about future races and the punters were just shafted at the odds for the sake of that

i'm obviously not a trainer but i'd question whether this has as much chance of putting the horse back mentally as teaching it anything

he pulled because he was held up imo as oppose to front running that suited last time

was wondering what on earth crepello was talking about then i see he's quoting the trainers wife

drawn 7/17 (became 6/14) wasnt that bad and a quick start meant the rail was his if he wanted it, what does she mean with a better draw he could be dropped in??? sounds like she was gabbling as they knew they had fckd up

Rider - just to be clear - the quote by Maureen Haggas was after he had WON his previous race - it is all in the small print

makes more sense now, the statement, not the tactics last night, he's getting a lot of fancied horses beaten the last 4 days