Nico.....

Missed the kick and he was never really happy after that

good job Nico,s laid back or he might give a fook,rank amateur

Hopeless

Still got 2nd too - how bad were the others

Clumsy rider.

That was my take on it, they all fell in a hole after 2 out

He managed to deck Constitution Hill and nearly Jonbon there...
.

Certainty beat. Different class.

listen to aidan coleman on spaces a few days ago couldn't have made it any clearer

Young Bowen laughing his arse off.

horse has never been a consistently fluent jumper good ground cheltenham badly exposed
and yes general terms I agree nico is past it awful ego on him too

Jonbon nicking second was apt, remains a bridesmaid on the real big day.

Mar 12, 2025 -- 5:13PM, acey deucy wrote:

Young Bowen laughing his arse off.

I'm his biggest critic but...maybe the horse just doesn't like that track? Another horse who's uncomfortable when not up with the pace. The start didn't help.

Same riding technique as John Wayne.

big muff

complete idiot with a hairy fanny.

Quite a few chances spoiled at the start so far this meeting, how many re starts have there been? Too many for sure.

The start was an absolute joke, another anti climax of a championship race this week, why not do a proper running start.

Nico not the sharpest tool in the box, Start really hindred him.

Just say it as you see it. He's a liability. He still rides like he's out pointing. Did he really need to ask it for a big jump?
I backed the winner & laid Jonbon so no money talking here

Horse was on the back foot like a couple of the others behind when the tape went up so maybe the starter should share the blame for the start.

Absolute shambles for fav backers the whole way round as Nico attempted to get competitive.

Maybe Nico was asking too much but the horse did nothing at the fence where it almost came down.

Start mucked his plans up and then made a slight mistake at the 2nd, was just niggling away on him then as he wanted to be where Quilixios was. Went for a big one and didn't get it.
Didn't need the big one imo

I haven’t heard him tell Paddy Brennan to stick it where the sun don’t shine this week. Maybe Nico will be hearing that from Hendo tonight. He wasn’t a happy teddy in the stands.

Had no choice but to ask for a long one if he had not JBon would have been in at the bottom of it.

he asked it to jump and it put down..its travelling at 40mph..theres no room to stop and decide...it decided no, another stride.

Nico just said there was a stride there, freeze the frame at the point Nico asked the horse to take off from......miles away!!!!

blaming the tape under horses nose,if he didn't like it should have took horse back and trust the starter but he was never getting in front of solness and others had also decided to go forward so was always going to be firing jonbon at the fences if he wanted to be up with pace,a better jockey might have took his medicine and let them get on with it

I actually thought the idiot starter was going to make them come in again, but he caught half of them on the hop and dropped the flag! PATHETIC!

Mar 12, 2025 -- 5:25PM, Rico-Dangleflaps wrote:

he asked it to jump and it put down..its travelling at 40mph..theres no room to stop and decide...it decided no, another stride.

2m chase goodish ground no margin for error

reminded me of nordance prince fall years ago, that was when the fences had to be respected tho

Always so many nico knockers... Yet the people whose opinion is worth listening to - Ruby , Ap, Nicky H, all rave about how good he is.  I know whose opinion I listen to.
Yes, he might not be the most stylish in a race , but there's a lot more that goes into a race than sitting pretty on a horse with your bum up in the air.
99 times out a hundred he is in the right place in a race and he presents a horse nicely at a fence and having a horse jump efficiently is one of the main criteria to winning races. That and having a horse in a winning position , which he does time and time again.

Sure he's not perfect , no one is, but he is generally consistent and makes a lot less howlers than most of his contempories.  One of the main things a trainer looks for in a big race is a jockey who doesn't get nerves and he is as calm as you like.

And I see the irony of saying about him presenting a horse nicely at a fence , with CH hitting the deck yesterday and jonbon making a howler today, but these things happen as they are part and parcel of jump racing.
.

neeko's ( . ) ( . ) are pocket yappers.

Haha

Haha Rico funny

I had to work it out for a second , very good.

Imo Ruby was spot on about the champion chase start

Clumsy individual tbh

It has been freakish, just how many fancied horses have jumped so badly...

Yes aberdonia, after the champion hurdle yesterday I would have thought cheltenham favs had used up about 10 years worth of bad luck..
Let alone seven barrows after the nightmare last Cheltenham you'd have thought they deserved a change of luck. But lady luck seems to have it in for short priced jollies this time around.

CH & jonbon bad jumping isn't bad luck they both have it in their locker

10+ years ago jonbon would have been on the floor in clarence house chelt & again today

CH could have come down in jan

Tape tickled Jonbons nose…..ffs

think most can see through the bs

Ballyburn took one with him in Kempton.

They can all put a bad one in, but when I've watched jonbon in his races to my memory he is normally foot perfect or have I remembered it wrong ?

you've got dementia he,s  never put a clear round in over fences,ask Nico,Bowen or Coleman if you don't believe anyone else

For those non riders, horses arent robots. They have a mind of their own and do stupid things. The horse chose to stand off the fence and the rider has to do his best to stay in the plate. He did well to  recover. If you look at his previous races he has done this before around Cheltenham. You can school a horse all you want but on the day the horse still makes the choice as to how it will jump. Like human beings sometimes if they have been upset or get startled they lose focus and confidence and for me this is exactly what happened to Jonbon today.

Just watching it again and you can clearly see that they were going a stride too quick for him, Nico was niggling him between fences to maintain his place and that led to him asking for a big jump which he paid for.

Jonbon usually puts down when awkward. This season he appeared to have moved forward and more relaxed before the race. He was never a Best Mate. Kauto took plenty of chances and indeed fell in the very same race. It is a coincidence that so many of the galacticos threw their chances away with poor jumping in the space of two days.

For Jonbon supporters it was a horrible watch. Horlicks of a start (not Nico's fault) but Jonbon was not in an ideal position and almost jumped into the horse front of him at first. Ok position not ideal butI don't understand why Nico was asking the horse up at every fence and Jonbon was putting in some huge leaps until saying no at the 9th. A far better strategy would have been to creep into the race and use Jonbons trademark strong finish. In fact I'm amazed he finished 2nd after that horrendous mistake. Not Nico's finest moment seemed to panic.

Nico put the horse's nose on the tape..have a look at the replay,he nudges the horse up to the tape just before it's released.

Thought Nico was unfortunic,Jonbon did really well to finish second.

He had to keep asking him because he was being niggled to hold his place which in turn means he can't afford the luxury of getting in close and fiddling one because the loss of ground on a horse already being niggled to go the pace would finish him anyway IMO.

well the race was a lot more competitive than what he has been used to. the winner was back to his best today and could well have beaten Jonbon anyway. certainly would have been going better than him approaching the last

the horse didnt choose to go long it was nico who asked for the long one...and the way he finished perhaps he could have come from further back without trying to lie up with the pace, but think marine would have won anyway

nico had a brain frt on the quicker ground he saw those travelling well around him. the horse could have been just presented at fences and won it he had so much in hand. getting 2nd after such a howler shows his class. another fking anti-climax the best horse not winning.

Don't know, it's a sprint race in effect, if he wanted to play safe he would have had half the track to make up, you've got to lie up and the horse was uncomfortable trying to do so, Nico was clearly niggling him in between fences, he still got it all wrong at that particular fence though, MN went for a big one himself and Jonbon took off from another half length behind him.

well i dont think he would have half the track to make up. i think a few lengths he could have mowed them all down late easily imo he stays so well for a 2 miler.

his last ride on him wasnt great either firing him at every fence it took too many risks that he got away with. there is an in-between if you have a horse who is so far ahead of his peers why fire him at every fence he can make so much ground if ridden more within himself.

he tried to repeat his last run but this time the probabilities caught up with him.

those who went off too quick came back he ploughed through them giving them a huge head start.

The rest collapsed whilst he got a breather because Nico basically accepted it and gave up so he was able to pick the rest up, but he made absolutely no impression on the winner, from the third last to the line MN was quicker than Jonbon despite being in the guts of the race the whole way, if Jonbon had been in the race the whole way with the issue he was having with the pace he'd probably have been back peddling at the end as well.

Even with the naked eye it's clear to see that MN was very strong and went further away from the last to the line from Jonbon.

back-peddling? dont think so you will rarely see a better staying 2 miler.

green running in 4/5 runner fields in slow ground plenty of room time  for Nico to fire him in to fences ,today he had 4 in front jumping going better and looking where energy finished the last race wasn't worth a row of beans