Messages

Thanks BC, luck being the operative word ! Lost at Ascot with better horses than this lad but won with worse, its my favourite flat meeting by a country mile but the draw is a killer, you can have the best beast in the race but if he is drawn wrong your f***ed, just had dinner in our usual spot and as usual left with three "definite" winners at least per race for tomorrow, the joys of Ascot !

Lads we have a bit of a squeak in the Wokingham tomorrow with Gabriels lad, far too short now, he was 20/1 this day last week, but this has been the target since Kieren got off him after winning at Ascot last October and told us he would win the Wokingham !

We had him sold in Hong Kong prior to the race for what we considered a very respectable return on our investment but Kieren persuaded us to hang on to him with this race in mind, he likes Ascot , wont mind the drop of rain forecast tonight and is in good fettle, the draw is an unknown especially if the rain comes but Kieren and denis are confident so fingers crossed.

Just a quick mention for another runner tomorrow Ektihaam in the  Hardwicke, ran into his trainer last night who we knew well when he was assistant to Michael Jarvis and he was supremely confident that Ektihaam would win and win well tomorrow.

First Lieutenant is the banker of the meeting in the Ryanair as long as the O'Learys ignore Mouse and head there instead of the Gold cup, i know mouse has told the O'Learys that he would bet the yard on First Lieutenant beating Sir Des Champs in the Gold cup on good ground, whether he would beat Bobs Worth is another matter.

Like yourself i cant have My tent or yours in the supreme, stats all against him and i reckon the books will be out to get him like they got Darlan, Dunguib, cousin Vinnie et al.

I'm told Edeymi is Gigginstowns best chance of a winner but the trainer puts me off a big bet on him, i would fancy him in the Coral if he gets in, not so much in the Martin Pipe.

I disagree about Simonsig, i think 4/6 is very fair, the horse is a beast, if Sprinter Sacre wasn't around there would be a lot more hype around him imho.

The only thing putting me off laying Hurricane Fly for all I'm worth is the question marks surrounding the other principles in the market, if Darlan was lining up next week it would be a different story, his Champion Hurdle win in 2011 doesn't read that well now with the second and third stayers and nothing else of any note coming out of the race, maybe last year was his true level, i suppose we will know more Next Tuesday.

Anthony Bromley told a couple of our syndicate members that Nicky thinks Binocular beats Grandouet, if that's right then forget about Hendersons team, i like Rock on Ruby but is he really a double Champion hurdler ? 

The fourth day and extra races have spoiled a lot of the festival buzz for me. I had a quite successful period landing ante-post punts on the novice race but it's impossible now with targets still up in the air. Bookmakers' prices also seem ridiculously short on some of the races and there'll be far better value around in the mornings next week.

Our Conor at 8s is probably the best value in my ante-post portfolio at the moment. I've Sir Des Champs at 7s and a small bit of evs about the freak in the Champion Chase from before the Tingle Creek. Among my more disappointing ante-post vouchers are Puffin Billy to win any race, Waaheb for the Supreme and Pont Alexandre in the Albert Bartlett. I'm looking forward to getting stuck into the handicaps over the weekend. They're always devilishly difficult but it's the one week of the year when there can be terrific value to be had.

I agree wholeheartedly about the dilution of the festival DH and if Eddie Gillespies successor has his way we will soon be looking at a 5 day festival including the Saturday but having said that i will still be landing in Bristol tomorrow evening giddy as a child on Christmas morning in anticipation
of the weeks festivities.

Whats your take on Hurricane Fly DH and BC ? A lot of lads seem to have him as their banker of the week whereas i cant have him at all, Willie and Paddy are ultra confident but I'm too long dealing with Willie to believe a word he tells me , as much as i like the man and admire him as a trainer, he was just as confident last year and told me personally 40 minutes before the Champion to "have what you like on him " of course following the defeat the stories that he was never right all year started to appear but that certainly wasn't what the team were saying before the race to their owners and it also wasn't what his time figures indicated either.

I agree Our Conor is bombproof in the triumph but the race is a graveyard for the Irish, Mullins rates Pont Alexandre as potentially the best novice he has ever sent to Cheltenham and is also very sweet on Ballycasey but again i would add the caveat that the information above came from a notoriously unreliable source, Willie himself 

I'm having dinner with the Pipes over the weekend, if i can get senior tipsy enough to reveal their plans i will post them up here, i believe a Cheltenham plot went haywire with Katkeaus defeat at Kempton recently, young Scu certainly wont forget the post race "briefing" with Martin for a while anyway, leaning towards the Jewson with Dynaste when i last spoke to the team although they  reckon he will win whichever race he turns up in doing handstands !

Not much coming out of Hendersons yard in the way of solid information,as usual, but i do know that at 7/1 they rate Long Run as the each way banker of the year even allowing for the dentists foibles.

[Do you know what race Gevrey Chambertin goes for homeofhurling?[/quote]]

.

Do you know what race Gevrey Chambertin goes for homeofhurling?
[/quote]

The Albert Bartlett is the plan DH.

I was talking to Pipe yesterday about a couple of our horses, we are going to head to the Foxhunters with Faasel, he has been point to pointing recently and seems in great form, might run into a place behind Salsify and Chapoturgeon, during the conversation i tried to worm some info out of him about his Festival chances, blood from a stone springs to mind !

It seems they haven't made their mind up about where to send Dynaste, the stats are against him for the RSA and they are a very stat driven operation, i got the impression the Jewson was the more likely target, he did tell me that Ballinagour would be his best chance of a winner, probably in his fathers race.

I'm fairly sure the word eccentric exists to describe Fergie and his "dancing leg", in the Queens Hotel a few years ago during the festival he became embroiled in a bit of a heated debate with a couple of chaps who had taken umbrage at his brusque manner, upon being offered outside Fergie replied "my dear boy i have yet to acquire a fighting leg but rest assured i will put that right and meet you here next year " to the obvious bewilderment of his potential sparring partner !

Has there ever been a Gold cup winning trainer before or since who admitted freely that he didnt much care for training horses under rules, he was some character alright, Tom Costello would tell you some quare stories about the bould Fergie

I'm not sure I'd be rushing to back Kingsbarns for Epsom at a short price. He did it nicely and looks like he'll make a better 3yo but he looks all stamina and he has quite a round action which suggests he needs an ease.

I think you have hit the nail on the head there Donnellys, if you had said to the Ballydoyle boys 4 weeks ago that he would win the racing post you would have got some quare looks, he came on a ton in the last couple of weeks and sealed the trip to Doncaster with a particular piece of work he did with Battle of Marengo recently, he isnt,or at least wasn't, in the top echelon of 2yos at Ballydoyle up to then, the boys in the know in Rosegreen have been chipping away at another Gallileo colt Mars for next years classics for a good while now, its hard enough at times to cut through the hype but from what I've heard from lads who wouldn't be prone to exaggeration they think Mars is pretty good

Thurles Sarsfields in the first round, but it's below in Kilmallock.

Is it in Kilmallock ?..... thought I read someplace that it was on in the GGs.
I'd still fancy Thurles against them - regardless of venue.

Tipped on down to the game on Sunday for a gander, Sars were in charge from the start imo, Killmallock pulled it back a couple of times but Sars always seemed on the verge of cutting loose, their scores seemed to come a lot handier than Kilmallocks did but what made the journey worthwhile was the performance of Paudie Maher at centre back for Sars, he was incredible, it was the finest display by a Tipp man in a club game since the golden days of Johnny Leahy in the late eighties/early nineties imho, next up for Sars are their namesakes from Cork in Tom Semples field in the semi.

Moore is the number one choice, its his if he wants it DH but as you said he is unwilling to move, Soumillon was approached but again is happy where he is, the main man isn't a big fan of Richard Hughes, not necessarily his riding ability but more his "loose lips", if as expected AOB's eventual successor is Magniers son in law then I'm sure he will push for Lordan, there isn't a hope in hell of Spencer getting another go, he burnt too many bridges first time round, the ideal scenario for all involved would be a 10 years younger MJ !

As for Dettori riding Camelot, its a pretty significant booking, obviously Dettori will have had to run it by the Sheikh and as with everything Magnier and co do  the booking will have been made with an eye on the political aspect, relations have been steadily thawing between the two operations and I'm sure this latest move will have been made with that in mind.

O'Shea was definetly top of my list alright Seafoid, delighted he answered the call, next summer will be very interesting now with the re-emergence of Clare and Limerick in Munster to challenge ourselves,Cork and Waterford and Kilkenny, Galway and Dublin(this year was a blip imho) scrapping it out in Leinster, isnt it great to have competitive provincial championships again.

Thanks for the kind words lads, no matter how many times you lose a horse it doesn't get any easier, its bad timing really as Pipe seemed to have found the key to him recently with three wins in a row before Listowel but that's racing for you.

Howrya BC, yeah i put Faasel up for the Triumph when he was around 25/1 all those years ago, i still feel sick when i think about that race and especially Dobbins ride and his attitude afterwards, it was the one that got away alright, his win in the Aintree hurdle made up for it to an extent but Jim, whose colours he ran in, always wanted a winner at the festival, we have remedied that situation since with Gaspara first and a couple of others since but they all ran in other syndicate members colours unfortunately.

As for Premier Dane, he was third for us at 100/1 in the County a few years ago after looking the winner a furlong out, he always promised a lot but Richards never worked him out.

[I hope Premier Dane is ok after his fall today]

I own a couple of legs in Premier Dane running in the Kerry National today, cant tell ye much really as the ground and trip are unknowns, he is officially well in at the weights and David has him as fit as he has ever been but he wont have encountered ground like this before, we ran him on the soft at Newton Abbott there a couple of weeks ago to see how he would handle it as his previous trainer Nicky Richards always said he hated soft but he sluiced up and AP said he loved the ground, go figure !

His price is baffling though considering the unknowns, we have had a bit of a cut at him ante-post but not anywhere near enough for him to be a single figure price, i can only assume he has been punted because of who his trainer is, he has been a solid performer for us over the years, he was third in the County Hurdle for us five years ago but he is as odd as a box of frogs, like another of ours Faasel, Pipe seems to have found the key to him winning his last three but he is as likely to be pulled up as he is to win.

Good to see some new posters on the racing thread. There used to be good racing discussion over on An Fear Rua so hopefully a few more of the refugees might end up on here. I hope Premier Dane is ok after his fall today. They might be two rogues but I'd say they are two great horses to be involved with.

I thought Teelin Star was quite impressive today in the bumper. He looks a real dour staying chaser in the making and could be one for something like the Irish National in 2013.

Real sign of the times tomorrow with only two runners declared for the bumper. I expect we'll be seeing smaller and smaller fields throughout the NH season.

Unfortunately we had to have him put down over the weekend DH, he cracked his shoulder in the fall at Listowel and despite a couple of vets feeling he would eventually recover it was decided that as he would be in a lot of pain during the recovery process it would be best to have him destroyed humanely.

[HOH,you seem to have been right from the start,how will O'Shea do as manager as against coach,will he do both roles,could be quite a challenge for him,any word on the rest of the team.]

Eamonn O'Shea ratified at this evenings County board meeting.

HOH,you seem to have been right from the start,how will O'Shea do as manager as against coach,will he do both roles,could be quite a challenge for him,any word on the rest of the team.

[/b]

No announcement due to be made on the rest of the managerial team until after the minor All Ireland is out of the way, they are mostly in place bar one, possibly two, of the backroom team (not selectors) having some issues to iron out,  the only reason the board released the brief statement last night was to avoid the circus that has surrounded the appointment in the last few days, the word was obviously out so they decided it best to confirm O'Shea as manager last night after he was ratified.

Contrary to some news reports last week Eamonn never ruled himself out, he was the only man officially approached by the County board to take over.

The county board initially drew up a list with three names on it, they contacted all three through the usual "back channels" to sound them out on their availability, two recent(ish) former managers both pushed the board in the direction of O'Shea who was the other name on the list of three, he confirmed his interest as soon as contacted and agreed to a meeting during which he outlined his vision which, as will become apparent, is a little more wide ranging than a traditional managerial appointment , the county board reps then took that "vision" away to discuss with the remaining members of the selection committee, the county board then approached Eamonn again to offer him the position which he accepted, the delay in naming him came as the fine details were ironed out over the last couple of weeks.

As for the coaching/managing side of things i have heard people question whether he can manage as opposed to coach, i would suggest his job proves he is certainly capable of managing people and of delegating, in fairness Eamonn isn't the sort of fella who does anything by halves, this is a man that took it upon himself to travel down to Thurles, on non training nights, to coach a couple of the Tipp players one to one during his previous stint, that's the sort of chap we are talking about here.

Eamonn O'Shea ratified at this evenings County board meeting.