The Horse racing thread

[Mickey Linden]

We normally stay in Bristol for the festival but are staying in Birmingham this year. Have any of you ever stayed in Birmingham and travelled to the Cotswolds?

[Sea The Stars]

I disagree DH - Hurricane Fly is a brilliant horse. Everyone in Ireland recognizes that. He is on a par with Istabraq. 

It's natural when a horse dominates like Hurricane Fly is at the moment that people want to see new horses come along and put it up to them. At their respective peaks, the likes of Kauto Star, Frankel and Sea The Stars all had their doubters.

Also future odds are not an indication of a horse's career. Personally I think Hurricane Fly is short enough at 3/1 when you consider he'll be 10 when the race is run, he was outpaced down the back straight last year, he's never exactly run right up to his very best at Cheltenham, he is facing probably the strongest field of pretenders in a Champion Hurdle that he has ever faced, the likely faster ground is bound to bring out more improvement in the opposition than him. So it depends how you interpret these things. Proven championship form might trump all these things in the eyes of some people.

What it comes down to in my opinion is that one of the novice hurdlers from last year is going to turn out to be very good. Hurricane Fly was beat by Rock On Ruby in 2012. The season just gone he beat him by 2.5L. I would say at least one of the new generation of hurdlers will in time prove themselves to be 2.5L better than Rock On Ruby.

[Donnellys Hollow]

I disagree DH - Hurricane Fly is a brilliant horse. Everyone in Ireland recognizes that. He is on a par with Istabraq. 

I'm not sure they do. I've heard plenty of people knocking his form down the years. Ironically this includes a few men who couldn't train horses to win schooling hurdles, let alone Champion Hurdles! Istabraq would put an extra 50% on the gate even if he just turned up for a racecourse gallop. Hurricane Fly hasn't received the same adulation up to this point. Maybe it says more about Istabraq and the whole story that surrounded him - John Durkan's tragic illness, horse with with an exceptional flat pedigree & stabled at the greatest training yard in the world.

Obviously there's more to making a market than pure form but I'd definitely have Hurricane Fly a point or two shorter than the two horses who ran at Kempton. I'd agree that he has run a few lbs below his Leopardstown/Punchestown best in his three runs at Cheltenham but I feel the others have even greater question marks over their Cheltenham form. JP's two horses were behind Champagne Fever over c&d last March. He's nowhere near Champion Hurdle class. Our Conor's Cheltenham win was visually very impressive but it was on the stiffer new course on borderline heavy ground with Bryan Cooper in the plate. Danny Mullins is no Bryan Cooper and the big handicaps so far this season have done nothing to suggest it was anything other than a distinctly average crop of juveniles that he beat. The New One's festival form also leaves him with plenty to find. Rule The World who he beat into second has finished well behind Zaidpour in two runs over staying trips this season.

Obviously they're all second season novices so they should have serious improvement in them and it is possible that one or two of them will make the requisite improvement. I just don't think they justify favouritism over Hurricane Fly at this juncture.

[Donnellys Hollow]

We normally stay in Bristol for the festival but are staying in Birmingham this year. Have any of you ever stayed in Birmingham and travelled to the Cotswolds?

Gloucester is the furthest away that I have stayed. Birmingham is a fair old trek from Cheltenham but if you can get a decent deal on a train or coach there is probably big savings to be made on accommodation.

[beer baron]

Cheers DH,it'll be my 1st trip over so i'm pretty excited about it,going for the 1st 2 days this year and if i enjoy it as much as i expect i'll prob do the full week  next year, as for Hurricane fly i'd agree with you i think he gets nowhere near the credit he deserves,i've lost count of the times pals of mine have told me  bridle ponce/he's finished/has beaten nothing/is only a small field bully etc. only the other night before he ran i was chatting to a group of about 8 or 9 friends who'd all be punters and there was only 2 of us that were going to back HF, the rest were mostly Our Conor and the general consensus was HF would be in 3rd behind OC and Jezki because he's finished  Mind you it's this lack of respect that lets him be widely available at 5/4 the other morning so it's not all bad  I'd safely say without checking that Istabraq was very rarely odds against yet HF has been at least 3 or 4 times the past few seasons 

Imagine what he would've done to that supreme field had he turned up that day considering how easily go native won after him laughing at GN 2 or 3 months previously

[beer baron]

Gigginstown and Russell have parted ways it would appear. Nice job for whoever gets it, i presume it's Coopers?

[Don Johnson]

Sir Des out for the season. Tendon injury. Shite.

[Don Johnson]

We normally stay in Bristol for the festival but are staying in Birmingham this year. Have any of you ever stayed in Birmingham and travelled to the Cotswolds?

Talking there as if you go to the festival every year. Aye right.

[Donnellys Hollow]

Gigginstown and Russell have parted ways it would appear. Nice job for whoever gets it, i presume it's Coopers?

Cooper is hugely accomplished for his age and will be a success but Russell deserved a bit better. These retainers often seem to come to a rather acrimonious end.

Sir Des out for the season. Tendon injury. Shite.

A tendon injury is a disaster for a horse. I hope it's not too severe because they never seem to fully recover their ability after a bad one.

[bridgegael]

Lost a winning horse docket this week. Wat are my chances of getting the winnings. Its paddy power. 

[beer baron]

Lost a winning horse docket this week. Wat are my chances of getting the winnings. Its paddy power.

Should be no problem,they'll ask you roughly what time it was placed at and will ask you to re-write the docket to ensure they've got the right docket up on the screen,has happened me 3 or 4 times,once for a decent payout and never had any hassle getting paid.

[beer baron]

Sir Des out for the season. Tendon injury. Shite.

Despite all his artillery this could end up a relatively disappointing enough season for Mullins,that's 2 of his stronger fancies for Cheltenham (Annalifet and SDC)  out and joining the likes of Pont Alexandra,Un atout already out for the season add to that Back in Focus hasn't seen a track since April and he'll be cursing his luck,in saying that even with all them injuries i'm sure any other trainer would love to be in his position  with the ammo he still has

[beer baron]

Last Instalment makes his long overdue comeback tomorrow,hopefully he retains plenty of ability because he put in a serious jumping performance when beating First lieutenant as a novice,trip tomorrow might be short of his optimum but should still be interesting to watch.

[Donnellys Hollow]

Last Instalment makes his long overdue comeback tomorrow,hopefully he retains plenty of ability because he put in a serious jumping performance when beating First lieutenant as a novice,trip tomorrow might be short of his optimum but should still be interesting to watch.

The trip will probably be on the sharp side for him tomorrow. He always shaped like he would stay 3m+. Hopefully he retains his ability because Fenton deserves some good luck.

Clondaw Court is in the novice hurdle as well. He will want to jump a lot better than he did at Leopardstown.

[FermGael]

Barney, Barney, Barney. He has done it again. Bookie bashing