No wonder it seemed the busiest ever yesterday. It was - record crowd.
We got a couple of early pints around midday in the Istabrook Bar, but after that it was verging on the impossible for a few hours. Still managed to mind you
Another Henderson horse never travelling. Fortunately had A Plus Tard ante post (only 3/1) with Constitution Hill (4/1), Edwardstone (10/1) and Honeysuckle (4/5) sadly with Shishkin (7/4) who ran a stinker and Hollow Games (10/1) in the Albert Bartlett - who runs in the Martin Pipe instead!!!
As much as Hollow Games not winning is a double whammy for me, there has to be some comfort in the knowledge that Elliott brought over 66 horses in 25 races this week and ended up just winning 2 of them. To put his achievement in perspective, Venetia Williams had the same number of winners from just 11 runners.
Would love to be a fly on the wall when O'Leary sits down with Elliott for their post mortem. Equally, Willie Mullins, with his 10 winners this week, must be having a little chuckle to himself given how O'Leary tried to play hard ball with him over training fees and took all his horses away from him as a result.
1 winner 2 done on the line 2 fallers at the last hurdle when leading.
Frustrating week
Only had two winners myself across four days (Delta Work and Flooring Porter) but somehow managed to do alright thanks to 18 placed horses including one in every race on the Friday. It could’ve been a lot better!
Oscar Elite 3rd Tea Clipper 4th Epatante 2nd
Ahoy Senor 2nd Ashdale Bob 3rd Envoi Allen 3rd James’s Gate 3rd
Fil Dor 2nd West Cork 4th Bardenstown Lad 3rd Protektorat 3rd Winged Leader 2nd Pink Legend 2nd Freedom to Dream 4th
Also a handful of others that were never in the frame of course.
A couple of unfortunate ones chinned on the line like Gaelic Warrior (win only) and Winged Legend. Plus Galopin des Champs who fell at the last with a big lead. That’s the way it goes sometimes!
Just on our way home. Can't believe Paul Nicholls only had one third place the whole festival.
This is what I said previously and as indicated below Nicholls only had nine runners over the four days as opposed to Mullins (61) and Elliott (66):
I still find it difficult to rationalise how the trainer bias has changed so much over the course of the last decade or so. The British have, admittedly, done better than I thought we would but it is staggering to think that such a high profile trainer such as Paul Nicholls has the one runner on Gold Cup day at Cheltenham when Messrs Mullins and Elliott have 20 and 17 runners respectively. Nicholls' runner is in the Hunter Chase which means that stable jockey, Harry Cobden, doesn't have a Cheltenham ride so he's off to Doncaster instead where he has three of them.
Mullins and Elliott sent no less than 127 runners over to the Festival between them this year - Nicholls will have had just nine. Little wonder they dominate but this is also, perhaps, a reflection of the fact that he has probably lost the patronage of some of his owners to two of his former assistants namely Harry Fry and Dan Skelton as well as some bigger owners who have ceased to own horses. The days of Master Minded, Kauto Star, Denman, Neptune Collonges, Big Buck's, Azertioup, See More Business etc etc must be something of a memory for him especially as he hasn't had a winner in the last two years at Cheltenham. Sad to see really.
Comments
No wonder it seemed the busiest ever yesterday. It was - record crowd.
We got a couple of early pints around midday in the Istabrook Bar, but after that it was verging on the impossible for a few hours.
Still managed to mind you
EDIT:
Apologies, more duds (Vienna Court will shine over further IMHO) but another great run by Venetia's outsider.
Oh well, 4 Nationals over the next month. Plenty of time to perform a cashectomy on Bob.
Would love to be a fly on the wall when O'Leary sits down with Elliott for their post mortem. Equally, Willie Mullins, with his 10 winners this week, must be having a little chuckle to himself given how O'Leary tried to play hard ball with him over training fees and took all his horses away from him as a result.
1 winner
2 done on the line
2 fallers at the last hurdle when leading.
Frustrating week
Oscar Elite 3rd
Tea Clipper 4th
Epatante 2nd
Ahoy Senor 2nd
Ashdale Bob 3rd
Envoi Allen 3rd
James’s Gate 3rd
Janidil 2nd
Stolen Silver 4th
Grangee 3rd
Mister Coffey 2nd
Fil Dor 2nd
West Cork 4th
Bardenstown Lad 3rd
Protektorat 3rd
Winged Leader 2nd
Pink Legend 2nd
Freedom to Dream 4th
I still find it difficult to rationalise how the trainer bias has changed so much over the course of the last decade or so. The British have, admittedly, done better than I thought we would but it is staggering to think that such a high profile trainer such as Paul Nicholls has the one runner on Gold Cup day at Cheltenham when Messrs Mullins and Elliott have 20 and 17 runners respectively. Nicholls' runner is in the Hunter Chase which means that stable jockey, Harry Cobden, doesn't have a Cheltenham ride so he's off to Doncaster instead where he has three of them.
Mullins and Elliott sent no less than 127 runners over to the Festival between them this year - Nicholls will have had just nine. Little wonder they dominate but this is also, perhaps, a reflection of the fact that he has probably lost the patronage of some of his owners to two of his former assistants namely Harry Fry and Dan Skelton as well as some bigger owners who have ceased to own horses. The days of Master Minded, Kauto Star, Denman, Neptune Collonges, Big Buck's, Azertioup, See More Business etc etc must be something of a memory for him especially as he hasn't had a winner in the last two years at Cheltenham. Sad to see really.
Maybe he is missing his usual *special* feed 🤣
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/racing/article-10486977/amp/Champion-trainer-Paul-Nicholls-checking-feed-stable-slump-form.html