If anyone is interested Musselburgh have an additional jumps fixture this Friday with free entry. Could be a decent way to watch the GC.
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If anyone is interested Musselburgh have an additional jumps fixture this Friday with free entry. Could be a decent way to watch the GC.
First 2 races at Cheltenham and front runners are getting destroyed on this ground. Footpad was impressive though.
People that dont do racing won't get it but, the last few minutes for Lizzie Kelly is what its all about. (Never backed her horse).
I’ve had the first three winners. I’ve gone all or nothing on the jolly in the champion hurdle.
Apples Jade for the most unoriginal treble of the day to pay for the week for me.
bugger, 1 festival bet so far, ms parfois ew, nae harm done.
Four 2nds today!! Rather be done in the last would’ve paid my day,hey-ho!!:fuming:
Good performance from Altior, he really stayed on brilliantly when he looked in trouble 2 out. Not convinced he would have beaten Douvan who was still cruising when he fell 4 out but we'll never know.
Would love to see Douvan v Altior at Aintree or Punchestown on good ground. I don’t think Altior travelled as strongly as he can but he has so many gears. Douvan for me has always been a strong traveller and he’s not really been tested off the bridle apart from in a weak Arkle.
I thought Altior was good today without being spectacular. His turn of foot when he was in trouble was undoubtedly impressive though. How hard Douvan would have pushed him had he stayed on his feet is a real case of what might have been.
As good as Altior is I think he has a bit to go to sit at the top table of 2 mile chasers with the likes of Moscow Flyer, Master Minded, Badsworth Boy, Viking Flagship or Sprinter Sacre. At 8 year old he might well get there.
Totally agree with you there PB. But what really impresses me about Altior is his unquestionable ability to see races out. At the moment IMO he's very like Viking Flagship, a horse who always tried his hardest and never knew when he was beat. It won him 2 Champion Chases and was placed in another couple. He never had the class of the names you mentioned along with Barnbrook Again and Pearlyman, but he was still the horse of a lifetime. And as you say, Altior has age on his side too.
I'm going to sound like a right killjoy here, but IMO the ground has made this festival a less than memorable one so far. Needless to say there's the usual collection of horses that have little or no form on the heavy ground who have won some of the races this year. The exceptions to this are Altior, who showed great resilience and guts to win the QM, and I thought Laurina was extremely impressive today in mares' novice hurdle. but in a lot of the races, far too many good horses have underperformed for it just to be on off day. Part of this is just sour grapes mind you, I've won virtually bugger all so far :greengrin
I’ve not enjoyed it hugely this year either. I’ve not done well betting wise but that’s an aside really, I’ve had bad festivals before and still enjoyed the racing.
I’ve just said elsewhere that 4 days is too long and on one hand you have some races that are diluted thence the other hand the needle in a haystack 20+ runner handicaps. God help us if they go through with plans to add a mares Chase from next year and continue to look at a 5 day event further down the line.
Well its safe to say my horse racing 'luck' is non existent. had a lucky 15 and a patent on every day and most ive won is about 8.60......still got Mr big shot on the 16:50 and Born survivor on the 17:30 in the patent. If both win ill have made about 20 quid profit for the week......20/1 and 22/1 respectively so not looking good haha
What happened to Our Duke? Tailed off badly.
No winners for me today, I would imagine there's a few other in the same position with two 33/1 shots and a 25/1 shot making it a bookies benefit. To be fair, Pacha Du Polder won that race the year before but it was on completely different ground. If anybody got the placepot up they'll be a tax exile by now...
Had a fair whack on Native River and had a nice we bet on Le Prezien to end up the week about £400 up.
Not long til Aintree and we can do it all over again.
Chucked all my eggs into Might Bite's basket on about a dozen occasions since the turn of the year, sair one but, what a fantastic race (You don't know what the grounds going to be like 2 or 3 months before the race). Tried to be a smart arse and talked myself out of covering my bets with Native River this morning.
I would be tempted to call it a day until next season.
I’ve said that to my mate that Might Bite on a flat Aintree track with decent ground would reverse the places with Native River. However is it a very long straight at Aintree and wouldn’t rule out Might Bite going for another wander like in the RSA last year.