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Ascot Take Outs Day 5

barjon

barjon

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Aug 2, 2020
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4,535
DAY FIVE

3:05 I’ve got to put in Rebel’s Romance just for the sake of it. What a horse and what can you say that hasn’t been said.

5:00 More Thunder had a dozen or more horses ahead of him a furlong out. He finished like an express train to go down by a head, not helped by Tom Marquand trying to untangle his whip from the reins over the last fifty yards or so. Made the difference, I think. Unlucky.

5:35 Seraph Gabriel came from way back to take the lead about a furlong out, kept on well but got nobbled right on the line by a nostril
 
Was on More Thunder but the doubt was the ground over this trip. Knew he would be finishing for sure. He was under the pump early enough and the whip issue clearly cost him.
That said, Holkham Bay was the unluckiest. Drawn on the other side, had to do his own donkey work as they couldn't take him far enough. He smashed them on his side by miles. Had he been where the race was at then he probably would have won.
 
One thing I think from this week is to be very wary of the form of some races with so many not handling the firmish going and so many fancied runners bombing. If we do get rain midsummer I can see a lot of form reversals. Part of the puzzle of trying to get winners of course.
 
Frankel said:
Was on More Thunder but the doubt was the ground over this trip. Knew he would be finishing for sure. He was under the pump early enough and the whip issue clearly cost him.
That said, Holkham Bay was the unluckiest. Drawn on the other side, had to do his own donkey work as they couldn't take him far enough. He smashed them on his side by miles. Had he been where the race was at then he probably would have won.
Click to expand...
Holkham Bay probably flattered by closing off a strong pace,and will need similar to capitalise, imo.
Like many of the straight course contests at RA, the form is skewed by pace as much as the draw.
 
Coach miguel said:
One thing I think from this week is to be very wary of the form of some races with so many not handling the firmish going and so many fancied runners bombing. If we do get rain midsummer I can see a lot of form reversals. Part of the puzzle of trying to get winners of course.
Click to expand...
I think this is a very valid point and also the intense heat may well have affected some of them. They may not have shown heat exhaustion symptoms but some may well not have performed to their best due to this.
 
I can understand why Marquand was so cross with himself but the horse was finsihing as fast as he could not sure the whip issue cost him .

I think the ground beat him over that trip.
 
I still think he definitely didn't help himself by not breaking sharply. Marquand seemed in no hurry out of the gate and then the pace was hell for leather. Someone said there was also a strong tailwind on the day and that wouldn't have helped. Then there was the reins issue. One of those cases of everything conspiring to go against them on the day but the handicapper can't put him up too much and I hope they up him to 7f next, either the Bunbury Cup or the International which, I think, might be worth £50k more.

Edit - I've just checked the sectional tools for the result. Look how slow MT was to hit 30mph.

1750674712624.png
 
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Frankel said:
Was on More Thunder but the doubt was the ground over this trip. Knew he would be finishing for sure. He was under the pump early enough and the whip issue clearly cost him.
That said, Holkham Bay was the unluckiest. Drawn on the other side, had to do his own donkey work as they couldn't take him far enough. He smashed them on his side by miles. Had he been where the race was at then he probably would have won.
Click to expand...
Trainer agrees with you, he bemoans his luck and reckons he would have won in another fifty yards as well.
 
The problem with Royal Ascot is they have no fresh ground too large field size and five days racing.
Look at the off track and see how burned up it was compared to the racetrack.
Limiting field size to twenty on the straight track ; have a win and you're in strategy a la Cheltenham Festival and move the rail for fresh ground may help.
The five days of racing is also a problem, of course .
Bring it back to four with a fifth day consolation card elsewhere perhaps.
 
reet hard said:
Holkham Bay probably flattered by closing off a strong pace,and will need similar to capitalise, imo.
Like many of the straight course contests at RA, the form is skewed by pace as much as the draw.
Click to expand...
Often the case but this is not one of them.
He clearly likes Ascot, 2,1,1 before Saturday.
 
I must be in a minority in thinking it was a cracking Royal Ascot.

I don't compare the meeting to the past, I compare it to other race meetings in the present.

The worst race of the entire meeting would be regarded as a feature race on most Saturday cards, never mind midweek.

Unless you were setting the bar at Frankel, the Queen Anne was, at a minimum, interesting, looked above-average Coventry and Norfolk winners to me, Field Of Gold was quality, ditto Ombudsman, the Gold Cup winner's broken the track record (showing the era of fast-ground isn't totally at an end), Rebels Romance has won his 276th Group race at the age of 153 and Lazzat has won a decent "Cork And Orrery" (one for fellow veterans, there) - what more does anyone want - the Moon on a stick? 😂
 
edgt said:
The problem with Royal Ascot is they have no fresh ground too large field size and five days racing.
Look at the off track and see how burned up it was compared to the racetrack.
Limiting field size to twenty on the straight track ; have a win and you're in strategy a la Cheltenham Festival and move the rail for fresh ground may help.
The five days of racing is also a problem, of course .
Bring it back to four with a fifth day consolation card elsewhere perhaps.
Click to expand...
Fair points, but on balance I'd leave it as it is. The large fields are a great spectacle and disappointing connections of a 3rd of the field by reducing numbers to 20 may not be a good way of attracting owners to the sport.

Of course, before 2002 there were still 5 consecutive days of racing, it was just that the Saturday didn't have the Royal prefix (Ascot Heath) . I can't recall it now, but I imagine there were less runners on that day though, and there wouldn't have been as high a quality of race.

I must say I did enjoy the meeting this year, but it certainly wasn't profitable for me.
 
I went to the Heath meeting once - the Churchill Stakes for 3yo over 1m4f was a race I remember - smaller crowd, despite being a Saturday, and it was regarded as a faux pas to dress as if it was still part of Royal Ascot.

All a bit weird, tbh, imo and switching it to five days Tuesday to Saturday made perfect sense to me.
 
I think they could do with moving a few races around

1 Have a staying race each day so swop the Copper House with one of Friday's handicaps

2 Move the Jersey back to Wednesday and Royal Hunt Cup back to the third race on the card. The Duke of Cambridge would be a good fit on the Saturday over the Old Mile . The Jersey just gets lost after the Jubilee

3 What was the Duke of Edinburgh doing in the 3.05 slot ? Surely the King Edward VII should go there

4 6.10 is too late - get the Royals to have an early lunch - procession at 1.30 start racing at 2

5 Prize money for Gold Cup is too low it is absurd it is worth £200,000 less than the Jubilee and worth less even than the Commonwealth Cup.
 
I see the TV audience numbers were down.

My own thoughts are for the following reasons:

Too long between races - the cards need condensed a bit, to 30 mins between races.

Time wasted. Jockeys allowed to delay starts. Drastic action needed - give them a 90 second window and disqualify any runner not behind the stalls by off time or not in the stalls within two minutes of the scheduled off time.

Ditch the crap interim stuff. I get that Ascot needs its fashion check but reduce it and go back to one person commenting without interviewing. But all that vox-pop, social stable shite and Brian Gleeson failing miserably to make a cult of himself. Cut all that out.

By all means reference the above but don't dwell on it.

I don't think the once-a-year casual viewer will be impressed by Chapman. Dump him. Dump Cumani, she's going downhill and her voice is becoming ever more grating. Get Jinnyj in instead. Dump Foghorn Meghorn - I still laugh at that moniker, it's brilliant but I can't remember who it was that coined it - and Ken Pitterson. I'd hate to think there was tokenism involved in using him.

I don't recall seeing AP during the week. That's a step forward. Keep Kevin Blake. His analyses are helpful. Tipping Tim will work so long as he continues to find winners but at some point he will tilt the market if he continues to put winners up.

Few people on TV annoy me more than Luke Harvey. I don't care what a nice person he might be. He's awful television.

Keep Ruby. Like Blake, he's educational to the casual viewer.

As Adross says, start the meeting no later than 2pm. TV viewers want to be getting wired into their dinner by 6pm.
 
Audience numbers might be down because actual racing fans are more likely to watch specialist racing channel coverage and the casual viewer isn't as nearly as engaged by the ITV Racing team as they might like to imagine is the case.

Plus the ratio of Royalists to Republicans possibly isn't what it was and consequently the appetite of Wayne and Waynetta on the Tonic Wine Council Estate for watching toffs when there's a daytime soap on another channel isn't what it was either?
 
What makes you think my voice isn't grating! Or at least I think it sounds like I have 45 plums lodged in my throat.....People would have a field day pulling me to pieces and dragging things out from my past!
 

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