2007 Departures - Horses In Training

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MIGHTY MAN, whose exploits last season earned him the title of Britain and Ireland's champion hurdler, seems almost certain to have run his last race.

Connections told the Racing Post on Sunday their seven-year-old is "highly unlikely" to resume his racing career.

A dazzling defeat of BlackJack Ketchum and Inglis Drever in the Liverpool Hurdle last month represented Mighty Man's best performance, but it now looks likely that his appearance a fortnight later in the Champion Stayers' Hurdle at Punchestown will go down as his farewell race.

The Henry Daly-trained star was leading at Punchestown when rupturing a superficial flexor tendon on his off foreleg shortly before the penultimate flight.

Since then he has undergone stem cell treatment but, although he is doing well in the care ofowner Joss Hanbury and wife Nicky, his recovery will be long, and the chances of him racing again slim.
"People have been so kind, and we want to thank everyone who has asked about Mighty Man's wellbeing," said Nicky Hanbury.

"He is having stem cell surgery, but the likelihood of him making a recovery that is sufficient for him to reappear on the racecourse is highly unlikely."

She added: "He is back here with Joss and myself and he's being given the four-star treatment he deserves. If nothing else, he is sure to get a happy retirement in Leicestershire."

Mighty Man is set to enter retirement with a record of eight wins from 15 starts, and a total prize-money haul of £303,811.

Successful at the last three Grand National meetings with Richard Johnson, he also landed last year's Long Walk Hurdle, and was placed in the last two World Hurdles.
 
Dancing Bay has just been retired by Elite, aged 10. The handicapper has given him no respite for several years, and he is just too old now to keep running at the top level, where his handicap mark over hurdles & fences, and on the flat is just too consistently high for him to be placed. He's been punished for having won under all three codes; and Niocky says he's 'getting a bit creaky when he pulls out'.

His record from 55 runs is 11 wins, 8 x 2nds, 3 x 3rds, 4 x 4, inc several wins and places in Group races for Nicky Henderson. He's being retired to live back at Maurice Camacho's, where he was foaled and first trained, which is great news. Maurice has his dam Kabayil for the Club on his Malton stud, as well as Kalinka dam of Soviet Song, Penzance, Sister Act [and Kalinova who will hit the track soon]. Julie Camacho trains from there too of course.


Ionian Spring has also just been retired aged 12 due to a recurrance of his severe bleeding problems. It seems when he was moved from Declan Carroll's to David Evans' yard, no-one must have prepped his new trainer [as happened when he was claimed from Elite by Diamond Racing] that he must be excercised alone and in general kept totally calm, a regime instigated by Clive Cox.

Anyway, Diamond are being very good about collaborating with "Friends of Onion" on finding a permanent home for him away from racing. He'd make someone a great riding horse [pm me if you would like to bwe considered as his new 'on loan owner' - he's a lovely character, very people-oriented, but not a novice's horse; he'd be best on his own imo].

Does anyone know whether he was the last offspring of Ela-Mana-Mou in training? I can't think of any other... I can only just about remember EMM winning the Derby :what:
 
@ Head: No, there is def. some jumpers in Ireland by him. Saw one in aintree, a 6-year-old, he finished fourth in some novice hurdle, but cannot remember the name.

that would be his last crop.
 
Originally posted by Colin Phillips@May 27 2007, 06:33 AM
HS, you remember Ela Mana Mou winning the Derby?

Your memory is playing tricks on you, m'dear.
Click to expand...
Didn't Troy win the Derby that year ?

Ela Mana Mou ( fourth in the Derby )moved to Dick Hern from Guy Harwood and was a much better 4 yo . Terrific battle with the Prix de Diane winner Mrs Penny and Lester - who didn't stay the 12f run at a tremendous clip - in the KG 1980.
 
According to the RP, in addition to Ionian Spring, Ela-Mana-Mou has had High Point, Mersey Sound and Evaluator (in Dubai) run on the flat this season.

Larkwing, Hip Pocket and Mana-Mou Bay (though not since last July) all raced over jumps last season.
 
a bit off-topic, but
@ Headstrong: I have posted some photos of old Mou in the photo-section, in the Irish Guineas thread. And yes, Derby was Troy´s year.
 
DR KYLE, Ballinrobe Hurdle, 7.50. Leg gone just after a flight along the back stretch. There was a sudden argy-bargy with horses in the back field seemingly colliding, so don't know if he was barged badly. Race won by the persistent ANOTHER FUSION from the much-punted favourite ONE COOL GUY.

How odd: just noted from the RP that this was, apparently, DR KYLE's very first race, age 6. No record of previous Flat or Bumper experience. Sad.
 
Re Dr Kyle: I remember a similar occourence a couple of months back - when someone posted that statistically there are relatively high fatalities in horses starting their career later in life, inc in bumpers. Awful for connections. And why is there so much barging in Irish races - are the courses too narrow for the numbers of horses engaged? There seem to be all too many collisions over there, and often with fatal consequences.

Thanks all, for the info on Ela-Mana-Mou. I'd always thought he'd won Derby! - but do in fact well remember Troy's year. I watched it in the Colony Room Club in Soho with a boozy crowd inc Frank & Geraldine Norman, Francis Bacon, and Jeff Bernard - all dead now... our old mucker Mick Tobin, carpenter to the Royal Shakespeare Company [also departed], had a huge bet on - Willie Carson had given him the tip some weeks before. He slipped off after the race, and came back ten mins later with his pockets stuffed with notes. We all champagned it well into the evening... ah days of my youth!
 
For the record, Dr Kyle was not making his racecourse debut. He had run three times in Irish Points, proving to be both useless and a nutcase at the same time. I would suggest it was a highly questionable decision by connections to run the beast under Rules.
 
Happy Jack - I'd agree with you, based on that analysis, to which readers of the RP online aren't privy, of course, as the Bumper looks like his first time out. No mention made of previous other experience. A regrettable decision, although he certainly wasn't running like a 'nutter' at the time, poor bugger.
 
I think that was the one that broke a leg and as a result Ruby Walsh was left concussed and stood down for a week.
 
Oh, dear, bad news for both. BTW, there was a gruesome pile-up in Ireland (was it Ballinrobe) 2-3 nights ago at an evening NH meeting, where a jockey in green appeared to be first rolled on by his falling horse, then trampled on by the one it BD. I'm sorry to say I got distracted by a phone call then and turned the mute on, so don't know if he was okay. He took a fearful battering, although the BD jockey seemed all right, and the horses galloped off, seemingly none the worse.

Just answered my own question my trawling thru the RP. Yes, that was the crash, I think, if Roob was in bright green. Surprised that concussion was the only injury, I'd have thought a few cracked ribs or a busted shoulder would've been quite possible.
 
Oh no, oh no! He made you smile even when you'd only heard his name...
 
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