2008 Arc

Longchamp said:
I wondered when this would come up. I was in the weighing room Sunday and Thulliez was going mad, he had a copy of the print in his hand and although Hills' back end made it fairly hard to see where It's Gino's nose finished, the rest of the head was well in front.

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Sadly its Richard Hills' arse that causes the problem, whilst you can see on one angle it looks obvious, you can't see Soldier's head is behind or in front, so the fact is it could be paralel. Therefore if a judge can't call a decission either way he has to call it a dead heat. The top picture, (mirror image) is not conclusive enough to call, so therefore with the initial view blocked, a dead heat has to be called and was.
 
Gareth Flynn said:
I'd give DoM more chance of beating Youmzain over 12f than I would the reverse over 10f.
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Surely that's a statement of the bleedin obvious Gareth? Youmzain is a mile and half plus horse, Duke of Marmalade is a 10 furlong horse who can get 12 if he's allowed a soft pace?
 
Andrew Hurley said:
Will Timeform revise their King george ratings?


So, the hype did prevail with Duke of Marmalade - it sucked timeform into giving him the 132 rating for the KG, and alloting Papal Bull 131!

I said it at the time - it just looks even worse now.
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When they rated Celtic Swing 138 for his RP Trophy win it didn`t really become apparent to them until the following year how wrong that was. Here they have the ideal opportunity to revise their KG ratings before their Annual appears in the spring. I personally think they will, having a Group 2 animal like Papa Bull over 130 would look like a major gaff.
 
ah yes that one is more clear, perhaps the judge backed Soldier for a place or laid Its Gino wanting a nice reduction :)
 
German connections are going to put a complain in. Photo shows clearly that Its Gino finished 3rd on its own, and french officials have already un-officially confirmed this to vovcenco. Official placings should/will be altered in due course (its already in the german racing press), but punters who did back Its Gino (wouldnt have backed him even if somebody offered me a free bet on him to be honest!) are robbed of half their winnings.
 
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Probably have to be a bit more careful on here. Its what the german press reports but obviously no way of knowing if french officials will rule like they (from my source at least) said they would on sunday.
 
Zarkina retired to stud. No surprise there really.

From Sportinglife website:

Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe heroine Zarkava has been retired to stud.
The brilliant three-year-old filly bows out at the top after recording an unbeaten seven-race sequence.
Owner, the Aga Khan, said: "While no-one will regret more than my management team and I not to see Zarkava race again, we have decided to retire her to the Aga Khan broodmare band as she will be an invaluable asset to this essential part of our activity."
The three-year-old daughter of Zamindar had earlier this month stormed to a two-length victory in the Arc - her fifth Group One triumph.
However, after protracted discussions between the Aga Khan's management team and Zarkava's handler, Alain de Royer-Dupre, the decision was taken not to keep her in training next term.
The Aga Khan added: "The quality and youth of our broodmare band is of the utmost importance to ensure we remain breeders of racehorses capable of performing at the top level.
"The Aga Khan studs have produced three exceptional fillies in three consecutive years: Mandesha, Darjina and now Zarkava."
 
I'm not surprised but still gutted. I've only really followed racing properly for about five years but she's the best I've seen.
 
From the RP:

PAVEL VOVCENKO, trainer of It's Gino, has decided to accept the verdict of France-Galop after the enquiry into the disputed dead-heat for third in the Arc. He had been threatening to take the matter to a civil court.

Vovcencko, who was speaking from the Baden-Baden Sales on Thursday said: "I've talked it over with the owners. We have decided to accept it even though we remain convinced that he beat Soldier of Fortune for third.

"Third in the Arc is still a tremendous success for our stable and he's now the highest-rated horse in Germany."

It's Gino picked up a slight injury in the big race and will not run again this year.
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Two things about this:

a) Why didn't France-Galop just accept they got it wrong?

b) It's good that It's Gino's connections aren't taking this further - what material benefit would there be? He still came third in the Arc.
 
Gareth Flynn said:
From the RP:

b) It's good that It's Gino's connections aren't taking this further - what material benefit would there be? He still came third in the Arc.
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I think the trainer and jockey would have another point of view though. As I mentioned some time before, I saw this first in the weighing room and basically Thulliez, "It's Gino's" jockey was going mad, depending on his slice of things, the mistake cost him somewhere in the region of 10 grand.
 
It's utterly disgraceful along with a lot of what happened that day (viz the sprint and the fines) but fairly typical of the cavalier French attitude to foreigners over there. And they will NEVER admit a mistake. I feel really sorry for the Germans, I think it was just a 'sucking up' scenario to the more 'important' connections
 
chrisbeekracing said:
Sadly its Richard Hills' arse that causes the problem, whilst you can see on one angle it looks obvious, you can't see Soldier's head is behind or in front, so the fact is it could be paralel. Therefore if a judge can't call a decission either way he has to call it a dead heat. The top picture, (mirror image) is not conclusive enough to call, so therefore with the initial view blocked, a dead heat has to be called and was.
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They had a much much closer and more detailed image on the RP site (??yesterday) morning when the result was first announced, saying how incandescent the It's Gino camp was. The photo very clearly showed that the German horse was a full nose in front of Soldier, given the relative position of their heads - and that should have been clear to anyone looking at it. I don't think the Stewards DID look at it til the appeal, and then they would not back down

Sorry, hadn't read all the thread, that was the pic Longchamp posted!
 
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Desert Orchid said:
I've backed what I consider to be the forgotten horse.

Badly hampered and snatched up when making his run last year when 3rd fav, he's had a quiet campaign with four well-spaced runs culminating in a win in the Foy. That form doesn't amount to Arc-winning chances but he's in good hands in terms of his trainer and jockey, goes on ground with give, could well have gone very close last year with a clear run, has clearly been trained with today in mind and is blinkered for the first time. I just think 50/1 is an insult to a horse with the class of Zambezi Sun.
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Runs tonight in the Turf Classic.
 
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