Are These Special Times?

[EC1]

Are we entering a golden age of chasers, there seems to be horses running 180+ every week recently

I wonder if when Nijinsky, Mill Reef and The Brigadier first hit the scene if people realised they were in a golden period....two of em in the same season etc... Similarily when we had Night Nurse & co. I remember following racing from the mid 70's...and seem to remember you get used to really high class horses and don't really appreciate how lucky you are at the time...it's only afterwards you realise just how lucky you were.

Coe/Ovett in athletics was another bag of riches which you sort of took for granted after a while...until they were no longer running.

It's strange how every now and then a crop of good horses come along...like buses...then nowt for ages.

We surely must be in one of these periods...and all 3 horses trained by the same bloke...4 if we throw in Neptune.

 

[Desert Orchid]

I think so but let's not forget it isn't that long since we had Moscow & Azertyuiop at 2m as well as See More Business at 3m+.

Nijinsky was the one that captured my imagination, then Mill Reef & Brigadier Gerard came along and really fired it. I remember in those days they were talking about no horse having won the triple crown since Bahram in 1935. In my immaturity, I remember thinking 'wow, 35 years. That's a lifetime, it'll be well into the next century - and I'll probably be dead - before we see another triple crown winner.' Over 35 years later we're still waiting. (We wouldn't be if they'd trained Three Valleys properly.)

No horse had won the Grand National twice since Reynoldstown about 35 years earlier either. Then along came Rummy the magnificent.

Yet, we have had equals of these horses. Dubai Millennium and Hawk Wing were as good as any Flat horse bar Sea Bird. In the USA they had Secretariat, and can anyone who saw it ever forget Arazi as a 2yo?

 

[Warbler]

I think it owes something to the pressures that Trainers are increasingly under to bring younger horses forward more early (with all the attendent risks). I wouldn't necessarily lose sight of the number of precocious French breds either who are contributing to the gene pool. In the last few seasons we've seen Star du Mohaison become the first 5yo winner of the SAC and now Master Minded win the Champion Chase. It might not be limited to chases either as Skys The Limit became the first 5yo winner of the Coral Cup and Katchit has of course won the Champion Hurdle with Punjabi placing. Denman won the Gold Cup but it was notable how many French breds followed him home, Kauto, Neptunes, Halcon and Exotic. The Champion chase saw a french 1 - 2 with Master Minded and VPU, and that's not to say MWDS might not have got into the frame. The evidence of the novice chases was a bit more patchy with only Turko and Kruguyrova figuring.

I never checked it out, but I'm sure I read soemwhere that French breds had accounted for somethign like 70% of the grade 1 wins in the UK during the 2007 season

 

[Sara]

Agreed Warbler, I think I mentioned this a couple of days ago as a general tendency, but it's good to have them listed. I'm sure it's responsible too for the problems the heavier built Irish NH types are encountering, as they need more time.

It would be interesting too to go through the 'departures' thread and see where all these horses which break down are bred, though a lot of them are flat-bred in any case.