Ascot Chase

[Grasshopper]

It would seem 90% of racegoers think Galopin Des Champs is by far the best chaser in training.

Despite some decent opposition in Bravemansgame, Stattler, A Plus Tard Protektorat and Ahoy Senor

He's the shortest priced antepost favourite at this stage since Kauto Star and looks likely to go off shorter than Bobsworth 7/4 did when he tried to win it for a second time.

Seems everyone can see he's head and shoulders above any staying chaser we have seen since Kauto Star..that's everyone except you.

A few things to unpack here:

1. I don’t care what 90% of racegoers think, and their opinion is irrelevant anyway when it comes to assessing merit. The form-book is all that matters.

2. GDC may have faced Stattler, but he has yet to run against ANY of the other horses you mentioned. Indeed, there are barely any - if any - lines of collateral-form between these horses, that would give you an indication of how he stacks-up against them. That being the case, they cannot be used as any kind of marker for GDCs level. Once again, it’s the form book that counts, not the opinion of any one individual, or even collection of individuals.

3. The betting market is dominated as much by the absence of opposition (or questions marks regading them), as it is the inferred superiority of GDC. Anyone translating GDC’s current price, as de-facto evidence that the public thinks he’s “head and shoulders above any staying chaser since Kauto Star”, doesn’t know how betting-markets work.

Gut instinct is a perfectly fine thing when it comes to horse-racing, and if your gut tells you that GDC is the best staying chaser since Kauto Star, then that’s OK. But call it what it is, and don’t make fanciful and frankly embarrassing claims about what the rest of the population think, as it will only make you look foolish.

To offer a contemporary example, I watched the Matchbook and ATR Festival previews last night. Excluding the presenters, there were eight pundits asked for their opinions on the meeting. None of them napped GDC, and one of them actually said he was the lay of the meeting. Now, their opinions are largely irrelevant to me, as I’m big enough to make my own mind up about this sort of thing. I mention it only to demonstrate that the opinion of the “racing public” might not align entirely with your expectations.

For the record, I think GDC is a top-class racehorse with likely more to come.