Bryan Cooper

M

michael_o

At the Start
Joined
Feb 15, 2008
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A hugely talented, personable and intelligent young jockey who has landed a high-profile, high-pressure position at a very early age.

Don Poli aside, some of his rides at the Festival this week have smacked of desperation, reflecting the pressure he's under & culminating in two whip-bans totalling 15 days. He will miss Aintree and the Irish National.

Hopefully he's intelligent enough to reflect carefully on this week's performance, and have the determination and strength of character to bounce back. Let's hope so, because NH racing needs him to be performing on the top stages. But O'Leary is a demanding employer with limited patience....
 
Agreed. He was getting after the bulk of his mounts early doors. Even Don Poli, who kept finding for him due to his lazy nature.
 
He certainly looked under pressure when steering No More Heroes down a blind alley
Usually one of the better jocks around but it may just be that a job a big as this has come a bit too soon for him.
 
I think the gap was kind of there. Was a tad unlucky, though what happened after I think he would like another go.
 
I was thinking the same about young Cooper, he was trying too hard and with Russell bagging three wins it probably added to the pressure on him, I imagine Gigginstown had high expectations coming into this festival with a huge number of entries and some serious chances on paper, the RSA the major highlight with 1st & 3rd and then the X-C, other than that they had to settle for placed efforts from Don Cossack, NMH and RtR , overall I think they will feel it could have and should have been better, they had a lot of entries in the handicaps that were well touted yet (I think) only Roi Des Francs placed.
 
I'm not sure I agree.

There would be no pressure greater than the Gold Cup and he gave Road To Riches as good a ride as you could hope for. He made sure he got a good early position, got his horse jumping fluently and gave his horse a nice breather in the middle mile, gradually easing him back two or three lengths while Coneygree and On His Own kept each other in view up ahead. He made his move at the right time and was ultimately beaten by two better horses.
 
That is just the Gold Cup though DO and I agree that was a very good run, less impressed with Outlander and Don Cossack rides, but my general point is Gigginstowns return more than Cooper, a lot of well fancied runners that just failed to show up Very Wood, Edeymi, The Game Changer, Marinero, Petite Parisienne and so on..Ground maybe?
 
Yes, but we're also looking at different trainers and they'll be wanting him to ride their horse if they think it has the best chance. It's maybe that he needs to learn to read his trainers better. Noel Meade said he'd no idea why Very Wood ran so badly. Did any of his horses run to expectations?

I backed Petite Parisienne. She did best of the Irish, as I'd expected, but, like all the Irish juveniles in the Fred Winter, was beaten out of sight. Paul Nicholls highlighted this on the Morning Line but I dismissed the earlier result as a blip.

It's very hard to win any race at Cheltenham but when you're up against Mullins, Nicholls, etc, I think you need either an exceptional horse - he had one in Road To Riches and did it justice - exceptional luck or to be exceptionally well handicapped.

I'm happy to cut him some slack for now.
 
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Desert Orchid said:
I'm not sure I agree.

There would be no pressure greater than the Gold Cup and he gave Road To Riches as good a ride as you could hope for. He made sure he got a good early position, got his horse jumping fluently and gave his horse a nice breather in the middle mile, gradually easing him back two or three lengths while Coneygree and On His Own kept each other in view up ahead. He made his move at the right time and was ultimately beaten by two better horses.
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Nothing wrong with the ride at all, couldn't have got any closer. Trouble is, he hit the horse 16 times and I'm just suggesting that excessive use (on three Gigginstown horses during the week) may be an indicator of the pressure he's under. I hadn't realised that he'd also been done for his ride on Don Poli, so that's 18 days in total. He's going to appeal, but I think that's futile.
 
granger said:
He doesn't appear to have a great say or even opinion as to where the Gigi horses are targeted.

he needs to become more of a strong character
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robbie mcnamara lives with cooper and basically infers the same on the final furlong podcast

when they were talking about tell us more they asked if cooper knew which race he was going for and mcnamara said something like "he wouldn't have a clue either"
 
"Yes, but we're also looking at different trainers and they'll be wanting him to ride their horse if they think it has the best chance. It's maybe that he needs to learn to read his trainers better. Noel Meade said he'd no idea why Very Wood ran so badly. Did any of his horses run to expectations?

It's very hard to win any race at Cheltenham but when you're up against Mullins, Nicholls, etc, I think you need either an exceptional horse - he had one in Road To Riches and did it justice - exceptional luck or to be exceptionally well handicapped."

To be fair to Meade, he trains Road to Riches and that ran to expectations or even above - rain was against him too

Apache Stronghold ran great race

Wounded Warrior ran great race

Monksland poor but Irish stayers a poor lot

Meade's festival record is poor but actually think he's improved in terms of aiming horses at the festival and his horses have run very well there in recent years
 
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