Champion Hurdle 2013

Really disappointing a few didn't stick around for the beer money as it leaves Harry Fry no choice but to try and make all.

If Harry Fry is serious about winning today they have got to set a a real good gallop. Take off like a bat out of hell and quicken up on the home turn should do the trick.

I'd expect a much better performance from Coutryside Flame today. John Quinn reckons it was 3 times softer that what Newcastle had been and his horse hated every minute of it. He'll be a different proposition today on what's down as good to soft.

Looks pretty straight forward today. Rock on Ruby will make it with Countryside Flame right behind him and the other two held up.

I don't expect there will be too much between them at the line but Darlan won't be able to go with them and he'll finish a disappoint 3rd or even last as CC will be ridden to get 2nd or 3rd here.

No sense in watching the race really ......I know the result already:lol:

On a serious note if Rock on Ruby is a true Champion he should kick Darlan into the middle of next week.
 
Be amazed if any of them will be taking a 10k race too seriously, Fist.
Doubt there'll be any murderous pace, and Darlan should dot up, but we'll learn little about their CH prospects we didn't know beforehand.
 
Your most likely correct.

Darlan should have a huge fitness advantage Nicky had him straight enough to damn near win the Betfair so he must have a pretty good recovery rate.

Rock on Ruby had that ding dong battle with Binocular but that was in December and then he wasn't seen again until March.

Could be he's been held up in his work this time round and he just wants to bring him up to scratch.

Going to be interesting
 
Listening to it on the radio; was thinking of the awful fall he had last year. It's like history repeating itself but with a different outcome. Feel so sorry for his lad. And connections. And the crowd watching. RIP.
 
I missed the race and I am very glad of it . Sound like he was coming to win easily - horribly reminiscent of Golden Cygnet all those years ago .
 
Valiramix
Gloria Victis
Darlan
Synchronised

The man has no luck with good horses.


.
 
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Such a shame, commiserations to all connections. The only tiny consolation is that it would have been instantaneous and he won't have suffered.
 
With a view to the Champion Hurdle, another run from Rock On Ruby that leaves his Champion Hurdle effort as a standout. Was he as good as he looked there, and will he come back to that level under the conditions in March? Or did he simply take advantage of the run of the race and a few of his rivals not firing?

After today, I'm more keen on the other 2 from the International, but in truth, it's a race where there seems to be very little from a betting angle that looks wrong.
 
Chris Cook in tomorrow's Guardian

Monday was supposed to be a gift among racedays, offering cheap tickets to see top-class horses at a fixture that had not existed until last Wednesday. It ended in deep gloom, all joy evaporating at the same moment as Darlan took a shocking tumble at the final hurdle, broke his neck and died instantly.

He came here as the best hurdler in Britain, a reputation established by the exhilarating pace with which he won at Kempton over Christmas. Nicky Henderson, his trainer, was profusely grateful to the authorities for arranging this extra day's action, as it gave Darlan what seemed an ideal prep-race for next month's Champion Hurdle, for which he was second-favourite.

The bookmakers were surely getting ready to shorten his odds once more as he cruised along here, his jockey, Tony McCoy, apparently waiting only for the right moment to let him whizz past his rivals. On the run to the last, he asked his horse to stretch and join the leader, Rock On Ruby.

Perhaps Darlan was already tiring. The pace had been strong all the way up the home straight into a strong headwind and it could be fatigue that explains why, instead of bounding over, he stepped into the hurdle and somersaulted.

The six-year-old did something similar at Newbury a year ago, when he came down at the second-last in the Betfair Hurdle but was happily uninjured and ran well at the Festival four weeks later. This time, it was immediately clear that his luck had deserted him.

McCoy, who was bounced off the turf like a ragdoll, scrambled back to where the horse lay and was quickly joined by vets, but there was nothing to be done. Ashen and limping as he walked back to the weighing room, McCoy was "red listed" by the racecourse doctor, meaning his injuries were sufficiently severe to prevent him from riding for the rest of the day.

It is not impossible that he may take up his three booked rides at Market Rasen on Tuesday. McCoy's reputation for toughness is deserved but he has also made it plain that the loss of a treasured animal is not something from which he can simply bounce back. Any high-profile jump jockey will have the awful experience of a talented horse taking a fatal fall beneath them. Over the past decade or so, McCoy has been through it with Gloria Victis and Valiramix at the Festival and with Wichita Lineman in the Irish National.

Just 10 months ago, Synchronised, the Gold Cup winner, fell under him in the Grand National and then broke a leg while running lose. On that occasion, it was six days before the jockey returned to action, citing sore ribs.

"He's in bits," said a red-eyed Henderson of McCoy as the pair returned to the grandstand. "This is some game. Why is it always the good ones?"

The day turned darker yet for the sport, with Mujamead breaking a leg in a later race, and Desert Vision also put down at Wolverhampton. Some perspective was offered by Jonjo O'Neill, McCoy's most regular employer and trainer of Synchronised.

"It's a terrible thing and the whole yard is affected by it," he said, when asked how to cope with the death of a horse. "You feel the whole world is against you but eventually you've got to kick on, because there's other horses and other people depending on you.

"It affects us all because we love the horses but there's other people in the world in worse situations than we are. It's life and it's not easy but you've just got to get on with it."
 
It was a truly horrible thing to witness and Henderson was entitled to be distressed but he really shouldn't come out with that tired "why is it always the good ones?" cliche.

It isn't.
 
gus said:
It was a truly horrible thing to witness and Henderson was entitled to be distressed but he really shouldn't come out with that tired "why is it always the good ones?" cliche.

It isn't.
Click to expand...

For crying out loud - show some understanding .:mad:
 
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