Flat Season 2011 - A Classic Already

Bar the Bull

Bar the Bull

At the Start
Joined
May 2, 2003
Messages
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Location
Llandubno, West Wales (very west)
If anybody reads my posts, they will guess that I am a National Hunt man. The flat for me is a distraction, but often an enjoyable one. The breeding is one thing I really enjoy as a side salad to the meat of flat racing.

The past 9 months has made me think twice about racing. Many people have been whinging about how seldom we saw many of the stars of National Hunt this season. It was frustrating. I think it will just be a phase, as the big races were won mainly by horses with a few miles on the clock (HF, SE, BB, Ballabriggs, Captain Chris, Boston's Angel, etc.

Anyway, my main point relates to how the Flat has really caught the imagination.

The miling division looks brilliant.
The middle distance division looks potentially epic.
The staying division looks really intriguing, if a little short of quality.
The ladies' divisino looks excellent.
The sprinters let the side down, but we may get a couple of stars from non-staying 3yo's.

I think the tendency of top owners to risk their top horses at 4 and 5 is the reason for this. We are in for a treat.
 
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My thoughts exactly. Was thinking the other day this looks like most interesting for a few years
 
Frankel blew me away but nothing in Ireland has got me really excited yet except to a small degree Tough As Nails. I do think the 3yo bar Frankel are not vintage but they're are plenty of hands yet to be shown. Anyway the season only gets into gear next month.
 
There are still a lot of unraced 2 y.o.'s from top sires for us to savour, too. Dunlop has around 20, for example, all just doing pieces of work at present, George Baker has bought a good amount, so there's loads on the summer horizon.

Brighton winner BUBBLY BALLERINA (2 yo, third race) is now aimed most likely for the Windsor Castle. There seems to be a sense of more ambition among trainers with youngsters so that certainly augurs a little better than 2008, where with mares and foals unsold and many visiting the knacker's one way, we were concerned there might be a dearth of newbies for us to look forward to. It may be that the newbies will be mostly from the better end of the sires' market - hence MONTJEU's and FOOTSTEPS' winners today - but that in itself is brilliant. Better quality and even some quantity of youngsters popping up.
 
I think we've been spoilt over the last couple of years. To get a horse like Frankel so soon after Sea the Stars is a real treat. The number of top class older horses in training is also making things very interesting and I think its great that operations like Coolmore and Abdullah are keeping so many top class animals in training. We have got the best 3yo miler and middle distance horse still in training which can't have happened for a good few years.
 
The great thing is, with the flat, the top horses try to take each other on where possible. They don't, like the jumps, race each other once a season.

One angle of looking at how great a season it could be is the potential clashes..

Goldikova v Canford Cliffs (v Frankel later on)
Workforce v So you think v Planteur v Sarafina
Midday v St Nick
 
Hamm said:
The great thing is, with the flat, the top horses try to take each other on where possible. They don't, like the jumps, race each other once a season.
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Who can ever forget the Zarkava vs New Approach match up's that lit up 2008. At least with the jumps you know we will see them.
 
Euronymous said:
Who can ever forget the Zarkava vs New Approach match up's that lit up 2008. At least with the jumps you know we will see them.
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Jim Bolger was at fault there but it's not representative of the rest of the sport.

Who has Goldikova ever avoided?

Compare Hannon's 2 milers with Nicholls keeping denman and Kauto apart.

Or, the fact most top horses take each other on once, maybe twice a season in NH - look at the narrative we had with Henrythenavigator and Raven's Pass.
 
It's confirmed in today's Post that Goldikova will come over to take on Canford Cliffs in the Queen Anne. Excellent news.
 
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