For & Against

As soon as he is confirmed 5/2 will be the price in bold on oddschecker. I doubt it would last long. 2/1 would be my guess at the general market level when the race is his confirmed target.
 
He was 9/2 for the race on BF on Sunday. Hard to think he'll be switched to the Ballymore now, and even factoring in that possibility, it may make sense to bet quickly.

When you compare his price with something like Sweet Wake..
 
Sweet Wake:lol: Mister Hight:lol:

They ruined my enjoyment of both the supreme and the triumph. I got so involved in an argument that said neither would place and that Straw Bear and Detroit City were the better options (and my God I drew down the wrath of Ireland - in another forum) I swore that I'd never do it again. Even when I knew who the winer was, the only thin I was concerned about was where these two had come.
 
Shadow Leader said:
I hate to be the one to point it out to you Steve - plenty of horses receive five-star attention on a daily basis but it doesn't magically prevent injury!
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Perhaps not “magically” prevent injury. But you make your own luck in this game and there will be no horse in training receiving closer attention to detail than MM. In many big yards the deprioritised horses do not receive such close attention and some mishaps are preventable… i.e. If MM is injured it is unlikely to be due to carelessness.

Because of this there is an extraordinarily high chance that MM will line up in the Champion Chase and consequently VPU line up in the Ryanair. I believe an overgenerous amount of doubt on this is priced into the 5/1 I took on VPU. I expect VPU to start at a very much shorter price.
 
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Hamm said:
Galileo,
I agree with you he's a got a great chance in the race, but why did Mullins run him over an inadequate distance at Xmas and has now entered him for the Irish Arkle?
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Great to see Golden Silver win today for the O'Learys. Send him to the Arkle and forget any idea of Cooldine going that route.
 
Lodge Lane runs today in the 2.05 at Kempton. Yard has been under a cloud but apparently is now in the clear. I really like this horse, and think that under todays conditions he will be very hard to beat. Around even money hopefully.
 
Sorry, I didn't pay attention to earlier pages, are you putting him up for the RSA Chase too delboy? A note of caution (other than his ropey looking temperament!) is that he virtually tried to run out at Cheltenham when running in the Champion Bumper, veering wildly right across the track when they turned at the bottom of the hill.
 
Shadow Leader said:
Sorry, I didn't pay attention to earlier pages, are you putting him up for the RSA Chase too delboy? A note of caution (other than his ropey looking temperament!) is that he virtually tried to run out at Cheltenham when running in the Champion Bumper, veering wildly right across the track when they turned at the bottom of the hill.
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I was putting him up prior to his performance today...Stable has been under a cloud and today didnt help. Nearly came down at the first, and then clattered the next two, awkward at nearly every fence..pulled up eventually.

The horse is quirky il agree Shads, i remember him trying to run out in the bumper, and didnt behave himself the last time he went to the festival either..Todays performance stank to high heavens...i think the horse is a bit of a thinker, undoubted ability though...

On another note, i mentioned it to Sunybay at the weekend actually, I am of the opinion that Dartnall is poor at schooling his horses to hurdle and jump fences....I am a follower of his stable, and he has had some nice horses. Some really good bumper horses, decent enough hurdlers, but when they were asked to jump at speed in better races, they were found wanting. Similarly his chasers can be very in and out...Anyone else notice it?
 
This is where the big yards (eg in UK, Henderson, Nicholls etc) can have such an edge as they can afford to employ top specialists to teach the horses - and the conditionals and junior jocks - to jump well from the start. But agreed some small yard are not very good at it and have more than their share of fallers
 
Dartnall's not really a small yard, he's got to have 40+ horses.

I'm not so sure he produces a host of dodgy jumpers - Lord Sam didn't do so bad as a novice. At the moment he seems to have a few who think a little more than is good for them, though.

In general I've always liked him as a trainer - a good old fashioned type of NH trainer.
 
I was generalising from the particular not specifically talking about Dartnell, and making the point that if you have a yard of 100++ horses, and charge top dollar, you can afford a full-time specialist schooling your horses.

I've never thought Dartnell was any worse than any other trainer at that level and he seems better than most! It's tough for some smaller yards though (under 50/60 horses) as they need to get in say a conditional or lower ranking jock who has the time to come and school, if the trainer or whoever is too old, or has not been a jockey. It can be hard to get continuity.
 
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