Gold Cup 2009 (was: Denman)

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All sounds positive...

By Nick Robson, PA Sport

Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Denman continues to please Paul Nicholls as he recovers from treatment to remedy an irregular heartbeat.
The eight-year-old, unbeaten in nine races over fences, has not been seen in public since his demolition of stablemate Kauto Star in the blue riband event in March.
Since the problem was spotted in September Nicholls has always had the Aon Chase at Newbury on February 7 as his likely starting point but part-owner Paul Barber had mentioned a possible tilt at the Peter Marsh at Haydock in January.
However, that now seems unlikely with a spin over hurdles emerging as as a possibility.
"He's just quite not ready and there wasn't an obvious race for him yet," said Nicholls.
"He wouldn't have been ready for the Lexus but he's working along nicely and I'm very, very happy with him.
"There's just nothing for him so I've still got in my mind the Aon as a target and whether we run before that I don't know, I've even suggested to Paul Barber giving him a run over hurdles to sharpen him up a bit before the Aon.
"In all probability his first run will be the Aon.
"Without a doubt he is showing me at home that he retains all his old ability. I've got no doubt whatsoever and if we didn't know he'd had a problem we wouldn't even be questioning it.
"But he has to do it on the track otherwise there'll always be a doubt in people's mind," he told At the Races.
Despite his absence Denman remains the 11-8 favourite with sponsors totesport for the Gold Cup in March.
 
What was the horse who had a failed red blood cell count, Phoneix Tower I am sure of it but correct me if I'm wrong an irregular heart beat can cause this especially more so in horses. Would Denman have any troubles with chest pains and breathing problems especially towards the end of the grouling race?.
 
ItalianStallion said:
What was the horse who had a failed red blood cell count, Phoneix Tower I am sure of it but correct me if I'm wrong an irregular heart beat can cause this especially more so in horses. Would Denman have any troubles with chest pains and breathing problems especially towards the end of the grouling race?.
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Spoke to the Boss a couple of months ago about atrial fibrillation, apparently its a spasm in one of the heart muscles, a bit like hiccups. Shouldn't be a problem once it's corrected. The big concern would be a ventral fibrillation, which he says could damage the heart itself.
 
Might be a blessing in disguise that he is having such a long break after a tough Gold Cup performance. That is assuming of course the problem has not left its mark.
 
You'd hope so - this long break post Gold Cup is turning into a bit of a short one. Chances of seeing him in France looking slim now :(
 
ItalianStallion said:
What was the horse who had a failed red blood cell count, Phoneix Tower I am sure of it but correct me if I'm wrong an irregular heart beat can cause this especially more so in horses. Would Denman have any troubles with chest pains and breathing problems especially towards the end of the grouling race?.
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Phoenix Tower's tendon went again, he's only ever had leg problems never anything else.
 
All along I suspected that Denman may well come out before the AON - that was the rationale behind putting him in my original TTF lists as a banker, believing he'd probably run at lesat twice before the Festival, all opportunities to win points. I reckon plenty of people aren't going to put him in till the substitution stage.
 
Denman

Anyone who thinks Denman will be beaten in the Gold Cup is dreaming. The heart fibrillation problem did not stop Barnbrook Again and it won’t stop Denman. At most it may mean that he runs a little less often (although this is by no means certain either). The horse is a monster and will flatten other plausible contenders such as Neptune.

With Ruby on Kauto in the KG and Sam being sent to Ireland for Tatenen I guess they’d be looking for Christian Williams to ride Denman at Wincanton. Although what is even more likely is that Denman is suppressing the weights (a common enough, if cynical tactic) for other Nicholls entries such as Elusive Dream. Don’t be surprised if Denman is a late withdrawal. However, I’m equally confident that he’ll pulverise them when he does return.
 
Anyone who thinks Denman will be beaten in the Gold Cup is dreaming
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Perhaps you meant if the horse turns up fit and well, I don't think any heart condition is insignificant.
 
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Thing is he is fit and well. Too much has been made of the heart fibrillation thing horses and human athletes have coped perfectly well with the condition. As long as the preparation is monitored it won't have any sort of effect on performance. Many people and horses can be found to have a fibrillating heart if you look hard and often enough. the condition is not constant and can be corrected anyway.

Sheikh said:
Perhaps you meant if the horse turns up fit and well than he won't be dreaming, I don't think any heart condition is insignificant.
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SteveM said:
Thing is he is fit and well. Too much has been made of the heart fibrillation thing horses and human athletes have coped perfectly well with the condition. As long as the preparation is monitored it won't have any sort of effect on performance. Many people and horses can be found to have a fibrillating heart if you look hard and often enough. the condition is not constant and can be corrected anyway.
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Lets hope so, I won't be taking a price until the day though.Good Luck.
 
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