I'm with you. I was annoyed by some of the comments on the BBC as well. Clare Balding claiming it was Paul Nicholls greatest achievement as a trainer was staggering.
"It's probably harder for the people watching who aren't close to horses. Horses have to go. We all have to go, but it's tragic for connections.
"Dick Hern, a great man, once said to me that there is livestock and there is 'deadstock', and although it's not a nice thing to say, it's true."
Yes thats all very countryside but it is not really the point is it? You may as well defend **** fighting, bear baiting and throwing donkeys off towers on that basis
Dwarf throwing is allowed -donkey throwing is a big no no.
So now Nicholls has won the Champion and the National, the two big ones that he's missed out on, is there anything he hasn't won?
So now Nicholls has won the Champion and the National, the two big ones that he's missed out on, is there anything he hasn't won?
I don't think BBC covered themselves in glory again with their race views. They didn't have to show a wide camera angle that showed the screens up around one of the horses at the fence they by-passed. Do they have no cop on.
15 titles like THE greatest trainer....Martin Pipe!!
Personally I don't think Pipe's better than Nicholls or Henderson. He was obviously very clever to be one of the first to latch onto interval training, but he never had the amount of classy animals Nicholls or Henderson have, he just seemed to win the title on sheer volume. Also, would he have won 15 without David Johnson? That's something Nicholls/Hendo haven't had, owners with 80+ horses, their horses are spread about far more.
Six of one and half a dozen of the other - Pipe had the numbers but now Nicholls and Henderson have the numbers but they also have the cash to go out and buy the expensive stores, the classy French horses, the overpriced pointers etc. they have the owners who don't mind spending heaps of cash to get the Grade 1 winner and I'm sure in the not too distant past some of those horses would have gone to other trainers and would have been stars for smaller stables.
Martin