Hennessy

From today's Irish Independent:

By Thomas Kelly

Thursday November 25 2010

Irish hopes of landing Saturday's Hennessy Gold Cup suffered a setback yesterday when China Rock was ruled out of the Newbury showpiece.
The seven-year-old had been well supported after Barry Geraghty was booked, but trainer Mouse Morris has revealed he will now miss out.
"I had to make a final decision this morning and I just wasn't 100pc happy with him," said Morris. "I hope he'll be alright to run at Christmas, probably at Leopardstown."
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Rather than being an acceptance stage or a forfeit stage, today's declarations were the final declarations for the race. The Hennessy is a showcase race that has a 48 hour declaration stage rather than the 24 hour declarations that most other jumps races have.
 
Gearoid said:
I can't have that Rory. What has he to gain by being clever?
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I had an inkling he was declaring believing the race might be abandoned and the race restaged. If that were the case, though, it would be re-opened anyway. Just a shot in the dark, I'll admit, and apparently off-beam.
 
I'm starting to look at Madison Du Berlais as a serious alternative to some of those at shorter prices. Won this a couple of years ago and on his day is a very verty good horse.
 
I wouldn't have thought so - they got the covers down quickly enough after the last at 1515, which arose as they moved the race times forward for the very purpose of getting the covers down. That said, that ground around here hasn't thawed all day as the temperature hadn't risen, then again the frost hadn't gotten in to the ground at Newbury in the first place due to the covers. It is very cold again tonight and forecast to get colder again than last night. Providing they don't take the covers off too early to let the frost in and provided we don't get too much snow (some predicted tonight but not much) it should be ok I reckon.
 
I see that Newbury are confident that they won't need to inspect for the reasons that Shadow has given above: the frost didn't get into the ground; they got the covers down quickly before temperatures started to drop again.
 
Would you be better off with a gaunt, hungr, thirsty and weakened Barry Geraghty off 10 1 or a one that is 100% off 10 5?
 
I've had buttons on Big Fella Thanks tonight. I think there may be some mileage in him off a mark 2lbs higher than when a very decent third at Kempton in the 2009 Racing Post Chase. He shaped that day as if a more testing 3m might even bring about more improvement and again when travelling well on his reappearance at Carlisle.

It will probably come as no great shock to most people on this board but I can't let Pandorama go unbacked either. Hard enough to assess his form given that Weapon's Amnesty was a ways behind his RSA form at Leopardstown but that was a race in which they didn't go a great gallop and Pandorama remains virtually totally unexposed given a true test over 3m.
 
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I jumped on the Hey Big Spender bandwagon yesterday but Weird Al is a €1.5K winner for me. I am tempted to take the 7/1 with William Hill for another few quid. He looks the most obvious winner to me and certainly ran the best trial of anything in the race.
 
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Gearoid said:
I jumped on the Hey Big Spender bandwagon yesterday put Weird Al is €1.5K winner for me. I am tempted to take the 7/1 with William Hill for another few quid. He looks the most obvious winner to me and certainly ran the best trial of anything in the race.
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These sre my two against the field also - there is a lot of Weird Al fans around ! Breaking one of my strongest rules by backing one out of the handicap but this race has to be looked at slightly differently in the context of Denman. The spender will be my main bet with a saver on Al! Goodluck to all looking forward to a great race - Peddlers to get the day rolling 3/1 with Ladbrokes!!
 
swedish chef said:
http://www.racingpost.com/horses/horse_home.sd?horse_id=677508

Having studied the race again I am now convinced Carruthers is the value in the race and the moneys down - I'm predicting it will be the Pricewise horse on the day :lol:
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I've gone for Carruthers aswell. I can't see where my edge is on the race given I think anyone of the top 5 in the market could romp it. To me Carruthers does have the profile of a horse being layed for a big race though and worth a bet at 20/1. He'll probably need softer ground than he'll actually get, but then he didn't run a bad race in the Totesport Bowl last season so you never know.
 
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I think Pandorama is a Grade 1 horse -if my opinion means anything to me I need to have a decent bet on him tomorrow.
 
Luke (and everyone else) - Would you rather back your fancy at top price to four place with William Hill or a lesser price to 5 places?
 
suerunner said:
I'm not a betting person and have not backed him, but I like Carruthers and think he could make the top 4. I hope Denman wins though!!
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i will cheer Denman on if he jumps the last bang in contention. It would be one hell of a performance.
 
We've lost so many horses recently that a win by Denman would raise so many spirits. What a race we have in store, though. Forget Gold Cups; tomorrows race is the handicap of all handicaps imo.
 
I think Neptune Collonges is on a seriously good mark and if all is well I think he can go very close. Diamond Harry is my other pick and I'll have bets on them both.
 
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