Irish Grand National

Ive only just read this -if you mean the program I think you do(though Ive only started on page 3!!) it was longer than 10 years ago Dom - I used to look after a horse that was one of the subjects in the program.She won one race for them in the year Scu got his record,but they ket running her with a haematoma on her side that ended up getting infected(so Im told)

Aside from her(who is the only horse I can confidently talk about!) it seems to me that a lot of the whispering was bad sportsmanship from people,though the fact that the staff werent allowed on teh yard until 10 on a Sunday would suggest something fishy goign on.(though it could easily just have been MCP courting the controversy for a laugh!!)
 
So who started the ball rolling to defame Pipe, and why? Anyone have a clue - jealousy, spite, from trainers or perhaps an ex-employee? It seems to have been a remarkably damaging thing if people can still talk about it today as if it were true. I'm surprised Pipe didn't sue for defamation of character.
 
I wasn't watching that much racing more than ten years ago, only Ch.4 at weekends, and virtually never going to a course (apart from Uttoxeter), so what was wrong with the way they looked, Unca G?
 
Oh, the Kate Mosses of jumps racing, then? Thanks, Uncle G. It helps to understand where some of the thinking behind the criticism might have come from.
 
Originally posted by uncle goober@Apr 11 2007, 06:41 PM
No he means Killusty at Sandown
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As my spokesman said ! Killusty at Sandown after the horse had been off for two years .
 
Fair enough - it's helps to read posts properly in the first place! I thought for a minute you might have been talking about Darkness in the Feltham.
 
Originally posted by archie@Apr 11 2007, 12:58 PM
I could be wrong but I think that Pipe took his ideas from human athletics training using the equivalent of shuttles or repeated short sharp bursts of effort to reach the optimum fitness level.
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Yes, I understand it's called interval training.

I don't know where it originated - maybe in the States - and I think Monica Dickinson might have been the first to use it here (running horses repeatedly up a steep hill was what I read) before Michael took it forward with such devastating effect.

Suddenly horses were harder and fitter but I can't believe they were unhappy. If horses are anything like humans, the fitter you are the better you feel. I was extremely fit from the age of 22-25 and at that stage I could have taken on the world, so good did I feel within myself. I must have - I got married at 25!

I remember before See More Business's Gold Cup ( :clap: :clap: :clap: ) John Francome reported that he had visited the yard and had ridden SMB up what he (Francome) described as a very steep gallop and that the horse wouldn't have blown a candle out when he got to the top.

When Jock Wallace was manager of Rangers, his pre-season training consisted of taking the troops to Gullane sand dunes and making them run up the steepest of them repeatedly for hours. Those players who weren't chucking their guts up after a couple of goes were reportedly few and far between. Wallace claimed he had learned the routine in the army so the idea probably wasn't new in itself.
 
Andre Agassi for years used what he described as "The Hill" which kept in in better shape than men 15 years younger than him.
 
The fitness benefits are obvious but many a horse is driven potty through interval training and either starts napping on a regular basis or starts to get a bit doggy.
 
a rather unfortunate post script to the irish grand national is that the top hunter chaser in these isles whyso mayo might have run his last race.

i was down in cork today and called into his owners farm in innishannon to get a look at the former champion and the future does not look bright.

he returned from cheltenham slightly lame(the jockey thought he went short approaching the final fence). the intention was to rough him off for the season, however the carrot of a light weight in the irish national proved a temptation.

he nevered travelled a yard in the national and the simple fact that he finished within 35 lengths of the winner was a testament to his class.

they brought him home and after two deep scans they found out that he had damaged his knee. he has not responded to treatment and currently the horse is battling a form of arthritus.

consequently he will not be seen in action in the current season and turning 11 in a few weeks and having looked at him today i think retirement from the racetrack proper is a high probability.

in an era when hunter chasing has been blighted by second rate twilight zone chasers reverting to hunter chasing for easy pickings, whyso mayo carried the flag for tradional hunting stock. home bred and retained by breeder, he raced exclusively in points before graduating into hunter chases.
 
Hope Whyso is ok Larry - he certainly deserves a long and happy retirement.

Some good younger hunter chasers coming through in Ireland though - Oscar India and hopefully with some given improvement as he gets older Brokenheartedclown :)
 
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