Jumps season that was

granger

granger

Senior Jockey
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Before my summer hibernation, a few thoughts on the season that was.

Man of the year - Davy Russell. Tough few years, kept his mouth shut, built himself up again, got back in with GiGi, won the Nash and Irish jockeys title. Good guy to boot.

Race of the year - Gold Cup. Premier race delivered. Slugfest from miles out. Loved it. Proper horses and a great spectacle.

Moment of the year - Maybe because it's fresh in the mind but Faugheen demolishing the 3 mile field at Punch. Love the horse and absolute machine when in full flow.

Disappointment of year - Yorkhill turning to shite. Has such hopes for him. Novice form looked so strong.



Next year....

Footpad wins wherever he goes.
Samcro hacks up in the JLT
Might Bite won't win at Haydock Kempton or Cheltenham
We will never find out how good Laurina or Benie Des Dieux really are
 
davy definitely one of the big stories of the season. has done well to get the big winners he's had since the infamous cup of tea.

i missed ruby, suspect next season could be his last?

Samcro the horse i looked forward to watching most after his maiden and despite the dubious ending to his season the one i'll be looking forward to most next season, along with Laurina who could be another Annie.

on a financial level had a good cheltenham, aintree went fine but didn't do much then, rest of the season wasn't so good and punchestown was a bloodbath.
 
Man of the year - Davy Russell. Been a fav of mines for years rarely if ever put a foot wrong all season. Have to give young James Bowen a mention. He will be Champion Jockey within 3 years IMO

Race of the year - Gold Cup. Pretty obvious why I chose it

Moment of the year - Bellshill's brilliant performance giving away lumps of weight in the Irish GN

Disappointment of year - Douvan failing to come back to his best
 
I think one of my favourite moments of the season was Raz de maree finally getting his big day winning the Welsh National.

In agreement with the majority that the race of the Year was certainly the Gold Cup. I have to say I'd had my doubts about The Biter all season but I think even after not being very impressive in the King George and getting beaten in the Gold cup he's actually gone up in my estimation and I'd love to see him getting some better ground in the Big races next season.

Disappointment of the season for me was the campaigning of Blaklion I think NTD completely Fk'd it up. He had a horse that was capable of having a really good campaign in top races and ended up doing diddly squat with it.

Punting wise the best 8 months of my life and a final day at the festival which I'll never forget.

Man of the season ? Capt. Guy Disney. Amputee completing the course around Aintree. While most **** and moan about problems (myself included) someone comes along to show you what is possible, what you can withstand in life and come back from, or to borrow a line from Vince Lombardi "the unrelenting human spirit and our capacity to overcome the intolerable".
 
The Good: Might Bite's King George.

The Bad: Might Bite getting turned-over by the weather in the Gold Cup.

The Ugly: Seeing four horses who would have made my Cheltenham finish second at the Festival, only to win their respective races with ease, on better ground at Aintree.

The Future: Footpad. Haven't seen a better jumper of fences since Remittance Man.
 
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There are some good shouts above, I would agree with nearly all of them.

One of the best things to happen this season was the successful launch of the Dublin Racing Festival, which drew a crowd of mostly committed racegoers to an excellent weekend of racing. It has every chance of becoming a must for followers on both sides of the Irish Sea, provided they deal with a major pitfall concerning dates. Next year's festival is currently scheduled to fall on the same weekend as Ireland v England in the Six Nations, which means that hotel prices in Dublin, already eye-watering at the best of times, will be completely unaffordable. I think the HRI should give themselves the flexibility to dodge this clash of dates by moving the festival to one week earlier.

On the other hand, one of the worst things to happen was the decision to move Irish racing coverage from ATR to RUK. Nobody I've met has anything good to say about it.
 
granger said:
What trip?
Click to expand...

If it was me, I'd aim for the King George. If he stays, run him in Gold Cup......if doesn't quite get home, then drop him back for QMCC or Ryanair.

Would like to see an aggressive campaign for him though. Take on all-comers at all trips would be my approach. Horse is a fu*cking beast - they can afford to be fearless, imo.
 
Footpad undoubtedly the star of the season for me

The seemingly interminable heavy ground made for some strange results with some horses that were supposed to go on deep ground being unable to get through it

A great Cheltenham for me but gave plenty back at Aintree, Ayr,and Punchestown

Highlights for betting were BDA getting up to beat Melon who I’d backed without the fav and Delta Work in the Pertemps


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I had a fantastic Festival but the rest of it not so much.

Highlight was the Gold Cup despite having tidy prices on Might Bite.

Lowlight was the constant heavy ground

Horse for next year Monalee

Strategy for next year low staking during Jan and Feb and I'll be a layer only next Punchestown.
 
Euronymous said:
I had a fantastic Festival but the rest of it not so much.

Highlight was the Gold Cup despite having tidy prices on Might Bite.

Lowlight was the constant heavy ground

Horse for next year Monalee

Strategy for next year low staking during Jan and Feb and I'll be a layer only next Punchestown.
Click to expand...

Monalee - Ryanair?
 
Euronymous said:
Has to be. He jumps so well (although not perfect last week) but I feel he doesn't get 3m+ in open company.
Click to expand...

Aintree would be his best chance of getting 3m

He does jump beautifully (when running with a bit of pace) so I think the drop in trip would be ideal for him

He'd be interesting in the King George mind (not if Footpad shows up mind)
 
Two highlights for me were the Munir/Suede/ Jacobs successes and Nico De Boinville's success with team Henderson.
The former has rejuvenated Daryl jacob's career and nice to see such a nice spread of nice horses with a number of trainers both sides of the pond.
The latter is your old style stable jockey doing his job with no fuss , just aplomb, riding at the second meeting Day 3 of The Festival sandwiching Champion Chase success and Gold Cup second with a double at the minor meeting.
The success of Presenting Percy through the season flying the "small trainer's "flag was a joy to witness; hopefully Gold Cup dreams may be fulfilled.

The lowpoint was witnessing Nichols Canyon's fall at Christmas; I felt sick in the stand when seeing his broken leg.
Not normally sentimental over animals I was surprised the extent to which it effected me.
The extent to which WPM and GE dominated the Irish scene sweeping 11million Euro of available prizemoney between them cannot be healthy.
Take the handicap hurdle last Saturday; WPM had 14 declared and one reserve: one non runner allowed Benkei , second reserve run.
But for that WPM would have had the first four finishers.
A racing friend remembers a day in the 1960s when some American owner had six runners in a Curragh maiden and the novelty of it; this can now be seen in any valuable handicap hurdle or chase from Cork to Down Royal. That the successful owner is not present for trophy presentation does not help racecourse committee to satisfy sponsors , hence the fuss made over pdleech at Listowel last September.
The Irish p2p scene has totally changed in the last ten years; now a quartet of trainers and Gigginstown with power of numbers and arrangement with Sales companies have consigned the local enthusiast to older maiden and confined races.
A knock on effect of this is the difficulty of many p2p clubs getting local volunteers to steward at meetings; paying a local GAA club to do the work for them.
Locals volunteer in the hope of a local winner to make the day worthwhile; take away the local content and you may as well watch ATR at home.
 
A good post Eddie. I hadn't seen this before I posted on the Punchestown thread, but I agree with every word of that.
 
I thought Michael O'Leary's interview with Gary O'Brien on Saturday was very revealing. Gary was trying to congratulate him on being champion owner but the charming O'Leary brushed it off by saying it was of no consequence and that what really mattered was to see Gordon Elliott become champion trainer. He said they would have to buy more horses (!) and ensure they retain more older horses in the future. He even had the gall to suggest that HdB, Noel Meade, Jessie and others would need to up their game. Other trainers can forget about getting horses from him in future, it seems.
 
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