King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes 2011

Soary Stars said:
It hardly matters who won, does it?

What a real pity, very saddening that.
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It goes without saying that everyone regrets what happened to Rewilding and offers condolences to connections, but it doesn't mean that the race shouldn't be assessed in a thorough and mature manner.
 
Carson was embarrassing. I personally don't think Workforce is the same animal this year. Ballydoyle have so many good horses they don't seem bothered about aiming them at the right targets. SNA was never going to like the short straight here.
 
Chapman reporting on ATR that Workforce was struck into which explained his hanging . Bloody good run in the circumstances.
 
Having just watched the news on BBC I can't help but feel pleased for William Buick who, I understand has been very distressed to hear of the tragedy that has happened in Norway; a pity that such a great victory for him should be marred in such a way by what happened to Rewilding. Terrible for the horse and awful for the watching crowds. Looked forward to the race all day and felt wretched the minute the horse went down. Also puzzled by the Godolphin 'tactics'. Reminds me of the race won by Opera Hat the day we lost One Man. As imagine said, the downside to our sport.
 
moehat said:
Having just watched the news on BBC I can't help but feel pleased for William Buick who, I understand has been very distressed to hear of the tragedy that has happened in Norway; a pity that such a great victory for him should be marred in such a way by what happened to Rewilding. Terrible for the horse and awful for the watching crowds. Looked forward to the race all day and felt wretched the minute the horse went down. Also puzzled by the Godolphin 'tactics'. Reminds me of the race won by Opera Hat the day we lost One Man. As imagine said, the downside to our sport.
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Good point about Buick's background- he really is a top top class rider . I very much doubt not putting an apprentice on SNA would have changed the result but he had no chance ridden like that .

It is a great shame that Ajtebi failed to do his job and set a good even pace throughout .
 
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Ardross said:
Ajtebi is a complete arse.
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Surely Ajtebi was riding to instructions in this instance?

O'Brien rode St Nicholas Abbey as if he was riding an animal with a superior turn of foot, which he evidently doesn't possess. Not saying it would have made the difference, but it was an ill-judged ride to my mind. Utterly bizarre race to watch from beginning to end.
 
Unless Simon Crisford was putting us away which I doubt he said to Clare Balding before the race that Debussy was there to set a good even pace but not go so fast that he was ignored.
 
The suggestion that Ajtebi took a pull of his own accord is preposterous. Perhaps Godolphin thought turning it into a speed test would suit them more than Nathaniel and SNA, and pulling too hard was a big factor in Workforce running poorly in the race last year.
 
davidjohnson said:
The suggestion that Ajtebi took a pull of his own accord is preposterous. Perhaps Godolphin thought turning it into a speed test would suit them more than Nathaniel and SNA, and pulling too hard was a big factor in Workforce running poorly in the race last year.
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So you think Crisford was deliberately misleading Balding ?

If so the tactics were surely ill-advised as Rewilding's best efforts were all off very strong gallops leaving aside the disaster that befell the poor horse.
 
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Just awful, for so many reasons. Started off as a bad race with not enough contenders and got worse. Not a race I ever want to remember.
 
I didn't see the interviews afterwards but I can confirm that Gosden is the same off camera.

I've heard stories from someone who used to work for him and I literally bumped into him one day at the Rowley Mile course and his manners were immaculate.

I hope there weren't too many race-goers put off by the accident.

Supreme athlete one minute and dead meat the next.
 
This isn't a provocative statement but I'm not sure what people are refering to with SNA? From what I saw he was held up, put there a furlong out to win his race, but didn't have the turn of foot required to do what Joseph O Brien was asking him to do. Early days to be writing off a jockey that young.

A sad and strange race, even for connections of the winner who will obviously not forget the manner in which they won today with what happend to Rewilding. I'll always remember him for that decisive win at Royal Ascot. Showed a lot of class and guts to go past So You Think that day. RIP.
 
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Marble -I am a chronically bad race reader but if you think ge was ever put in the race with a chance you are mistaken.
 
It's got very little to do with race reading and more to do with what I actually saw with my own eyes, but anyway.

My only critisism of today would be he didn't look the strongest in the saddle, maybe he is better equipped at trying to dictate the pace of the race as he did in the Epsom Derby on Treasure Beach and nearly pulled it off. But today SNA just didn't have the class.

Edit - Colm O Donoguhe rode Treasure Beach in that race, I meant Memphis Tennessee (I think!).
 
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Colm o Donoghue rode Treasure Beach at Epsom.I have seen Joseph outride Johnny Murtagh but there wasn't a Plan B today which was probably the fault of Coolmore as an organization.
 
Yes, I agree with your last statement. To blame the teenager when the shit hits the fan re- 'the organization', is harsh imo.
 
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Marble said:
Yes, I agree with your last statement. To blame the teenager when the shit hits the fan re- 'the organization', is harsh imo.
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Joseph almost certainly was riding to a plan but the art of jockeyship is responding when the plan is not working out - that is exactly what Buick did and Gosden expressly gave him no instructions . It is as if AOB is determined to ride every race himself in advance .
 
I wonder does Sheikh Mohamed hold that view about Frankie's ride on Dubawi all those years back?
 
I don't care how the race was run yesterday - I for one believe Nathaniel was best suited to the conditions and would have won regardless of tactics. I believe his biggest danger might have been Rewilding but sadly we'll never know and not enough credit has been given to the winner. Surely in a slow run race this should have played into the hands of the supposedly classier horses yet Nathaniel still done them for speed. There are no excuses in my book - Nathaniel was underrated and the best horse won because he was best suited to the track and conditions on the day. The Arc is a different matter, Nathaniel didn't handle the tight turns at Chester and I don't think he'll handle Longchamp either.
 
swedish chef said:
I don't care how the race was run yesterday - I for one believe Nathaniel was best suited to the conditions and would have won regardless of tactics. I believe his biggest danger might have been Rewilding but sadly we'll never know and not enough credit has been given to the winner. Surely in a slow run race this should have played into the hands of the supposedly classier horses yet Nathaniel still done them for speed. There are no excuses in my book - Nathaniel was underrated and the best horse won because he was best suited to the track and conditions on the day. The Arc is a different matter, Nathaniel didn't handle the tight turns at Chester and I don't think he'll handle Longchamp either.
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Longchamp is nowhere near as tight as Chester . I cannot see that he won't handle it . I disagree that there are no excuses Workforce was struck into - that has to be a proper excuse . Whether he would have beaten Nathaniel in any event is properly open to doubt Nathaniel's KEVII win was spectacular and he is clearly improving at a rate of knots .
 
Bar the Bull said:
It was always strange that Ballydoyle trusted SNA in this, with so many good 3yo bullets to fire.

It is very dangerous to underestimate Nahaniel.

Nathaniel is not up to much in my view.
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And with Await the Dawn as well - much more dangerous than SNA in this sort of race
 
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