Ladbrokes Trophy (ex Hennessy Gold Cup) Newbury Sat Nov 27th 2021

Desert Orchid said:
I noticed one early mistake, GH, but he was already in the final third of the field. Either jockey error or lack of tactical pace to be that far back.
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He was the eyecatcher throughout the race for me and he did seem to get outpaced,but as you said the winner is usually a prominent racer.my thoughts were the Grand National or the irish national.
 
Just as a matter of curiosity, can I ask people which winner of the Hennessy/Ladbrokes do they rate the most impressive?

And, if you can be arsed to answer that, maybe you could follow it up with a brief rationale?
 
No contest - has to be Denman at his first try in 2007

Out of the novice ranks for the first time he was carrying top weight, 9lbs more than the next highest. Only second favourite at 5/1 he started to move clear on the second circuit and just pounded his rivals into submission to win by 11 lengths. Made all the more spectacular because he was carrying my house and furniture :)
 
Desert Orchid said:
Just as a matter of curiosity, can I ask people which winner of the Hennessy/Ladbrokes do they rate the most impressive?

And, if you can be arsed to answer that, maybe you could follow it up with a brief rationale?
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Meant to make this apply just to this century, by the way.
 
Strong Flow was exhilarating. Looked a real beast. Hedgehunter and Joss Naylor very well fancied by clever connections behind.

Diamond Harry very impressive also.
 
April The Seventh 1975 , because I backed him at 11/1, great odds for a ten year old punter !
Strong Flow has to be up there but those years when Batchelors Hall, Bright Highway etc went from Mackeson to Hennessey to King George held high in my ratings also.
Denman the obvious star but more good than bad winners since my 11/1 5p ew success; no wonder my teeth suffered if not my sweet tooth.
 
Desert Orchid said:
Just as a matter of curiosity, can I ask people which winner of the Hennessy/Ladbrokes do they rate the most impressive?

And, if you can be arsed to answer that, maybe you could follow it up with a brief rationale?
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Denmans 2nd.enough said. It's unlikely that a horse will be asked to do that let alone pull it off

Denmans first also.

Strong flow was visually exhilarating
 
I'll come to this century presently but since we're talking older winners, leaving aside Himself, obviously, there's a couple of older winners etched deeply in my memory.

First up is Galway Blaze. I've mentioned this performance before and it still resonates with me. By 1985 I was heavily into compiling my own ratings, spending most evenings looking at the upcoming cards and working out the OR of the top weights (because they were state secrets back then) in all the week's handicaps with a view to working out my own figures the following week once the results were published (again, the ORs were not in the public domain).

It was round about this time that some enlightened chap at the BHB decided it would be a good idea to publish ORs and, from memory, Galway Blaze got into the Hennessy off 78, when the scale 0-100. So if the equivalent of 100 today was 168 (12st) GB was racing off 146.

Personally, I don't recall ever seeing an easier winner of the race and I did put up the video a couple of years ago. From memory, he was put up to 90 for winning but, by the time he raced again, the collateral form had worked out so well he had been repeatedly raised through the 90s up to 100.

I don't believe any winner since, and possibly in the history of the race, has been raised 22lbs for winning.

Another one for which I have great fondness is Teeton Mill. I latched on to this one after after it won a Hunter chase at Stratford in May '98 in a very fast time. I then backed it in the Badger Beer (hacked up at 4/1) and played up the winnings in the Hennessy (under a laughable 4lb penalty) when it absolutely hacked up off 139, going up to 17lbs but earning an RPR of 164, therefore deemed to have had 25lbs in hand. It then hacked up in the King George and went up to 171.

It hacked up next time out at Ascot and went off at 7/2 in the Gold Cup but broke down and never raced again.

I'm not sure we'll ever see their like again.
 
Was never much between Gordon Richards and Jimmy Fitzgerald when it came to laying one out for a big race.

Man Alive 10stone Galway Blaze 10 stone :D were my favourite winners of the race

The only difference in the way they won was Mark Dwyer almost twisted his neck looking round for dangers from before the home turn.



.
 
Suny Bay demolishing (an admittedly ageing) Barton Bank but think it may have just been last century. This century then either of Denman’s wins.
 
I was all against him at the time, but Denman’s second Hennessy stands head-and-shoulders above all others this century. It was a truly brilliant performance.

Of the remainder, Smad Place put up a memorable display of front-running and superb jumping (a grey version of Cloth Cap), and Gingembre/Harbour Pilot is worthy of a mention too, as it was a proper good scrap between two really honest horses (edit: and Be My Royal, of course).
 
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Bobs Worth-Tidal Bay-First Lieutenant from 2012 was a proper quality renewal. Bobs Worth on his way to winning a GC that season; Tidal Bay a Lexus; and FL the Bowl at Aintree.
 
1985 Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup Galway Blaze - YouTube

Not a lot happens through the first circuit so you could probably start watching at around 3m30s.

It was a right hot field too: Run And Skip, Door Latch, Charter Party, Rhyme N Reason, Maori Venture, etc etc.

I nearly coughed up my Weetabix when O'Sullevan referenced a gamble on Run And Skip to take out £150k (probably the equivalent of over a million today) causing the price to contract from 12/1 to 10/1! Nowadays a £150k takeout would see the horse cut to 6/4!
 
HawkWing said:
Strong Flow was exhilarating. Looked a real beast. Hedgehunter and Joss Naylor very well fancied by clever connections behind.
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Strong Flow went up 21lbs for winning his edition. A few good horses in the race but 125 made the cut so maybe not a lot of depth beyond them. I presume in those days there were no penalties for winning novice chases but a penalty wouldn't have stopped him.

I had a very big rating for Smad Place's win too.
 
Yeah. On the ratings, there is only one performance, Denman. The visuals and style of Strong Flow (a 6 year old) suggested that he could have been a superstar.
 
Indeed, he can't be touched, his fall having taken place too far out.

Currently on 146, they might want to get him up a couple of pounds if Aintree is on the agenda. I don't think they'll want to be sweating about making the cut leading up to the 48-hour decs.

Whether he can afford to win a lesser race now is maybe open to question. Winning the Hennessy, given its value, was maybe a gamble worth taking but the world and his wife will be interested in Remastered when he next appears.

They'd maybe prefer to place in a decent race, go up to about 148/149 and maybe win something like the Eider after the weights come out, when he can't earn a penalty.

Interesting enough in his own right, though.
 
tiggers1972 said:
Cloudy Glen up 10lbs

Fiddlerontheroof up 9lbs
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So if the race was tomorrow Fiddleronthehoof would be asked to do a Denman and carry 11st13lbs and he didn't even win the race.

These penalties are to my mind way too severe. Most likely the winner wont see the winners enclosure again for the next 3 years
 
Desert Orchid said:
Indeed, he can't be touched, his fall having taken place too far out.

Currently on 146, they might want to get him up a couple of pounds if Aintree is on the agenda. I don't think they'll want to be sweating about making the cut leading up to the 48-hour decs.

Whether he can afford to win a lesser race now is maybe open to question. Winning the Hennessy, given its value, was maybe a gamble worth taking but the world and his wife will be interested in Remastered when he next appears.

They'd maybe prefer to place in a decent race, go up to about 148/149 and maybe win something like the Eider after the weights come out, when he can't earn a penalty.

Interesting enough in his own right, though.
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Think he would be a lot better than the Eider. Can you supplement for the Paddy Power? Probably end up in the Cotswold.
 
Desert Orchid said:
Indeed, he can't be touched, his fall having taken place too far out.

Currently on 146, they might want to get him up a couple of pounds if Aintree is on the agenda. I don't think they'll want to be sweating about making the cut leading up to the 48-hour decs.

Whether he can afford to win a lesser race now is maybe open to question. Winning the Hennessy, given its value, was maybe a gamble worth taking but the world and his wife will be interested in Remastered when he next appears.

They'd maybe prefer to place in a decent race, go up to about 148/149 and maybe win something like the Eider after the weights come out, when he can't earn a penalty.

Interesting enough in his own right, though.
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Same connections of Native River, and I don't think the owners are enthusiastic about running their horses in the Nash. I also felt he shaped like he didn't quite stay 3m6f in the NH Chase.

The Cotswold Chase on the Trials Card at end-January quite often cuts up. It's worth nearly £60K to the winner and £22K to the second - I can see them maybe having a go there to see what they've got, rather than trying to win a handicap.

Edit: Sorry, just seeing HW has suggested similar.
 
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Sectional Spotlight | At The Races

I'm always keen to read Simon Rowlands's sectional analyses on the big races but I have to confess his take on Demachine in the Ladbrokes Trophy has me flummoxed.

I can see why he'd want to upgrade Cloth Cap who made the running at what was clearly a good pace and paid the price but I see no grounds for a mark-up for Demachine or why he might be one worth taking from the race.

He was in the second half of the field, looking as though he was tracking Fiddlerontheroof by a few lengths all the way and did close up to be almost level by the end of the back straight on the final circuit but thereafter the principals ran away from him. If he was slowing down it wasn't due to using up too much energy on the first circuit, it was because he wasn't good enough to keep his challenge going.

Having watched the race again a couple of times, I'm more and more impressed by the winner. Deutsch still had him on a tight rein going to four out. Gillard's forward move on Remastered might have been a tad premature, maybe a surge of adrenaline, thinking this was his big chance.

There has to be a chance he would have run out of steam at some point but I wouldn't argue against any belief that he would have won.

Cloudy Glen was quicker away from his fences than Fiddler, especially at the last. Anything less than that would have cost him the race.

I reckon Cloudy Glen has just improved more than could have been anticipated and Fiddler can count himself very unlucky to have bumped into one.

Take the winner out of the race and all that...
 
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