Novice Chasers 2011-12

krizon said:
Has anyone heard what happened to CAPTAIN CHRIS yesterday? That was desperate stuff - totally favouring one side, so wonder if something was found amiss later?
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He jumped to his right after hitting the second fence before being pulled up after the seventh. Hobbs said he landed on top of the fence and “frightened himself”,but apparently he’s fine.

Hobbs: “Ideally his next run would be the Betfair Ascot Chase in three weeks time”.
 
I think Hobbs is talking out of the wrong hole here.

His poor jumping was not as a result of him frightening himself at the 2nd because he did it at the 2nd fence, i.e. before he had been frightened according to Hobbs. I would be surprised if there wasn't something wrong with him to be honest, whether that be a physical or mental issue. What the problem is I have no idea because I have never seen such a strange performance before.

I just hope he can get back on track.
 
I think that's what he meant: i.e. because he messed up the second it frightened him for the remaining fences until he was pulled up.

The good news is that he appears fine. They will try him right-handed next to get his confidence back.
 
SteveM said:
I think that's what he meant: i.e. because he messed up the second it frightened him for the remaining fences until he was pulled up.

The good news is that he appears fine. They will try him right-handed next to get his confidence back.
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That is what I mean. He did exactly the same thing (hurling himself at the fence violently right handed) at the 2nd, before he had made a mistake to frighten himself.
 
Thanks, Steve. It was indeed a very strange performance and I wondered if he'd been pronounced sore somewhere, maybe back/shoulder, to be favouring going off on the diagonal like that?
 
Captain Christ has always jumped to right. Whoever is schooling at Hobbs' yard isn't having a great time of it at the moment because it's got worse and Menorah's jumping is hardly improving. Would Johnson not school them?
 
I'm no expert on the matter but it wouldn't surprise me if Captain Chris had a back problem of some sorts, there's a fair few horses with back issues that jump right/left in my experience.
 
There's no point pursuing a horse's career, is there, Aragorn, if you allow it to develop a serious jumping fault like that? Lengths and lengths lost, not to mention the very real possibility of barging someone out of the race. There are some good people who can correct these faults (at a price), but for any trainer to note such a fault developing to become a regular habit, and fail to correct it, is just plain wrong.

But I suspect the horse has a physical problem - although, again, you'd have expected him to have been thoroughly checked over by vet and physio and any predisposing problem sorted out. It's the first thing you think of doing when your horse starts favouring a side - you just don't sit there and let it keep happening!

I haven't seen MENORAH of late but understand his jumping's not of a consistent quality, which you'd expect at these race levels and from yards which presumably charge pretty much top dollar. I daresay some of the jockeys 'school' them, as in pop them over a few fences, but corrective work would need a dedicated effort every day. If CAP'N CHRIS is going to be allowed to keep jumping like that, they may as well donate him to a re-training centre now, so that someone will spend hours of time on re-schooling him.

As for MENORAH, sounds like the horse is jumping without any fluency perhaps due to a lack of self-confidence - again, hours of time building up his self-assurance would be a good investment, if there's no physical problem there, either.
 
krizon said:
Thanks, Steve. It was indeed a very strange performance and I wondered if he'd been pronounced sore somewhere, maybe back/shoulder, to be favouring going off on the diagonal like that?
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Looked like he was feeling something to me and protecting himself, perhaps as a result of landing on the second fence.

I understand Yogi Breisner is to take him and Menorah under his wing. Let’s hope he can work a difference in them.
 
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I would imagine that Captain Chris has a physical problem 100%. It may well be even a leg problem and not back. By jumping to the right violently, he is trying to avoid landing on the near fore. One of the earliest indication of tendon trouble. I would always ask the jockey/schooling partner if they were happy with the way the horse was jumping and if it was favouring one side or the other. Similarly if the horse starts hanging one way up the gallop, you should check it out. Refusing to go on the gallops, so often thought of as being naughty, invariably has an underlying cause.
 
Thinking back Planet of Sound reached the frame in his Arkle but then had jumping issues in his second season that have since been ironed out. So Hobbs has previous with getting a charge back competitive again.
 
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jinnyj said:
I would imagine that Captain Chris has a physical problem 100%. It may well be even a leg problem and not back. By jumping to the right violently, he is trying to avoid landing on the near fore. One of the earliest indication of tendon trouble. I would always ask the jockey/schooling partner if they were happy with the way the horse was jumping and if it was favouring one side or the other. Similarly if the horse starts hanging one way up the gallop, you should check it out. Refusing to go on the gallops, so often thought of as being naughty, invariably has an underlying cause.
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Interesting you mention the off fore. I saw his rider looking back toward his rear and was wondering if it was a suspensory problem. He seemed to be protecting himself to me too. It could of course simply be as Hobbs suggests that he has come down heavily on top of the fence, which has shaken him up causing him to revert to his old habit of jumping right out of panic rather than anything else.
 
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Didn't he jump markedly to his right in a hurdle race at Cheltenham and hung all over the show if I remember correctly.
 
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