archie
Senior Jockey
Everyone agrees that Min isn't an attractive price but no-one wants to lay him at any higher so it's obviously the correct price.
zarkandar did the same double in 2011
Best laugh I have had today is reading how his stride is better suited to Cheltenham than Kempton.
He won the slowest race of the day at Cheltenham struggling to beat a horse who's victims have all been beaten out of sight since and never put a dent in the Supreme market.
He then goes to Kempton and runs a time only 2 seconds slower than Faugheen and wins by 14 lengths.
Yeah Cheltenham is definitely his preferred course
Oh well, here we go again. I was wondering how long it would be before you labelled my opinion laughable.
Still, that's the last I'll be offering my opinion.
waste of energy..best use it to go and cook a meal or summat DO...use the energy on summat worthwhile
Nicky never trained him James and none of those mentioned could possibly be described as potential superstar......2nd and 3rd rated Seven barrows horses as I said. Une Artiste that has to be a joke ..that thing won at 40/1 and it was hardly a genius plan by Nicky to run him at Kempton. Soldatino was only having his 1st run and won the Trimph on his second.
The point I was making is it is totally out of Character for Nicky to run his best Supreme horses in the Dovecote but some people can't stand hearing the truth especially if their AP voucher is at risk.
I think me having the balls to post Flown up myself and admit I was wrong but I also said right from the start he normally doesn't send his best horses to that meeting.
"He sends 2nd and 3rd string to the meeting or horses he thinks might not be suited to Cheltenham"
Anyway can you answer a simple question with a logical answer? Do you think sending a young horse like Altior who he described as a big baby only months ago to contest a competitive hurdle race 2 weeks before the Supreme is a good idea?
I think me having the balls to post Flown up myself and admit I was wrong but I also said right from the start he normally doesn't send his best horses to that meeting.
"He sends 2nd and 3rd string to the meeting or horses he thinks might not be suited to Cheltenham"
Anyway can you answer a simple question with a logical answer? Do you think sending a young horse like Altior who he described as a big baby only months ago to contest a competitive hurdle race 2 weeks before the Supreme is a good idea?
My gut feeling is that Nicky is either admitting deafeat and thinks he's not that good and grabbing as much prize money as possible before the Supreme. With WPM's record that makes sense to me.
Alternatively he sends him to Kempton picks up the prize makes his excuses and pulls him out of the Supreme and freshens him up for Aintree
I just cant see him contesting all 3 races Kempton Aintree and Cheltenham taking him to 7 in one season when you consider stable stars like Sprinter Sacre, Simonsig, Peace and Co and friends, Binocular Spirit Son, Oscar Whiskey and My Tent or Yours not many of them were asked to race more than 5 times in their first season over jumps most common for a Henderson horse is a total of 5.
This fellow is heading for 7. Even as mature horses only Oscar Whiskey (CH) and MTOY (Supreme) exceed 5 when they ran 6 times but both were beaten when it mattered
The point is it is not normal practice for Nicky Henderson to run a first season novice or bumper horse 7 times but you seem to think it's nothing to worry about.
Good luck with that thought he'll be some horse if he can pull that off and perhaps you should be asking for a Champion Hurdle price for 2017 now!!!
His first hurdle race is hardly material in terms of the Supreme though, Paul, given he has won all three of his subsequent starts.
To be fair to Fist, it would be a little unusual for NJH's best novice-hurdler to be having his 6th run of the season at the Festival, but that's hardly a reason to dismiss him as a make-weight, or a 2nd/3rd-stringer. Altior is clearly already very smart, and regardless of whether he has a prep or not, he will go to Cheltenham with every chance. Immaturity and/or lack of experience won't be a factor - principally because that the same will apply to most everything in the race, to a greater or lesser degree.
Maruco
I don't really agree that Altior has made massive improvement..his ability was there on his win at Ascot on 31st October. That performance was so good i started a thread on OHR about it..this was my post.
The novice hurdle at Ascot today won by ALTIOR is of particular note.. Its very rare for this race to have a faster time than the William Hill handicap. If that does occur its usually that the handicap is slow early pace and then faster late pace than the novice race. That wasn't the case today.
[TABLE="class: cms_table"]
<tbody>[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD]altior[/TD]
[TD]nabucco[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]1 - 2 hur[/TD]
[TD]15.2[/TD]
[TD]15.1[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]2 – 3 hur[/TD]
[TD]45.9[/TD]
[TD]46.7[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]3 – 4 hur[/TD]
[TD]28.1[/TD]
[TD]28.3[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]4 – 5 hur[/TD]
[TD]43.9[/TD]
[TD]45.1[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]5 – 6 hur[/TD]
[TD]8.8[/TD]
[TD]8.9[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]6 – 7 hur[/TD]
[TD]40.0[/TD]
[TD]39.7[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]7 – 8 hur[/TD]
[TD]12.8[/TD]
[TD]13.1[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]8h – fin[/TD]
[TD]15.0[/TD]
[TD]15.5[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Total[/TD]
[TD]209.6[/TD]
[TD]212.32[/TD]
[/TR]
</tbody>[/TABLE]
Table shows both race timings taken from the first hurdle. Altior beats Nabucco in most of the splits. Importantly though ...even though he is in a faster run race he still beats Nabucco in the late splits.
Up to the 7th hurdle he runs it in 181.82 against Nabucco's 183.80. Usually with horses of similar ability you would now expect Nabucco to run faster from 7 hurdle to the finish..but Nabucco = 28.52 against Altior = 27.78.
To try and put a rating on Altior and the second horse Ch'Tibello isn't easy without the same historic data i have for the flat but lets start with...if both races had been run the same time to H7..then Altior would have beaten Nabucco by 0.74 seconds..or 4 lengths...and gave him 13lbs. So under the initial assumption of same time for both races to 7 hurdle......Altior is a 17lb superior horse to Nabucco who has run to probably a 135 today. Thats an impressive 152 for Altior.
But that isn't the full picture because Altior also ran 2 seconds faster early on..using more petrol in that section than Nabucco. Even if we only say that is only worth 5lbs..because early time is cheaper time..it still puts Altior into the mid late 150's.
The winner of this race is usually rated about 135/140..My Tent Or Yours won it one year for instance. It will be very interesting to see what these two novices get given as ratings..both look very smart horses...who might give us a decent bet in a nice handicap over the coming months.
152+ Altior
150+ Ch'Tibello
so he already showed his hand at how good he was then..if you looked into that Ascot performance it was evident at that stage..it was stunning performance for a novice at that point of the season......i'm still waiting for ChiTibello to win something decent though.
so we aren't looking at him finding masses of improvement since October 31...in fact..in my post in October..i said with the early energy used compared with Nabucco.....he could be a mid to late 150's horse just on that run.
At that time..i asked on here what people thought he would be rated..i think highest stab was 145...he was rated 143 Those figures showed he was +10/12 in front of what he would be rated.
It now requires him to move forward again..and by a good few lengths to scare Min