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Retirements & Departures 2011

Another one gone yesterday in the maiden hurdle at Chepstow: the 9. y.o. ABITOFANARGYBARGY having only his third hurdles race, having shown nothing to date in three prior Bumpers. Connections must've been briefly heartened to have seen him "travelling ok" (RP analysis), challenging, and then falling fatally just 3 flights out. Strange that he came to the business so late in life and, with hindsight again, sad that he came to it at all.
 
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TWO CLOUDY's hindleg gave way on the turn into the straight when going strongly; CHOCOLAT's rotational fall broke her neck and killed her right away; I had left by the time of the third death of BLAZING EMPRESS. Lots of pace on in all these hurdles races, which a number of the horses haven't been used to lately - who knows what took its toll? CHOCOLAT had dived wildly at a few flights on the way to her fatal fall - which could in itself be her having a problem with the sharp pace.

Irony of ironies, I'd gone in early and had had a chance to ask Mark Cornford his thoughts on giving out information on the fate of horses stricken during racing - as (per the above discussion) I said I'd try to do. Little did we imagine what the day would bring. Anyway, he'd attended a BHA course on communications and PR in general terms, where he'd entered thinking that transparency was always the best way. Afterwards, he felt differently as sometimes one could get things wrong. A case in point was a horse which had fallen last year, fractured its pelvis, and been ambulanced off with everyone shaking their heads. But it'd spent 5 days in the course's stables, gone home, and recovered to run again this year at Plumpton, so any guessing early on about its likely demise would've been quite wrong.

He said that courses differ and there are no rules from the BHA about what to say or whether to say anything, other than "be sure first". They seemed to agree that the best thing was to say nothing over the tannoy, but to answer any direct questions as truthfully as possible. Thus, Mark said he would always be willing to be asked directly by a racegoer - and has been - as to the outcome of an incident. If the horse had actually died, he'd say that he was sorry to say the horse had had to be pts or had died outright. But, in the case of a serious injury which might or might not eventually prove fatal, he felt all he could and would say was that the horse was receiving attention and hoped it would recover.

Unfortunately for onlookers, there was no doubt about the state of TWO CLOUDY's leg or CHOCOLAT's immediate demise.

Miss Collison, the owner of TWO CLOUDY, an elderly, very sweet and slightly disabled lady, used to train PtP horses, which were ridden by Warren Marshall, now a BHA starter and Dad of Gemma the jockey, and Geoffrey Peate, who presents an annual Challenge Plate at Plumpton. She said that she'd lost some seven or eight horses now in NH, and was still shocked to lose one today. She had another later on in BELLA MEDICI, and Pat Murphy had asked her if she wanted her to run or be withdrawn. Gallantly, she decided to let the mare run, in spite of the loss earlier.
 
What rotten luck today - and I seriously looked at backin all three earlier in the day - shame and commiserations to all.
 
bloodnok said:
I know we are going off topic here but Cattermole is dreadful mate. He misses so much in races and uses so many stock phrases time and time again I cannot listen to him anymore. He regularly misses horses falling/making mistakes or making a forward move. I fear you a defending the undefendable here.
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Well said . The horse very sadly and extremely obviously went wrong. Cattermole completely failed to mention it during his commentary .

He is quite simply not good enough to commentate at big meetings . He misses too much , frequently makes pronoucements unsupported by the evidence and misidentifies horses .
 
Like I said until I'm blue in the face - Cattermole was commentating for the course on Saturday. It IS NOT his job to report on broken down horses whilst doing so. FFS read what people post before spouting more shite.
 
SL, I agree Ardross comes across as childish with his comments but surely you would say Cattermole is well below par as a commentator (as are plenty of others)?
 
What I didn't realise was that CAPTAIN KIRKTON broke both hindlegs after rapping the hurdle (was told that at Plumpton today). Saw Jamie (Moore) and he said the horse was lovely, very, very genuine, and that he was extremely fond of him.

I don't think Ardross's comments are any worse than those regularly hurled by forumites at jockeys, trainers, presenters on-course or on-screen, journalists, some owners, racecourses, Clerks of the Course, gatemen, tipsters, other punters, and even other members of this august forum. Many of us know and/or like those being name-called, but everyone has the right to express disgust, even regularly!

I don't think it matters whether we admire, respect, like or love the people being dissed, since otherwise we'd be furiously defensive most of the time, but in that Mike missed seeing the horse PU or dismounted, or whatever happened - yes, that was important to note. But, he is far from alone in this omission and thus shouldn't be a marked man any more than other defaulters.
 
As I've said many times before, Cattermole is a far better presenter than commentator. However there are far worse.

That's beside the point though, in this instance, which is that Mike was working for the track, not Channel4, on Saturday. This is an important distinction to be made as the job then changes slightly. The job as racecourse commentator, especially in a big field, is to commentate on the race and how it is panning out, so far as the principles - ie those looking to be in with winning - are concerned. Racecourse commentatorrs don't have the luxury of commenting on the race after the line, or promising to bring reports of the also rans, or those whose demise was less savoury, which is what Ardross is insulting him over, again, a habit he is becoming most fond of. Ardross does not have thet balls to recognise this and so see that his unwarranted insults don't actually count for anything in this case since they are incorrect.
 
In fact, it is worth pointing out that not only are Ardross' comments childish - as warranted by others - but that this has been the norm ever since he flounced off amid great drama to set up his own racing forum then came crawling back to make ridiculous statements when his racing forum turned out to be a complete flop so far as holding any type of racing discussion was concerned.
 
All Ardross said was "The hopeless Cattermole again", Shadz. Which, as I read it, was for not mentioning the horse was out of the running, not whether his legs were broken or he'd started juggling firesticks while riding a unicycle.

I don't think commentators should say too much about any incident in running, whether they're commentating for the course or ATR or RUK - although if it's blatantly obvious to spectators who see a loose one come by with a swinger, then the caller has to say something like "unfortunately, XYZ appears to have picked up a very serious injury there" more out of acknowledgment than anything else.

I do think callers must note, though, when horses leave the race, for whatever reason. But not necessarily why, if it's sensitive. Provided, of course, that they actually see the incident! I'm not sure that all courses give a perfect view and in some weather conditions I'm sure it's very difficult at times to note what happened back in a big field.
 
Merely pointing out that the chip on his shoulder increased to a monumental size when the 'power to delete' was taken off him Bar, and he's been insulting and/or inane ever since.

Kri, calling someone Twattermole is acceptable? Childish and ridiculous, and from a man employed in the legal profession the level of offence his posts generally achieve, especially when talking about public figures in racing media, are quite frankly staggering at times.
 
krizon said:
All Ardross said was "The hopeless Cattermole again", Shadz. Which, as I read it, was for not mentioning the horse was out of the running, not whether his legs were broken or he'd started juggling firesticks while riding a unicycle.

I don't think commentators should say too much about any incident in running, whether they're commentating for the course or ATR or RUK - although if it's blatantly obvious to spectators who see a loose one come by with a swinger, then the caller has to say something like "unfortunately, XYZ appears to have picked up a very serious injury there" more out of acknowledgment than anything else.

I do think callers must note, though, when horses leave the race, for whatever reason. But not necessarily why, if it's sensitive. Provided, of course, that they actually see the incident! I'm not sure that all courses give a perfect view and in some weather conditions I'm sure it's very difficult at times to note what happened back in a big field.
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K - the point was that the poor horse dropped out very rapidly and had very evidently gone wrong . Yet Cattermole completely failed to mention it.

He is not up to the job of commentating at top tracks and no doubt we are going to have to suffer him for most of this week at Cheltenham.
 
Hamm said:
SL, I agree Ardross comes across as childish with his comments but surely you would say Cattermole is well below par as a commentator (as are plenty of others)?
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Hamm ! Pot and kettle . Have you been laying Sizing Europe much this week ?:rolleyes:
 
We aren't quite done with the day's toll, I'm afraid: the very good hurdler MONSIEUR, having only his third career fall in 58 races, at Taunton today. So, there we are, four gone in one afternoon. Not a great day, and I just hope to feck tomorrow doesn't bring anything like a repeat.
 
Sadly Lush Life is reported to have pulled up fatally injured today. And there was me thinking the meeting was going so well.
 
To be honest, it's going a helluva lot better than many past ones - really big shame about the lightly-used but highly-talented LUSH LIFE. Reported by someone else that his stifle went - not because of a fall or being BD.
 
Thought we had lost Tricky Trickster at the 3rd in the Midlands National - screens up but not quite at an angle to prevent people from seeing as they passed him first time but they were moved for the last circuit.

BADLY WINDED!!!
 
UPDATE - according to Paul Nicholls Facebook/twitter horse has gone for xrays and is very very sore - wasnt a tired fall as it was only the 3rd fence but landed heavily
 

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