Road to the Gold Cup 2011

granger said:
God these big chasers do get wrapped up in cotton wool

I hope IC gets stufed at Cheltenham
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I'm personally delighted he misses Kempton, he is not a Kempton horse plain and simple. Its just over 3 months to the Gold Cup now and already the crescendo is building! IC is unlikely to have another run now as is Denman, Kauto sluices up for a fifth time in the KG and then goes straight to Cheltenham. This could be the best Gold Cup in years - no ifs and buts and everyone turns up on their game!! I'm practically salivating at the prospect - firmly in the Imperial Commander camp to beat the other two with no excuses this time!!
 
He has a leg infection apparently perhaps a consequence of trying to rush him back from his cut .
 
Euronymous said:
I've nothing against the horse, the connections I have no time for. The way they conducted themselves at Cheltenham, kind of being miffed that IC was ignored during the build up. He'd not deserved more of the spotlight at that time. And he still doesn't.
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To be fair it was rather billed as the Kauto vs Denman decider, with most forgetting there was anything else taking part... I think they can be forgiven for being a little glib at the outcome.
 
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Anti-Imperial Commander comments a bit wide of the mark - connection more than entitled to make comments they did and N T-D an absolute joy on the day. He's not certain to go straight for the GC by the way - a bid for the Cotswold Chase more than possible.
 
Agree Rory.

Funny how it's easy to attack NTD (even though his horse is best fresh) yet no comments about the small number of times Nicholls runs Denman and Kauto when both have shown they will withstand plenty of racing.
 
Nicholls actually said pre-season that they intended to be much more aggressive with Denman this season and run him several times.

Considering he didn't surprise them by the way he made a bold fist of it in the Hennessy, I'm a little surprised by the change of heart to campaign him so sparingly now (...as I might have mentioned earlier).
 
Hamm said:
Funny how it's easy to attack NTD (even though his horse is best fresh) yet no comments about the small number of times Nicholls runs Denman and Kauto when both have shown they will withstand plenty of racing.
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I've already covered that.

Denman and Kauto Star are being looked after because of the careers they've had - the former and his massive weight concessions in big time Handicaps, the latter is a year older than IC and has had almost twice as many starts.
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Being able to withstand a lot of racing is fine when you have a horse that's a 9yo and at it's peak. When they reach 11 it's a whole different ball game.
 
I don't understand the point of running him in races that just won't suit. His legacy is his Hennessy runs and (so far) never being outside the first two in five Festival appearances. What difference would another Lexus make now?

That said I would love to see him in the Grand National but that's not possible after a Gold Cup really.
 
If you ignore ireland and the time they ran him at Kempton [?] Denman puts so much into his races I think he needs protecting from himself. I never used to agree with horses being wrapped up in cotton wool, but if, in this case, it means that I get to see the lean mean Denman that I know and love in March, so be it.
 
rorydelargy said:
Anti-Imperial Commander comments a bit wide of the mark - connection more than entitled to make comments they did and N T-D an absolute joy on the day. He's not certain to go straight for the GC by the way - a bid for the Cotswold Chase more than possible.
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Could not agree more! There is no way that I know even a tenth of what you guys do about racing. But what I do know is that the connections of Imperial Commander were sitting before his Gold Cup believing that they had a very good chance of winning it and they were not shouty about it at all but were a bit hurt that their horse and their stable were completely ignored. I had the pleasure of having a club horse there at the time IC was bought and Nigel always said he would win a Gold Cup. So no denying what the victory meant to them.

I love both Denman and Kauto but there is plenty of room for other great chasers and I think IC is just that.

Looks like it could be another wonderful race to savour ...... 3 former Gold Cup winners in the field! Lots of young pretenders too. I don't care who wins, all I hope for is that everyone has a fair crack at it and they all come home safe. :)
 
I have no problems with the campaigning of Kauto Star. When he was able, Nicholls seemed to send him out for a Grade 1 each weekend, whatever the distance. Well for a month anyway.

And now he is taking it easy, but still running him 3-4 times a season. He is old, and has a lot of miles on the clock. So it is okay with me.
 
Harsh words about IC's connections. I don't think they've done anything wrong at all.

Kauto will win the King George by at least 15 lengths but IC will win the Gold Cup with Denman second and Kauto well beaten.
 
Aragorn said:
Harsh words about IC's connections. I don't think they've done anything wrong at all.

Kauto will win the King George by at least 15 lengths but IC will win the Gold Cup with Denman second and Kauto well beaten.
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I envy people who can be so certain .:rolleyes:
 
I'll be more surprised with the former than the latter. I really think KS has a hard race on his hands this year. I'm a Denman man and so don't really care if he wins or not from a sentimental point of view - although I like the thought of Holt commentating on him getting chinned on the line as that guy I'll warrant has pictures of him in his wallet next to the kids and wife.
 
Personally I don't think either Imperial Commander, Denman or Kauto Star will win the Gold Cup - the stats are against all three of them - But I have the greates respect for all of them.
 
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swedish chef said:
Personally I don't think either Imperial Commander, Denman or Kauto Star will win the Gold Cup - the stats are against all three of them - But I have the greates respect for all of them.
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If the stats are against them we should also remember that horses like this don’t come along very often. It’s true they all have more racing behind them than they have in front of them, but the ratings say the others have a virtually insurmountable task of beating all three of them this season. Even the likes of Punchestowns, Diamond Harry and co will be really up against it and many won’t even attempt it this time. I can see the Gold Cup field being quite spare this season with the big names dominating.
 
Euronymous said:
That said I would love to see him in the Grand National but that's not possible after a Gold Cup really.
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Many horses (of the type such as West Tip, Garrison Savannah, Rough Quest, Suny Bay, etc, etc) could all manage Gold Cup/Grand National. No reason Denman should be any different. He’d give the race a really lop-sided look though and I’m not sure I’d like to see him go for it.

I’d prefer to see him go the route of the likes of Carvill’s Hill and Jodami and go for races like the Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup (Leopardstown).
 
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I'd hope that others aren't afraid to take on the 'big names'.

Admittedly, this year's GC ended up being a two horse race once KS had knocked the stuffing out of himself. Everything else was well beaten. But others will know that KS, dual Gold Cup winner though he is, is not invulnerable at Cheltenham, whilst Denman hasn't won since last year's Hennessy. I can see IC finishing in front of Denman again.

I wouldn't be frightened to take them on, despite what current ratings might suggest.
 
I don't see the National weights looking lop-sided a problem at all - people seem to forget the days in the 80's and 90's when there would be a good few horses would run from out of the handicap - take the 1991 National when 24 of the field were out of the weights.
 
Irish Stamp said:
I don't see the National weights looking lop-sided a problem at all - people seem to forget the days in the 80's and 90's when there would be a good few horses would run from out of the handicap - take the 1991 National when 24 of the field were out of the weights.
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The gap between Denman and the rest is an unusually big one. It rather nullifies the idea of a handicap if you have a handful in the handicap proper with the majority on the same weight. It’s happened before of course and it will happen again, but I’d much rather see Denman decimating fields in Grade 1s. It’s academic as they won’t run him in the National now anyway.
 
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