Road to the Gold Cup 2011

It's about adversity, Gus. Testing the horse when conditions are not in his favour, which was never the case with Best Mate.

Agreed about the form book, though. It shows he was about a neck better than Sir Rembrandt. :p

EC, as I've already said, Nicholls hasn't followed the "Knight" pattern with Denman. Connections see the merit in testing the horse in adversity i.e. giving weight away to top-class animals. Almost all of the best staying chasers of the last 40 years have put up their best (highest-rated) efforts in handicaps. That tells it's own story, as far as I'm concerned.
 
Grasshopper said:
It's about adversity, Gus. Testing the horse when conditions are not in his favour, which was never the case with Best Mate.

Agreed about the form book, though. It shows he was about a neck better than Sir Rembrandt. :p

EC, as I've already said, Nicholls hasn't followed the "Knight" pattern with Denman. Connections see the merit in testing the horse in adversity i.e. giving weight away to top-class animals. Almost all of the best staying chasers of the last 40 years have put up their best (highest-rated) efforts in handicaps. That tells it's own story, as far as I'm concerned.
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A Lexus is hock deep mud after a terrible journey in which the horse was injured and meant the horse ran with a stapled head sounds like adversity to me . A run that quite possibly wrecked the horse ( he came back with an infection and bled before the GC ) and was probably insisted on by Lewis against her better judgment .

Furthermore , a weakness such as that killed Best Mate , does not necessarily manifest itself in performance at home . If I remember rightly Brian H said on here not long after the horse died that he had been working brilliantly that autumn - indeed for the first half of the race he was travelling superbly close to the leaders whilst a lot of good horses were off the bridle and then he dropped out suddenly and then dropped dead.
 
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Grasshopper said:
It's about adversity, Gus. Testing the horse when conditions are not in his favour, which was never the case with Best Mate.

Agreed about the form book, though. It shows he was about a neck better than Sir Rembrandt. :p

EC, as I've already said, Nicholls hasn't followed the "Knight" pattern with Denman. Connections see the merit in testing the horse in adversity i.e. giving weight away to top-class animals. Almost all of the best staying chasers of the last 40 years have put up their best (highest-rated) efforts in handicaps. That tells it's own story, as far as I'm concerned.
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but he isn't giving weight away to top horses..he's giving weight away to handicappers...and now getting beat easily

as Denman is big enough to carry weight..how is carrying it adverse?..thought it would be easier to carry the weight against lessers than run at levels against much betters

i think most open minded people can see that HN was picked on unfairly
 
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The Gold Cup will be bumped up to £500,000 in 2011, from £475,000 last season, making it the first race at Cheltenham of half a million. So good incentive for the right horse...
 
...perhaps, although it will probably encourage some of those reluctant about taking on the big guns to go for this rather than lower their target.
 
I was about to say the same as DJ, when I was rudely interrupted. I would prefer to see the money used to boost some of the races that have fallen on hard times in recent years, such as the Charlie Hall, and the Haydock race in the New Year.
 
I think it's piss poor of Henderson waiting until December to get a run into Punchestowns. Now his comeback appearance has been cancelled twice and there has to be a doubt about the horse having enough experience to be able to compete effectively with the big boys.
 
Frustrating yes, but in fairness there are a fair few yet to make their reappearances that have been caught out by conditions.
 
Punchestown suffered an injury in the RSA Chase. Sandown race is the intermediate he has always favoured for his good staying second-season chasers, Calling Brave, Barbers Shop etc.
 
Exactly. I expect part of the problem was that Nicky has so many chasers in that bracket and he was double handed in all the big handicaps. But he should have got a run into him before December given how a bad winter was forecast.
 
Maybe I'm too 'old school', then, but I can't help feel some trainers are a little precious when it comes to the way they campaign some of their horses.

Okay, I just back horses, I don't train them, but I'm starting to grow a bit weary of the various excuses trotted out: no suitable races, we must keep them fresh...

The weather patterns seem to be changing, and winter's are getting worse, so I would have thought it was a case of grab what you can.

The races I named seemed reasonable enough for a horse like Punchestowns. I just think some trainers could be a bit more adaptable.
 
And could turn out to be a very serious Gold Cup contendor if he stays sound. There's an amazing photo of him taking off at the open ditch in the straight (on the first circuit) on the RP website.
 
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