The Champion Chase 2010

Walsh clearly felt he'd got lucky surviving that error.

First, he patted the horse's head and neck on the run-in before blessing himself as if to say thank you, buddy, and we got away with it. He later took full blame for the mistake, which is refreshingly honest in jockeys these days.
 
Ardross said:
It was great to see him back and travelling with all his old glorious menace just as it was sad to see what a shadow of his former self VPU has become. .
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I like this (glorious menace) too! :)

And sadly agree about VPU who I love to bits. Awful to see him struggle, and I think the King yard is still in and out of form for whatever reason. :(
 
VPU beaten 18L?

Seems like he has run his race to me, so not sure what the hand-wringing is about. He needs at least a half-mile further, and King's decision to run him here, rather than the Ascot Chase - "because he can't go right handed" - smacks of a man the middle of a nervous breakdown.

VPU....game as a pebble.....grand little warrior....winner of the worst Arkle/CC combination in living memory.....
 
Looking at the photograph on the Racing Post it wouldn't be the biggest surprise in the world if MM picked up a little injury from that incident at the last.
 
Master Minded posted an amazing figure yesterday for a horse coming from an injury, the only doubt for Cheltenham is to know if he will bounce after this very good nce.

He posted 180++ in my figures yesterday,
in the division in recent weeks, Kalahari King (170p) and, Big Zeb (168+) Twist Magic (170).
 
sunybay said:
Master Minded posted an amazing figure yesterday for a horse coming from an injury, the only doubt for Cheltenham is to know if he will bounce after this very good nce.

He posted 180++ in my figures yesterday,
in the division in recent weeks, Kalahari King (170p) and, Big Zeb (168+) Twist Magic (170).
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Do you think by next year there will be real strength in depth in the division, which has been lacking for a few years now. With the likes of captain cee bee, sizing europe and riverside theatre competing.
 
Desert Orchid said:
Walsh later took full blame for the mistake, which is refreshingly honest in jockeys these days.
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I was in having a cuppa during this race and I was chatting to the lad beside me during and after the race. I jokingly said, "Ruby will say it was his fault", as he's done it before on the big horses like Kauto etc. That's his style.....big owner......it's his fault......his pride and joy was perfect. It will be different at Fontwell next week when he'll blame the horse for not coming up.
 
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:lol: Oooh, brutal insight, Cantoris! Never thought about that angle before, but I'll be on FaultWatch from now on!
 
bigfow said:
Do you think by next year there will be real strength in depth in the division, which has been lacking for a few years now. With the likes of captain cee bee, sizing europe and riverside theatre competing.
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the novices look a very promising crop.
 
Desert Orchid said:
Beaten 19 lengths into second in the 2008 Champion Chase... by Master Minded.

I said at the time it was the highest rating (191+) I'd given a horse since Desert Orchid. I wouldn't be surprised if MM was up to bettering that rating.
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VPU never a 170 horse over 2m......not in this lifetime anyway. Closer to 160.
 
If VPU was close to 170 that day how come he never, ever ran anywhere near that before or since at Cheltenham? He beat Dempsey by a length and a half in his CC and received weight from a similary beaten Monet's Garden in his Arkle. The 186 thing was just the RP plucking a figure out of the air with little or no evidence to substantiate it.
 
After the 2007 CC, Dempsey's OR went up to 165 (from 162), so VPU would have been at least OR 167 (which it was in the CC). That race was very fast run - 8lbs faster than Denman's demolition job on the RSA field and about 50lbs faster than Cloudy Lane's Kim Muir.

I'm not sure you can relate Arkle (novice) form to later form, since novices tend to improve so much through their second season. However, Monet's Garden was a top class novice (163+ on my ratings going into the Arkle). Any novice hitting 160 or more is top class and entitled to improve past the 170 mark the following season.

I don't think Steve Mason is in the habit of plucking figures out of thin air.

Leaving VPU out of the equation, MM beat Fair Along (OR 152) 35 lengths (39lbs). VPU and FA ran to within a pound of their ORs. VPU (OR 169) beat FA (OR 152) 16 lengths, which equates on my calculations to eighteen pounds. Schindler's Hunt (OR 154) was a length behind FA, so they've run close to their ORs too.

MM's time rating (mine) that day was 39lbs faster than Albertas Run's RSA and 20lbs faster than Our Vic's Ryanair. It was a very fast run race.
 
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Desert Orchid said:
I'm not sure you can relate Arkle (novice) form to later form, since novices tend to improve so much through their second season. However, Monet's Garden was a top class novice (163+ on my ratings going into the Arkle). Any novice hitting 160 or more is top class and entitled to improve past the 170 mark the following season.




Leaving VPU out of the equation, MM beat Fair Along (OR 152) 35 lengths (39lbs). VPU and FA ran to within a pound of their ORs. VPU (OR 169) beat FA (OR 152) 16 lengths, which equates on my calculations to eighteen pounds. Schindler's Hunt (OR 154) was a length behind FA, so they've run close to their ORs too.
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Monet's Garden didn't even act round Cheltenham, that shows you how poor that Arkle was.
I cannot have Fair Along running anywhere near his official rating that day.
There is no more justification for rating MM that highly than there is for rating Hawk Wing 138+ for his demolition job in the Lockinge. None of the horse's in that race ran to form either.
 
According to the form book:
Monet's Garden, soon in front, jumped and travelled really well and had all bar the winner on the stretch a long way out.
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Hardly the description of a horse not acting on the track.
 
Monet's Garden's Cheltenham record:

Dec 04: 'inexplicable' poor run (2m5½ hdle)
Jan 05: 3m hdle - OR 144;RPR 157 ~ hardly a failure to act.
Mar 06: Arkle - failed by 1½l to give VPU 5lbs
Mar 07: Ryanair - failed by 4¼l to give Taranis 5lbs (Our Vic 2nd) having burst a blood vessel and scoped dirty.
Mar 09: Ryanair - btn 15 lengths

I'd say three strong races from five hardly constitutes a failure to act.
 
Depends what you mean by expected to win and by whom. You could use the betting to determine it, but you would have to say that only horses that are odds on i.e. a greater chance of winning than not, are 'expected' to win.
 
Exactly. In chronological order (earliest first):
8/11
14/1
8/1
7/4
20/1

The time he was odds-on he was tailed off and the trainer was officially reported as being unable to explain the performance. The other time he was 'fancied' (7/4) he bbv'd and scoped dirty. On the other occasions he arguably exceeded expectations.
 
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