The Road to Foundry winning the St Leger

  • Thread starter Thread starter SlimChance
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It's easy to look at what a horse should do in regards to winning but horses who achieve form lines that have been historically poor get over looked, you need reverse logical to have an edge in this game, queens vase winners in ledger have been habitually poor but Leading Light wasn't, it gets over looked.

If you want to cross any line going into the arc from a British & Irish perspective then it's the Irish Derby, a line through Galileo Rock suggests he has every chance of being there in the places come the final furlong.
 
EC1 said:
no winners though..is Alleged the only Arc winner that ran in the leger then i wonder?
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Ballymoss won Arc 1958 after winning St Leger 1957.
No horse did the double the same year.
Nijinsky. User Friendly. Snurge all pipped in photo finishes.
Alleged probably is.
The 1947 winner ran second in Champion Hurdle the previous March; maybe that is where we should be looking !
 
Le Moss almost did it in '78 edgt. Definitely the best horse in the field!! According to Mercer the horse was acting coltish and taking no interest in the race until he was cannoned into by another horse: then started running but the finish came too soon.
Dunfermline ran in the Arc but wasn't given the best of rides by Willie Carson and finished 4th.
 
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FrogTheBountyMuncher said:
If you want to cross any line going into the arc from a British & Irish perspective then it's the Irish Derby, a line through Galileo Rock suggests he has every chance of being there in the places come the final furlong.
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If you want to take that poor form literally then he'll be toiling as Novellist dances down the straight miles infront of him!
 
Eleanora Duse said:
Le Moss almost did it in '78 edgt. Definitely the best horse in the field!! According to Mercer the horse was acting coltish and taking no interest in the race until he was cannoned into by another horse: then started running but the finish came too soon.
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I can't have that, I'm afraid. I loved Le Moss but he was beaten in the Leger because he lacked the pace to win at the trip. When the pace picked up he simply couldn't go with them. He was second to a horse with a bit of middle-distance speed who had run second to Shirley Heights in the Dante and was a creditable sixth in the Derby. Here's the finish: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1PkNnQhgLA
 
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Sorry Gus, I believed Mercer's words in his biography, and although he may have been part right he was caught flat footed a couple of furlongs out and then ran on in the last half furlong. Must admit I almost said in my original post that if it had been 2 miles he'd have won.

In fact Gus, thanks for that I haven't seen that since 1978.
 
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Ile de Bourbon much the best horse in that race but like so many of the best horses in that race he did not stay .
 
Well I didn't do a very good job with that post! I knew as soon as I watched that finish that I'd made a gaffe and forgotten Ile de Bourbon's disappointing run. You are both quite right and I'll not trust Joe Mercer again.
 
I was at the Leger in 1978 and my younger brother came with me. He was 15. Just before the off, they announced Julio Mariner had won the "best turned out" award. My brother recalled that he'd seen a race on TV recently where the best turned out had won the race at a good price and he wondered out loud if he should nip down and back JM at 28/1. I told him not to be so ridiculous.

With reference to the YouTube clip, if you just type "Julio Mariner" into the search facility you're taken to a clip of the horse doing dressage. It was news to me that he'd gone down that route.
 
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After the Derby hadn't he been running over all sorts of distances: and generally been very disappointing.

I was at the King George that year and watching them go down remarked that Ile de Bourbon looked outstanding. My friend listened to me and backed him. I didn't!
 
1978 seems to have been that kind of a year for all of us it seems!
Clive Brittain in a Pacemaker article shortly afterwards nominated this as his best moment racing. JM had tried their patience but a serious work out with Remezzo (?, seriously relying on low power memory!) convinced them JM was finally in top form and of course CB was "confident" of getting to dance at Doncaster !
 
I think it was a great year if a little blurred now in my case!!
That a man who played a part in the career of Crepello yet 50+ years later is still training Group 1 winners (and dancing) is a story to treasure.
 
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