Tingle Creek Chase Sandown Park Sat Dec 4th 2021

Tanlic said:
What an advert Shishkin is for the yard if he does stay unbeaten until the QMCC

I don't recall any other UK trainer coming up with two such prolific 2 mile winners in such a short space of time as Sprinter Sacre 10 on the trot and Altior 15 and now Shishkin 8 and counting.

Retire--eoom my arse-eoom!
Click to expand...

No cu*nt cares about them going unbeaten, if all they've done is face simple tasks that are beneath their talent. That approach actively hurts a horses reputation - it doesn't enhance it.
 
forgot to put in the 'What are you backing today?' thread that Tanlic would defend henderson at 1/5. easiest winner you'd ever have.
 
Grasshopper said:
If this was a one-off, I'd be inclined to let it go, but it isn't - it's part of a now well-established pattern with this trainer.

Henderson himself has said the horse is fit and well.....in which case, he should be running. The alleged "missing spark" is just another pathetic excuse not to run one of his top-class animals in a scenario where he might be beaten.

His bottle has gone, and he is depriving us from seeing some of the best racehorses in training from actually racing.....which damages the game.

I don't care who wins in a race with Chacun and Shishkin - I just want to see it take place........especially when the alternative is watching Shishkin gallop all over handicappers like Rouge Vif at 1/5 over Christmas.
Click to expand...

Sorry mate but can't agree If the horse was spot on and ready to run and he didn't have the bottle to take on Mullins horse why didn't he just go for the Schloer Chase and kick Nube Negra into touch like Chacun Pour Soi did at Punchestown.

I imagine he expects to meet him in the Desert Orchid anyway as the Skeltons will be after every bit of prize money they can get as they cant really expect him to win the QMCC
 
I'd be the last to defend NJH but most trainers would probably wait until confirmation or declaration stage to release the news, given that there would surely be a piece of serious work scheduled for next week. Must have been quite poor this morning.
 
It's getting boring now

With the exception of Christmas week and Cheltenham the NH season is becoming mundane
 
‘ l was hoping for an easier run this side of Christmas’ 2 days later pulled out.

With Sprinters ticker, bottoming Altior, his arseholes gone. A real top top trainer, making himself look an absolute blithering fool with this stunt though. Was blindingly obvious he wouldn’t run if Willie sent one. Pulled him now to try and save some face.
 
Why cant more races be like that intermediate chase at Sandown that Chantry House, Might Bite and Santini won? Is that too much to ask?
 
I'm not NJH's biggest fan but, in this instance, I think he's played fair by punters.
- not happy with morning work.
- tells owner who says the horse comes first.
- issues news early afternoon 10 days ahead of the race.

Most trainers would wait until confirmation or declaration stage.
 
I think that Cheltenham has increasingly become the be all and end all for Henderson and he won’t risk anything that might affect the preparation of his horses. A hard race in the Tingle would not be ideal. If it goes on like this - and Henderson isn’t the only one - all we can look forward to are turgid seasons with the star horses having a “training gallop” race or two and only the one proper race in March. Not what I want to see from the cream of the crop.
 
Last edited:
Not having it, archie.

Why is he ruling the horse out 10 days in advance of the race, just because he has disappointed them that morning? That would still leave 5 days for the 'spark' to return, before he had to declare him for Sandown. And by Henderson's own admission, the horse is fit and well, so the decision looks premature any way I look at it.

It's all bo*llocks anyway. It is abundantly clear that Henderson wants Shishkin to have a jog round against makeweights in his season-opener. It's just the way he does things these days.
 
If the horse isn't 100% then it is in everyone's best interests not to run.

However, Hendo is not averse to running them less than 100% fit (as opposed to less than 100% healthy), as evidenced by some of his big handicap winners ahead of their targets.

The big Irish trainers think nothing of their horses not winning every time, even at the highest level.

Hendo's apparent obsession with preserving unbeaten records is what baffles me. It's not like the horses' stud careers are going to be affected. Their only value beyond sentiment is in the insurance money.
 
Last edited:
barjon said:
I think that Cheltenham has increasingly become the be all and end all for Henderson and he won’t risk anything that might affect the preparation of his horses. A hard race in the Tingle would not be ideal. If it goes on like this - and Henderson isn’t the only one - all we can look forward to are turgid seasons with the star horses having a “trading gallop” race or two and only the one proper race in March. Not what I want to see from the cream of the crop.
Click to expand...

100% agree with this, barjon. He hurts the rest of the season with this attitude.
 
In some respects it's a no-win situation (without trying to defend Hendo) as he could be sent for lesser races but might end up scaring off opponents for whom it might otherwise have been a good opportunity to pick up some prize money.

Doesn't Hendo have a history of persuading courses to frame races to suit his better horses to enable them to have an easy win?
 
There's no need to send Shishkin to 'lesser races', DO. The horse should be running in Grade 1s, and yet - for reasons which are spurious at-best/completely bo*llocks at-worst - he seemingly swerves the most obvious G1 starting-point for his season.

I don't know about the 'framing races' part, but when it comes to the Cheltenham Festival, he certainly has a history of asking courses to facilitate racecourse gallops, rather than actually run his horses in real prep races.
 
And then cry about the state of British racing after they've had their ar5es handed to them at Cheltenham.

I was playing golf with somebody I'd never met before last week, he'd spent his whole working life being a London cabbie but nowadays (in his early fifties) has a totally different career. I asked him what made him stop being a cabbie and he told me that it'd got to the point where he'd drive around London turning his light off and avoiding picking up fares. Then one day it dawned on him that for a cabbie who doesn't want fares, it's probably time to call it a day.

A bit like a racehorse trainer who doesn't want to race his horses.
 
Nico de Boinville has seemingly hurt/potentially broken some ribs in a schooling fall "this morning" from an un-named horse.

Coincidence? Is it beyond the bounds of possibility that the fall was in fact from Shishkin yesterday morning? :ninja:

Appreciate this is a bit tin-foil-hat, but when you can't trust a word the trainer says, then exotic conspiracy-theories will eventually start getting tossed around the parish.........by me, at any rate. :lol:
 
Last edited:
For the yard there's roughly 2000 pounds of a difference between the two races. Surely that is not worth the horse having a hard race so early in the season? The pot at the end of the rainbow is worth nearer 20k. I know where I'd be running if I wasn't 100%
 
Grasshopper said:
Nico de Boinville has seemingly hurt/potentially broken some ribs in a schooling fall "this morning" from an un-named horse.

Coincidence? Is it beyond the bounds of possibility that the fall was in fact from Shishkin yesterday morning? :ninja:

Appreciate this is a bit tin-foil-hat, but when you can't trust a word the trainer says, then exotic conspiracy-theories will eventually started getting tossed around the parish.........by me, at any rate. :lol:
Click to expand...

Welcome to the club, GH. I knew you'd get here eventually :)
 
Grasshopper said:
There's no need to send Shishkin to 'lesser races', DO. The horse should be running in Grade 1s, and yet - for reasons which are spurious at-best/completely bo*llocks at-worst - he seemingly swerves the most obvious G1 starting-point for his season.
Click to expand...

Not disagreeing, just offering options to get the horse out on the track.
 
Tanlic said:
For the yard there's roughly 2000 pounds of a difference between the two races. Surely that is not worth the horse having a hard race so early in the season? The pot at the end of the rainbow is worth nearer 20k. I know where I'd be running if I wasn't 100%
Click to expand...

If that's the attitude, just wrap the fu*cker up in cotton-wool until February.....run in a handicap somewhere like Fakenham under a G1 penalty, and get him right for Cheltenham that way.

This is bullish*it. Have you ever considered that the lack of 'hard races' might mean UK-trained horses are soft-as-sh*ite come Festival time, and that it's perhaps part of the reason why they keep having their arses handed to them??

A Plus Tard didn't shy away from a potentially hard race in the Betfair Chase. Neither did Minella Indo or Galvin in Down Royal. Eklat De Rire will run under a big-weight in the Hennessy. One of Mullins three was coming over for the Tingle Creek when Shishkin was still an intended runner. This is exactly how G1 horses - who are the stars of the show after all - should be campaigned.....not being minced-off back into their stables, until an easier opportunity manifests itself.
 
Last edited:
Grasshopper said:
Nico de Boinville has seemingly hurt/potentially broken some ribs in a schooling fall "this morning" from an un-named horse.

Coincidence? Is it beyond the bounds of possibility that the fall was in fact from Shishkin yesterday morning? :ninja:

Appreciate this is a bit tin-foil-hat, but when you can't trust a word the trainer says, then exotic conspiracy-theories will eventually started getting tossed around the parish.........by me, at any rate. :lol:
Click to expand...

Was about to ask why James Bowen was jocked up on Jonbon and On The Blind Side tomorrow.

Nico still rides Mister Coffey though?
 
Double J said:
Was about to ask why James Bowen was jocked up on Jonbon and On The Blind Side tomorrow.

Nico still rides Mister Coffey though?
Click to expand...

Henderson said on Thursday morning: "Nico's had a fall and Aidan Coleman will ride. I suspect Nico's got some broken ribs, but we'll see.
"James Bowen will now ride Mister Coffey in the novice handicap chase and Daryl Jacob will be on Cascova in that, while James will also be on Morning Vicar in the handicap chase and On The Blind Side in the Long Distance Hurdle. He also takes over on Kincardine in the novice hurdle."
 
Back
Top