Wigham Again.

C

Colin Phillips

At the Start
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Michael Wigham strikes again in the last at Lingfield yesterday.

"STRABINIOS KING gave his owner and small-time Irish breeder Val Kelly the perfect birthday present when landing a punt in the last race.

"This is my Derby," said the delighted owner, who had deliberated about making the trip, finally jumping on a jet to Gatwick at 1pm having backed the 11-2 favourite at 9-1 to more than pay for the trip.

"I am 43 today and just thought it wasn't right that I should not be here to shout him home," added Kelly, who hails from County Roscommon, where he has nine mares and foals to occupy his time.

Franny Norton burst through against the inside rail on the Michael Wigham-trained winner to catch The City Kid inside the final furlong."

Is the way the Racing Post sees it.

Claude Duval who was doing a stint for ATR yesterday felt the result was rather unsatisfactory after the horse's previous run at Wolverhampton.

The Racing Post's 'comments in running' for that race were :

"Strabinios King
broke well, steadied and lost place after 1f, pulled hard, ridden when not clear run over 2f out, hung left and weakened over 1f out"

It's not often that I agree with " The Punter's Pal" but I feel that he may have a point here.

I would have thought that the stewards might have been interested, especially as the trainer has somewhat of a history, but I see no mention of an enquiry.
 
Does sound extremely 'operatic' doesn't it, with the impulse jump onto a plane - would love to know when that ticket was booked :rolleyes: Still an' all Colin, we really shouldn't have allowed our post-retirement age to render us so cynical norty
 
How this man hasn't been warned off for a sustained period of time is beyond me...

"MICHAEL WIGHAM found himself in trouble over the running of one of the horses when the Wolverhampton stewards referred the gambled on Here Comes Danny to BHA headquarters.

The colt, who was backed down to 11-8 from 13-2 prior to winning the 6f maiden under Paul Hanagan, a change for the advertised Vince Slattery, had been in rear throughout when sixth of seven over 5f at Kempton last time. But he was never far away in this four-runner event and, despite running about under pressure, came through to score by four lengths from Welsh Opera.

Stipendiary steward Ashley Bealby said: "The stewards considered that the winner had shown marked improvement and have referred the matter to London."

Wigham was upset at the decision, saying: "The horse was taking on 70-rated horses at Kempton and was running against 50-rated horses here, so he was entitled to show up better.

"He'd run very freely first-time out at Newmarket last year, which is why we dropped him back to five furlongs at Kempton, where he was green and could never get into the race. He was still green here, as you saw from the way he ran about, but the fact that he was taking on poor opposition enabled him to win."

It's absurd now, he gets into hot water every couple of months and it isn't through coincidence. He's been done for non trying an obscene amount of times, he was clearly running horses under other trainers names when banned last time. They should throw the book at him and warn him off for a long period if racing really does want to clean up it's image in the public eye.
 
I'd have some sympathy for him in this instance. Although I didn't fancy him and priced him up at double figures in a 100% book, the point he raises about the standard of the race is a fair one. Both Welsh Opera and Silk Gallery who dominted the early betting have been beaten recently in handicaps off 55 and 52.

The maiden it ran in behind Towy Valley at Kempton has worked out better than looked likely at the time and Here Comes Danny was rated only 3 lb inferior to Silk Gallery going into today's race by Timeform, although that rating was with a '?' to reflect that the rating wasn't considered solid.

Perhaps Wigham's biggest crime here is having the horse ready to try on his third maiden run, just the time the vast majority would expect him to be giving an inmate a 'quiet run'.

Regarding the jockey change, worth noting that Slattery didn't take his otherbooked ride on the card either (Ruby Delta in the first).
 
The horse has been beat out of sight on 2 starts, and his excuses were pointless as soon as it said "The colt, who was backed down to 11-8 from 13-2".
 
Gamla Stan

I'm afraid you see things a little too black and while for me to think it's worth the bother continuing this debate. Here Comes Danny was no more 'beat out of sight' at Kempton (actual margin was four and a half lengths), than Internationaldebut was 'massively overpriced' this afternoon or Strabinios King 'a great bet at 7/4'.
 
Fair enough David but if you think Michael Wigham is straight then you have problems.

As for picking holes in my selections today, fair call, they were beat fair and square and I lost money on them. End of story there.
 
He tried to do over the VAT man a couple of years ago and succeeded convincing him, his accountant was entirely to blame. The accountant ( a good friend of mine) was fuming and had to get a solicitor to get him off the hook.

There is a yard advertised in the RP today for sale just outside Newmarket where apparently the owners (it is a repo, they have done a bunk) had screwed the VAT man for £1.5m - they claimed VAT back on horses they'd bought at the sales for £3k saying they'd paid £300K! I think they've gone abroad for a while!
 
I'd have to agree with davidjohnson-it was a shocking bad race and the winner didn't have that much to find.
 
The winner not having much to find is neither here nor there with the likes of Wigham - you have to go into these situations with your eyes open. Wigham reaps what he's been sowing for the past few years.
 
Absolutely appauling to see him questioned about the running of Here Comes Danny. The past certainly plays its part in this but the horse,trainer and jockey have done nothing wrong as Here comes Danny because he was slowly away and made some nice late headway. Stepping up in trip yesterday in a small field against some 50 rated horse's you could argue he had the best form coming into the race and the best horse won. Shocking to see him pulled in for questioning i feel sorry for him on this occasion.
 
Who cares whether it was justified or not. I suppose you all feel Al Capone's sentence for tax evasion was excessive.
 
Gearoid said:
Which Honest tom is that?
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