Advertisement
Brian Lawless/PA Wire/Press Association Images
Racing

Horse racing: 5 things we learned last week

Hurricane Fly has still got it.

Horse racing news brought to you in association with GallopsLive.com

1: Hurricane Fly has the measure of the youngsters… for now

He’s something else, isn’t he?  ’The Fly’ once again showed the guts and determination (and more than a little class) to see off the young pretenders for the second time in a month at his beloved Leopardstown.

He is a once-in-a-lifetime kind of horse and boy does he love it around Leopardstown.  Sunday’s victory made it a perfect eight out of eight at the Foxrock venue, 19 Grade ones in total and his ninth win a row since going down in the 2012 Champion Hurdle.  And all this at the ripe old age of 10.

Saying that though, one young pretender made the Champ work harder than he has had to do for quite some time.  Our Conor, five years younger than his rival, really put it up to ‘The Fly’ and for just a split second after jumping the last, seemed like the likely winner.

I know it’s crazy to say that Hurricane Fly doesn’t like it around Cheltenham given that he has won two Champion Hurdles but I will stick to my guns and say he is not at is best around Prestbury Park.  It was interesting to hear Barry Geraghty agreeing with the fact this week on RTÉ and he thinks it is more to do with the fact of the travelling that upsets Mullins’ superstar.

Whether I am right or wrong, I am willing to put my money where my mouth is and I am going to put my cash on Our Conor for the Champion Hurdle, hoping that it will be third time lucky against ‘The Fly’.

2: Bookies beware – Barney Curley is still out there

He’s still out there and now his bank balance is substantially bigger.  Legendary gambler Barney Curley popped back into the racing World last Wednesday, with a magnificently planned four horse punt. Although he has yet to take the credit for the heist, the gamble has all the traits of a Curley coup, given previous efforts by the Northern Ireland legend.

There was quite a debate in the aftermath of the gamble, which had a huge price of 9000/1 overnight, was it wrong or was it right.  Is it more proof for naysayers that racing is a fix, or is it about time the bookies got a pounding.

Well, everyone has their own view to which they are entitled but the one thing I took out of it is that it really brought interest to a day’s racing that would have otherwise been quite monotonous.  So what if it was underhanded, no rules were broken, Curley just took advantage of an opportunity which most trainers and owners take advantage of on a daily basis, i.e well handicapped horses.

You never hear the bookies giving out when every favourite on the card gets beaten and they need help lifting their money bags back into the car do you?  So I don’t think they have the right to complain when someone gets the better of them and no rules are broken.

Good luck to you Barney, see you next time.

image

Pic: John Walton/EMPICS Sport

3: Darryl Jacob is a very clever boy

Many people queried the fact that Darryl Jacob apparently didn’t want to ride, or showed some hesitation in riding Big Bucks on his long awaited comeback in the Cleeve Hurdle.  Well it turns out that Jacob was spot on in his decision.

Big Bucks ran a cracker, but ultimately got beaten by 66/1 shot Knockara Beau and what looked like a back to form Atfisherscross.  I watched the race at Leopardstown in the Paddy Power shop and before the race had even ended, it was all Sam Twiston-Davies fault.  What was he doing?  He hit the front too early.  He quickened when he should have taken a pull.  Ruby wouldn’t have done that, etc, etc.

Now Jacob’s decision doesn’t look so strange.  He had said that it was a no win situation for him.  If the horse lost it would be all his fault and if he won it would have nothing to do with him, it would just be the class of the horse.  How right he was.

First off, Twiston-Davies, in my opinion, did nothing wrong.  Second of all, Big Bucks was not the horse of old, although he ran a cracker of a race after a tendon injury and may return to the old Big Bucks come Festival time. I think Ruby Walsh hit the nail on the head when he said on TV at Leopardstown, that the Big Bucks he used to ride would have left Knockara Beau at the furlong pole!

4: Dettori has still got it

He may have been blowing like a 20-a-day jockey after riding the Grand National but Frankie Dettori showed that he is still one of the best in the business with an all-or-nothing display to score on his first ride back at Lingfield on Wednesday, on board 8/1 chance Eco Warrior.

I said last week that it would not take long for Dettori to be hitting the headlines again and it took him a matter of minutes after getting the leg up, until he was back in front of the cameras.  The enigmatic Italian doubled up later in the card, proving that he still has plenty to offer in the plate.  Cue a huge sigh of relief from Sheikh Joaan Al Thani.

5: Cooper does his homework

image

Pic: Brian Lawless/PA Wire/Press Association Images

We will all have to put more trust into Bryan Cooper’s decision making.  Cooper decided to take the ride on Trifolium in the Arkle Chase at Leopardstown, leaving Paul Townend to take the ride on the better fancied of the two Gigginstown runners Mozoltov.

Trifolium was pretty friendless in the market before the off and had it been a football match, there would surely have been cries of ‘you don’t know what you’re doing’ being aimed in Cooper’s direction.

Cooper did know what he was doing though, as he romped clear on the run in to score quite impressively on Charles Byrnes’ charge.  He might not be at it long, but Cooper knows his Gigginstown horses pretty well.

- Kevin Walsh

image

Denver airport is getting real serious about the Super Bowl

You’re gonna need more than two defenders to stop Kevin Durant

Your Voice
Readers Comments
8
    Submit a report
    Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
    Thank you for the feedback
    Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.