Equinties - mums-to-be

Gm Equinauts

Two brilliant girls, who have delivered their own brilliantly memorable days in two different disciplines, have been retired.

Let’s celebrate their career’s, let’s dive in.

HEADLINE ROUNDUP

RETIRING HORSES

MARIE’S ROCK, the 2022 Mares’ Hurdle winner, is set for a career as a broodmare!

She’s been a few pounds below her proper best ever since that period between the start of 2022 and the middle of 2023, but she still won over £350,000 in prize money and won four Graded races!

As for the other retirement news, it’s not confirmed at the moment, but it’s likely that NASHWA will head home to her owner Imad Al Sagar.

This season has been a weird one for NASHWA. She was brought back after disappointing in the Dubai Turf and has run two times in the space of 15 days this month, but both of the runs were much below her best.

She was clearly showing a bit at home and John & Thady Gosden gave her a good go this year, but it looks like she won’t be seeing a racecourse again.

Al Sagar's racing manager, Teddy Grimthorpe, said, “I think she's going to come back now. Really, it was very sporting of Imad to keep her in training this year, but it was just unfortunate the way things went in Dubai.

“After that, we were always on the back foot with her this year and it just didn't work out, unfortunately. There are not many triple Group 1-winning Frankel fillies around. She’s been a superstar for the stud, really important.”

This year clearly didn’t to go to plan for her but look at her career - 18 runs, 5 wins, three Group 1 wins and £1.6m in prize money. Wow.

It’s almost certain NASHWA will make a brilliant broodmare like her mum and if they decide to take her to DUBAWI, the same daddy as he half brother NEBRAS who bolted up on debut, then it’s certainly a line to follow!

Happy retirement to both mares and best of luck to their future progeny!

THE FUTURITY

This weekend sees the return of Cheltenham!

It’s not its biggest meeting of the year and clues for some of the biggest races of the jumps calendar are not guaranteed. However, it’s still going to be a fun weekend of action, especially when you consider that the final Group 1 of the Flat season is set to take place as well.

It’s an open Group 1 as there are no Group 1 winners in the field, but horses like WIMBLEDON HAWKEYE and MATAURI BAY bring good form to the table.

We won’t preview the race now (that’s Saturday’s job) but we’ll just highlight a couple of interesting entries.

The first is the supplemented aforementioned horse NEBRAS, the half to NASHWA!

His debut success was tidy and the fact that he and WILD NATURE pulled well clear of the third is promising, but the form isn’t that strong on paper considering the second was beaten twice before.

The other interesting entry is ANNO DOMINI, a horse we have not seen since July 5th.

There was a time during the year when a few around Godolphin thought he was one of their best juveniles, so it’s no surprise to see him put into a Group 1 having won just a novice (under a penalty) on his last start. The horse he beat lto, WINDLORD, has a rating of 105 and he was in receipt of five pounds as well, so that gives him a nice chance.

He also worked alongside the 100-rated VICTORY DANCE on the Rowley Mile earlier this month. So, he may only have a rating of 97 compared to a few in here that have 114, 110, and 106 next to their name, but he’s no outsider.

A CHANGING CONSTITUTION

“Constitution Hill isn’t the greatest name he could have because his constitution is a little bit vulnerable.”

This quote from Nicky Henderson had Racing X on fire yesterday from both sides of the so-called CONSTITUTION HILL debate.

There were people coming out supporting the one-time Champion Hurdle hero, and there were others seemingly adopting the ever so juvenile ‘I told you so’ mantra.

Let’s start with this ‘told you so’ aura around the horse.

Only a few people have truly known the ins and outs of CONSTITUTION HILL over the summer. Hendo, Nico, his work rider, and maybe a few more staff.

So, you haven’t really told us, you’ve speculated that one of the few celebrity horses we have in the sport won’t be the same after his setbacks. Congratulations.

It’s worth noting that Henderson, time and time again, sends out mixed messages about the horse but it does all come from a good place - in the sense that he’s dealing with live animals, which he often describes as ‘school children’.

Animals, like school children, can be a nightmare!

One day he’ll say he’s a world beater, and the next he’ll act cautious because he can only relay what he’s seeing with his on eyes. There is no doubt Nicky Henderson loves his horses so much that he wants to protect their status in the media any way he can, and that can cause crossed wires.

Yesterday is a prime example. Sporting Life reported the opening quote that we highlighted, but then the Racing Post reported a quote that says, “We could not be happier with him.”

The interviews could have been carried out on different days, and they are two isolated quotes from two separate longer pieces. Everyone calm down.

Ultimately, we won’t truly know how CONSTITUTION HILL until he makes that long-awaited reappearance.

The constant talk about him is getting a bit boring now. Just wait until he hits the track!

A side note on the horses CONSTITUTION HILL has already beaten - RUBAUD was quite good on Sunday considering the Paul Nicholls yard is out of form.

They have spoken a few times about sending him over fences at some point this season. Don’t!

He’s one of the best hurdlers we have in Britain (bar ex-juveniles like SIR GINO), so keep him over the smaller obstacles!

EXETER BUMPER

Boy there are some big market moves in this 3yo bumper market, making it arguably the most interesting race of the day.

First up is the slammed Twiston-Davies horse STAR OF GUITING. He wasn’t the most expensive recruit ever at £25k but he is related to two bumpers winners making him of obvious interest, trained by a yard who love bumpers and are in brilliant form. Probably the right fave in this race and we hear he’s going quite well.

Beckett has won this race twice in recent years but they have been in lesser heats that this. GNOMON is entered in the sale so they’ll really want a win today - you know he’ll be off for his life. But can he win? His pedigree is fairly bearish for a race like this and even at only 1m5f, this shorter bumper might, just might be too much of a stretch for him.

TRUSTINTIMES has been well backed for Harry Fry. Like Beckett’s, he is by TIME TEST but contrary to Becketts, he does have a little bit of stamina on the dam side and might make the trip - money says he will.

SECRET SNIPER is the full brother a brilliant little horse, SECRET SQUIRREL who we now very well.

You can’t miss SECRET SQUIRRL - he has the best mane in the game! It will be nice to see if SECRET SNIPER models the same flair…and ability. SECRET SQUIRREL is a twice winning bumper horse and novice hurdle winner.

The winner will almost certainly come from these four horses. Of the rest, Curtis runs a FRANKEL but stamina would be a worry, Hen Knight runs a well bred NO RISK AT ALL - but he’ll want a mega-trip in time and Roger Teal runs a 100/1 STUDY OF MAN who is bred for a trip like this and could be well over-priced at 100! - he certainly hasn’t got the weakest pedigree! Teal hasn’t won a bumper since the glory days where OCEAN WIND landed a gamble for us at our home ground Newbury.

Verdict: The money for Twiston-Davies’ suggests, like most of the yards bumper runners, he is ready to go today and his pedigree says he could win this. His market dominance does however leave the race open to a nice ew swing against should he get out paced today in what will be heat ran very quickly. In fact, most of these flat bred horses will be wanting to run so fast we think a lot of them could pull their heads off! The ew swing has to be on SECRET SNIPER at 6’s- the full brother to the horse with the best hair in the game!

NEWSLETTER BUMPER RESULTS

03/10/24 KAYLAN 2/1 (11/8 SP) - 1st

08/10/24 LAURA LOU 11/1 & PLAYAWAY GIRL 14/1 - 6th & 9th

09/10/24 JOTO 2/1 6th

09/10/24 ID GO MANIAC 5/2 - 4th

12/10/24 MONEYGARROW 5/1 (13/8 SP) - 1st

16/10/24 KINGSLEY 7/1 - 8th

18/10/24 STRONG RUN 5/1 - 2nd

RISK ON

A quiet day today with no real standout bets bar a little ew on the bumper horse because his brother owe us nothing!

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