Equinties - the (belated) review

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Ngl, as soon as I clicked press on Saturday's preview, that was it - that's all I had in me for the weekend.

Luckily Saturday's Weekender edition banged with the preview hitting juv hurdle winner COMFORT ZONE, novice chase winner STAGE STAR and handicap chase winner IL RIDOTO with so many going close to place in Skelton's PEMBROKE, Elliott's DELTA WORK and Jeremy Scott's DASHEL DRASHER who bumped into a French raider.

I'm back feeling fresh now and the show goes on. Let's dive in.

Headline roundup

With me on my back yesterday there was no chance to review the weekend's best performances so as they say 'better late than never'.

NH horses summed up in on race

The big beautiful furry bastards... we love them and bet on them but f me they are confusing. AHOY SENOR... the horse who's run stinkers all year suddenly came back to life Saturday to win the Cotslwold Chase. WTF.

I'm not even going to suggest this leads to bullish Gold Cup chances because the result just didnt make sense.

The eight-year-old gelding had been soundly beaten in his first three races this season, which included the Charlie Hall Chase and the King George, however, the “freak” – as described by his trainer Lucinda Russell – ran to an RPR of 170 to beat SOUNDS RUSSIAN by just under two lengths with PROTEKTORAT no where and lto monster NOBLE YEATS leaving his efforts all to late.

Having lost her dad, Peter, recently, the success was extra special for Lucinda who was very emotional in her post-race interviews.

Following the race, AHOY SENOR shortened up to 14/1 for the Gold Cup, PROTEKTORAT went out to 20/1, and NOBLE YEATS remained solid at 8’s. Are the Irish worried? Probs not.

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Moore's move rewarded

Fair. Fucking. Play.

 In what looked a brave but 'cute' move by Moore to supplement EDITEUR DU GITE for the re-arranged Clarence House, Im not sure many people took it seriously.

The Moore yard knew what they were doing though. Josh Moore and Co. and they had a confidence about them which was NOT shared by the market.

Sent off at 14's, EDITEUR DU GITE and Niall Houlihan blew away the hot pots EDWARDSTONE and ENERGUMENE (who didn't even turn up to the race) to land the Grade 1 race of the day. Woof.

Priced at 14/1, the nine-year-old Desert Orchid Chase winner went toe-to-toe with Alan King’s EDWARDSTONE up the Cheltenham hill, however, Gary Moore’s gelding found more when it mattered and won by a head, giving jockey Houlihan his first Grade 1 victory.

EDWARDSTONE had every chance to get past, ENERGUMENE could have closed up faster down the hill, but they didn’t, and he can now be seen as a genuine Champion Chase candidate.

Naas influences the Festival 

It wasn’t just Prestbury Park on Saturday that was revealing Festival clues, Naas’ card on Sunday was equally influential as both the National Hunt Chase and Mares’ Hurdle were effected by results.

Beginning with the start of the day, following a lengthy stewards’ enquiry, Willie Mullins’ RAMILLIES was promoted to first place after a tussle with the THEDEVILSCOACHMAN (first past the post).

The grey is now a 9/2 poke for the National Hunt Chase and is now qualified for the race. Calling all GAILLARD DU MESNIL backers, with the boat RAMILLIES and GDM both now qualified for the NHC, would you be worried that owners might spit the pair and send GDM to the Brown Advisory rather than the NHC?

It's what his prep might suggest despite his short pricing in the latter. One run over three miles this season, was second to MIGHTY POTTER in the 2m4f Drinmore, and he is entered for the 2m5f Grade 1 novice chase at the Dublin Racing Festival. Owners have the choice to send tow strong darts to the NHC or split them and go for two Festival wins.

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Nearly two hours later, Mullins had another shorten-up for the Festival as ECHOES IN RAIN bolted up in the Grade 3 Limestone Lad Hurdle over two miles – she is now 6/1 for the Mares’ Hurdle.

BOB OLINGER was disappointing in third and, unfortunately, it looks like he will need a miracle to be back to his former self, however, take nothing away from the winner who has beaten some fair animals on the snaff and should be fine with an extra four furlongs at Cheltenham.

It’s only six weeks to go until Cheltenham and the final markets are formulating – time to start setting those alarms!

Princess off to the holy land

Following her dead-heat at Punchestown yesterday, trainer Tony Mullinshas confirmed that PRINCESS ZOE will head to the Cheltenham Festival for the Mares’ Novice Hurdle.

The famous grey made her hurdling debut at the weekend under Danny Mullins and had to share the spoils with Henry de Bromhead’s LADYBANK.

The Group 1-winning mare is 25/1 for the Grade 2 contest in March - she’ll have to step up her game to compete with the market rivals, who both have solid form over hurdles, so that seems a fair price but honestly...hats off to big Tony for rolling the dice with such a talented flat horse - such a rare and brave thing to do these days.

How many more nails for this racing coffin?

This isn’t new news but it is something that we feel we need to talk about. You guessed it, it’s the whip.

Months and months of chat has circulated around the new rules that are set to be brought in next month and let’s just say this ‘bedding in’ period for the jumps jockeys has been far from successful.

BHA vs Matt Chapman disputes, jockeys being pulled into the stewards’ room more often, and our elite performers being thrown off their game due to the constant threat of bans plaguing the sport, as demonstrated perfectly by Sean Quinlan’s interview with Sky Sports on Sunday.

The comments, rightly so, did not hold back from leading jockeys and industry figures.

For those unaware with some of the new whip guidelines, as shown with Brendan Powell Jnr’s tweets, a ‘hand above head height’ rule has been put in place by the BHA, which in some circumstances can lead to a horse being struck in the wrong place as the jockey is unable to manoeuvre their arm into the correct position.

Unfortunately, this has been causing a few issues, especially for Sean Quinlan, one of the most experienced jockeys in the weighing room, who states that he would have received a 51-day ban for recent infringements.

For context, 51 days for a jockey is season defining, if not career.

And with the new rules set to come into place very soon, before the Cheltenham Festival, there are some serious, serious issues to address.

Unfortunately, to combat the outsider perspective of our sport, the BHA has decided to implement these new rules, however, they have done so in a mind-numbing, confusing way that has everyone either angry or perplexed.

With so many issues impacting the sport atm, this is just ANOTHER nonsensical hammer blow, and make no mistake there are many nails in racing's coffin.

There are arguments to say the sport ‘as it once was’ (even 10 years ago) is a distant relative to what it is now, but these new implications only demonstrate that the order of focus on the multitude of racings problems is just bizarre.

There are elephants in the room and the BHA would even know they're there if they shit on their heads.

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Today's best stats

There are some really bullish messages going round for the faveCASTLE RUSHENin the 14.35 but the stat is for 2020's winner FORTIFIED BAY. He runs off the same mark and the yards 50% in these races at track. NOTE: Interestingly, when FORTIFIED BAY won this race in 2020, the runner up was hot fave HILL SIXTEEN - same connections as CASTLE RUSHEN today.

There are a couple of stats for horses in the 14.50 but none more so than forOSCAR THYNE for Fergal and Paddy who are 50% together at the course this season. OSCAR THYNE is an Irish import from Cromwells and made his yard debut in a hot race at Cheltenham in November. Live chance.

Multiple stats for Moore horses at Lingfieldespecially when Jamie is in the plate.

Match bet slop acca

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