Equinties - fallen crown

Gm Equinauts

Our cliff horse was so close to winning at a big price yesterday but readers made the most of the newsletter:

Cheltenham Friday though, we’ll be doing a big preview of the full meeting.

Let’s dive in.

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HEADLINE ROUND UP

FALLEN CROWN

Very sad news eclipsed the racing world yesterday as it was announced Derby victor DESERT CROWN had be euthanised after failing to recover from the serious fetlock injury.

An extremely talented but fragile horse, the 4yo had been plagued with injury after his success on the famous Downs, the latest of which occurring on the Newmarket gallops in August just days before he was set to reappear in the Juddmonte International.

The NATHANIEL colt only raced four times for Sir Michael Stoute, losing once when second to HUKUM on his come back run in the Brigadier Gerard at Sandown this year. Prior to that, he won what has turned out to be a good renewal of the Epsom Derby, getting the better over the likes of WESTOVER (an Arc runner-up), HOO YA MAL (rated 115), and NATIONS PRIDE (a three-time Gr1 winner since).

Connections believed DESERT CROWN had been on the road to recovery, however, he was put down on Monday afternoon at the Newmarket Equine Hospital. His rider Richard Kingscote tweeted this obituary:

RIP big boy.

CHELTENHAM FRIDAY

The best of the best Champions Day is over and it’s finally time to return back to Cheltenham this week and the jumps’ top trainers are starting to bring out their stable stars.

Most notably, CORACH RAMBLER is entered for both the Edinburgh Gin Chase at Kelso and the 3m1f handicap Chase at Cheltenham on Saturday. On where he will run, Lucinda Russel said: "We don't know where he will run just yet. We'll speak about it and see what the week brings before we make a decision. Both tracks should have that perfect ground for us and we're hoping he'll run this weekend."

Stablemate APPLE AWAY, who was last seen when winning the Grade 1 Sefton Novices’ Hurdle at Aintree, also has an entry for Cheltenham on the weekend in the 3m novice chase in a potential clash against FLOORING PORTER, the two-time Stayers’ Hurdle winner.

APPLE AWAY is also entered for a 2m4f novice Chase at Carlisle on Thursday which could also turn into a cracking race.

And it’s not just the promising British who could be seen this week as a strong Irish contingent have booked the boat to Cheltenham this weekend, a list that could include Cheltenham bumper winner ENCANTO BRUNO (now with Gavin Cromwell having moved from John McConnell) alongside two potential horses for Willie Mullins in the Pertemps Qualifier.

We will be teaming up with @finndogbgp to produce a big preview of all the races and finding the best bets.

WHAT RACING NEEDS?

Racing has tried (BADLY) for many years to help make wider society’s view on the sport a more positive one. All have been with good intentions (we think) but most have either been lame as hell or poorly executed.

One of the better ones was Amazon Prime’s Horsepower, a series of documentaries that looked into Oisin Murphy and Andrew Balding in some detail through the 2021 Flat turf season.

Yesterday, the sport received another boost along these lines as it was announced that ITV would air a prime-time docuseries based on this year’s jumps racing season.

With a working title of ‘Champions’, the series is set to begin filming at the King George meeting on Boxing Day and run through to Cheltenham and Aintree with the aim of emulating Netflix’s widely popular Drive To Survive. The series has been backed by Flutter and RMG (Racecourse Media Group) and will be broadcast in late Summer on ITV1 at 9pm.

This is hopefully a massive move for the sport and the people working on this have a big opportunity, and responsibility, to make this appealing as this will have an effect on the future of horse racing.

TOP SHAGGER

It’s an easy dating world for the top stallions but who’s having the most fun?

Well, CRYSTAL OCEAN is out on his own, his swimmers must be like Michael Phelps in his Olympic years. He covered 335 mares, and that’s not including the ones that don’t get in foal straight away, some will come back for another go, sometimes 3 visits.

MEHMAS has always been busy, a horny son of ACCLAMATION standing at €55,000. He covered 244 mares at Tally Ho Stud, the same nursery that stands KODIAC, PERSIAN FORCE and STARMAN. PERSIAN FORCE is one of the new kids there, and he obviously shares the same enthusiasm when put in front of the females. He ‘covered’ 133 mares this year, at a fee of €10,000. MEHMAS is also represented by CATURRA, who stands at Overbury Stud. He covered 109 mares this year, at a fee of £6,500.

The best horse since FRANKEL, BAAEED was obviously the champion last year, only getting beat by some bad ground at Ascot and relinquishing his unbeaten tag. The Champ had a liaison with 162 mares. 41% of his book of mares had won Black type; including THE FUGUE, SEARCH FOR A SONG, NAZEEF, PERSUASIVE and SEAL OF APPROVAL to name a few. Some of the other freshman sires that got in on the party included, MINZAAL who covered 161 mares, BAYSIDE BOY got on top of 134 mares, THE STRAD mounted 120 mares and BLACKBEARD, the enigmatic Coolmore colt partnered up with 195 mares.

FRANKEL has obviously gone from strength to strength since he retired to stud in 2013. This year alone, he covered 196 mares at a fee of £275,000. The names of the fillies and mares will make all the other lads jealous, it is literally a who’s who of the best race mares in Europe. ALPINE STAR, TREVE, SAFFRON BEACH, CORONET, AUDARYA and JOURNEY to name a tiny portion of Group 1 winners mated with the King.

Coolmore in particular sent him some of their exclusive mares, LILLIE LANGRTY and HALFWAY TO HEAVEN made the voyage over. Blue hens in every capacity; between them they have produced MINDING, TUESDAY, EMPRESS JOSEPHINE, MAGICAL and RHODODENDRON. The latter, is also the dam of AUGUSTE RODIN.

The National Hunt boys are a randy lot too. BLUE BRESIL covered 244 mares, DIAMOND BOY 242 partners, AFFINISEA 268 mares and SANTIAGO 245.

Lots of good horses to look forward to in years to come!

STATS OF THE DAY

After an easy winner and a close 12/1 second for this section yesterday, there are no stats of note today.

YOUNG BLOOD

EXETER BUMPER

A bumper for 3yo’s and this heat has been pillaged historically by flat trainers, Ralph Beckett winning it the last twice.

Ralph hasn’t got on in it this year, instead the market is headed by MAPOGO trained by Nicholls’ old assistant Harry Derham. A cheap ROARING LION (95k yearling into 20k 3yo), this horse must not cut it as a flat horse hence why Boughey got rid of him. Dam was an okay middle distance horse so on pedigree, he has a chance, especially since Derham will target bumpers this year.

Next in the market is drifting SORCELEUR. A proper national hunt pedigree, a SAINTS DES SAINTS out of a MARTALINE dam who went for £35k as a yearling. Drift might indicate he needs more time but we would NOT write this one off.

CAUSTIC is by king sire GALILEO, brilliant. The dam was a black type winning mare who raced on good to fast ground ground up to 1m3. Fine.

DODGER LONG out of a bumper winning mare. Sire unknown. Milton likes winning bumpers. 6’s out to 10’s - bearish.

Pipe’s won this race before. Sends a cheap DUBAWI - must be slow.

Channons CALSHOT SPIT can’t win on pedgree. Georgina Nicholls’ badly bred. Jane Williams doesn’t target bumpers (plus her’s needs slow ground but nicely bred, one to follow) and Nigel Hawke’s has nice pedigree but was cheap back in 21’ though. He doesn’t target bumpers.

LIONS PEAK for stronge interesting. Watch market (currently 25/1). The rest can’t win.

verdict: With question marks over the front two in the market, Owen Burrows’ CAUSTIC is the pick at 4/1.

HEREFORD BUMPER

A different bumper altogether - full of national hunt bred 4 and 5yo’s, running on quick ground.

Fave is BELLAS BRIDGE, an expensive pint winning filly by TELESCOPE. TELESCOPE progeny are a little mixed but given GALILEO is the grand sire, there are some good ones and this girl’s price tag suggests she is.

Another filly fills second fave in IRISH CHORUS, a JACK HOBBS for Alan King. Strong dam side (second dam produced 4× 130+ horses).

NAVAJO INDY drifted and has then come back in this morning. He’s a half to NAVAJO PASS - that’s nice. Has experience which will help, a Tom Symonds does win bumpers.

DIAMOND DICE is by DIAMOND BOY and out of a half to a couple of bumper winners. JJ can target bumpers.

MY FRIEND SEAN is out of a bumper winning mare, albeit she’s already produced a full to today’s runner who’s no good. First dam though and 38k says this one should be better. Lacey also runs MATCHADAM. Sire unproven but dam line has produced the likes of POLIDAM.

HEAD OVER HINDS is 5yo so carries top weight. He has a ncie pedigree for a race like this but needs to improve on last time. That experience should help. Being out of Moore’s yard you’d want to see some money.

Money says the other can’t win.

Verdict: the best bred for this race might be HEAD OVER HINDS at 20/1 but would leave unless it starts getting backed. DIAMOND DICE the next pick at 8/1 to take on the girls at the top of the market.

STATS OF THE DAY

After an easy winner and a close 12/1 second for this section yesterday, there are no stats of note today.

RISK ON

The jumps meetings are tough today, any bets will be posted to X @equinties.

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