Equinties - Newbury & Curragh Saturday

Gm Equinauts

There is waaay too much racing on and most of it is sh*te. We’ve focused on the big racing both the Newbury and the Curragh and have played a rare bet at Deauville!

Let’s dive in.

HEADLINE ROUNDUP

ROSALLI-OFF

Oh, ROSALLION, he just can’t catch a break.

Last season, he picked up an injury that ruled you out of the Sussex Stakes (as well as the rest of the season), this year he finished second in two Group 1s and third in another Group 1, and now has been ruled out of Sunday’s Group 1 Prix Jacques le Marois.

Yep, after all the bullish chat after him, ROSALLION is out of this weekend’s feature Group 1 race, leaving THE LION IN WINTER as the 7/4 favourite with ASCOLI PICENO at 11/4, NOTABLE SPEECH at 6/1, and DOCKLANDS at 10/1.

Usually, a situation like this is fairly straightforward, with no further questions to ask. The horse picks up an injury – in this case, a bruised foot (often caused by standing on a stone) – and the trainer has to do the right thing by the horse. Simple. Luckily it’s not a serious one either.

In this situation though, there is a bit more to it as Richard Hannon went on Sky Sports earlier in the day and said that ROSALLION was “the horse to beat”.

We imagine that ROSALLION’S bruised foot was discovered sometime before this interview, so we can imagine that Hannon knew what was going on with the horse before Matt Chapman stuck a microphone under his nose.

So, what do we think happened here?

Either Hannon and connections knew about the injury and Hannon chose not to say anything, or Hannon and only a few yard staff knew, so Hannon decided not to say anything in order not to receive an angry phone call from the sometimes hot-headed Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum. If it’s the former, then that’s poor form. If it’s the latter, then Hannon was probably a bit snookered.

Either way, the ones who got screwed for a few hours were the punters. Shock.
Even if there were a few hours between setback and the news coming back, this is a horse that plenty of punters know about running at short odds in a winnable Group 1. He could have been featured in many ante-posts.

Anyway, it’s sad we don’t get to see him this weekend, but hopefully he’s back for the new Group 1 City Of York!

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