Cheltenham Day 4

[Velcrobum]

If the injury is obvious then no. Unless the owner wants a further pm then no further investigation. If one drops dead of a suspected heart attack a pm is done. Sadly watching Ginto it was obviously a broken leg and we can't fix these when they are done at high speed. I do not know about the others but generally if one gets ambulance back and is pts later then it is either a pelvis injury that has burst a blood vessel or vein inside or its a broken shoulder, which again can't be fixed.

Right! Enough doom and gloom!

Fantastic Gold Cup! Aye Right was a wee star loving popping away out front for as long as he did! But wasn't A Plus Tard impressive!?!? You'd have to go back to the Kauto/Denmark days to find an easier Gold Cup winner! And to think he didn't quite get home in it last year. Just shows what another year of maturity and racing can do to a horse!

There was also an interesting review of last years race and the mistakes that he made throughout. As you say he will have learned over the past year.

 

[Kadastorm]

I missed it as I fell asleep, not feeling well so I thought I might. Will watch it later. West Cork, Protektorat and Dubai Quest won my £20 on a 20p EW - I’ll take that. Just another to go in the last, I did a silly bet on an outsider just for the fun of it but at least I have some money on the account ready for Aintree!

 

[Birker2020]

Did they ever say why Born Patriot had to be pts - they'd said he eventually got up, what was the injury that meant he couldn't be saved?

No announcements about Ginto yet?

Fell, injured, destroyed according to https://www.horsedeathwatch.com/

 

[Smitty]

I haven’t seen a horse yet , well hardly. They are just a sideline to fashion and cash now.
So sad about Ginto. Will Gordon Elliott go to have a photo taken with him? Or does he only celebrate the odd death?

Oooohhhh, but yeah! My thoughts this whole meeting ...

 

[dunthing]

Did they ever say why Born Patriot had to be pts - they'd said he eventually got up, what was the injury that meant he couldn't be saved?

No announcements about Ginto yet?

They did say that he was up at one point but very wobbly. I wonder if he got a kick while he was down, which may have caused neurological damage. The couldn't get him on the trailer for a while because he was unsteady on his feet.

 

[dunthing]

I will probably get laughed off the forum for this but I have long thought that TBs now need some "outside blood" before they get any weaker. I was talking to a lady in USA recently, about fatal injuries and we both were of the same opinion that new blood such as quarter horses, and arabs, along with other suggestions, would perhaps improve the fairly small gene pool of TBs who almost all go back to weak animals such as Northern Dancer.

 

[Elf On A Shelf]

I will probably get laughed off the forum for this but I have long thought that TBs now need some "outside blood" before they get any weaker. I was talking to a lady in USA recently, about fatal injuries and we both were of the same opinion that new blood such as quarter horses, and arabs, along with other suggestions, would perhaps improve the fairly small gene pool of TBs who almost all go back to weak animals such as Northern Dancer.

The French started crossing them with Selle Francais horses. They aren't really fast enough for the flat but there are some very good jumps horses. They are called AQPS - I am sure Sprinter Sacre is one, possibly Kauto Star too.

You can actually cross a tb with anything you like and so long as you keep crossing the off spring back to a tb until it reaches 7/8ths tb you can race it.

 

[Clodagh]

JP McManus has an Anglo Arab. I can’t remember his name.
There’s plenty of tbs with decent bone but as long as they breed for speedy and precocious youngsters it won’t be fashionable.
Desert Orchid looks like a heavyweight hunter nowadays.

 

[Gamebird]

I think the thing that never fails to surprise me is the sheer diversity of the TB racehorse. Amongst our Cheltenham runners we had horses ranging from barely 15hh to well over 17hh. We had very delicate fine boned flat types and horses with really decent solid bone. We had several AQPS. We had the precocious flat types who probably are the finished article at 4yo, and those who were 6 or 7 and still need more time before they are physically mature. The diversity is stunning, and it's sometimes hard to believe that they are all the same breed.

 

[Velcrobum]

I think that Dan Skelton has kept one of his entire to try to produce a NH stallion. I know very little about TB breeding and did not know you could introduce different breed genes as long as you get back to 7/8ths to race. I always thought they had to be 100% TB. AQPS sounds like a good idea for NH racing. I really do not follow flat racing as I find it rather boring in general. I do watch some of the big races.