Denman UR in Aon Chase..

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I went on to a t-shirt design place online on friday night and was playing around with some designs for Team Denman. You can pick the t-shirt/top style, colour and do your own text and design. It was pretty simple. Think they were about £20.

http://www.streetshirts.co.uk/creation.aspx

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First mistake, he got too close, second, took off too soon. Surely its the jockey's job to get the horse in the right place for take off?

Will AP get the ride in the Gold Cup now?

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Let's hope connections see sense and put his regular jockey back on.

Farce.

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Connections have confirmed that AP still has the ride for the GC...

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Really, really sorry to read this. And feel the connections are letting the horse down very badly. It will be the end of a stunning career.
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Agree, I love Denman and would love for him to win another GC, but I feel he has no chance now.

Agree with HH, AP has had less high class winners, not managed to win the GN and I can't remember him winning the GC, can anyone put me right on that?
 
I would really like to see Harry Skelton ride Denman, even in the GC!!
Now there's a big gamble, but think about the ride Sam had on him when he was at that stage, he knows the horse, he rides quiet, and it would take a lot of pressure off everyone.
I don't think this weekend will have done any lasting damage to Denman's confidence, but dare I say perhaps AP is losing his 'sharpness/feel'? That isn't a criticism of the guy, just the fact that he has been at the top of his game for so long, and everyone gets older!
 
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Is there a link anywhere to watch the race ?

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There is some footage on Youtube I believe, but C4 had a lot more close-up footage of Denman than any other I have seen. I don't know if it will be on their website? May be worth a try.
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Is there a link anywhere to watch the race ?

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There is some footage on Youtube I believe, but C4 had a lot more close-up footage of Denman than any other I have seen. I don't know if it will be on their website? May be worth a try.
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Thank you !
 
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I feel a Facebook campaign coming on.............

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I've already started one!
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Don't know how to post a link to the group
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But it says, bring back Sam Thomas to ride Denman for the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

I have the grand total of.....2 in my group and 1 of those is me
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I feel a Facebook campaign coming on.............

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I've already started one!
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Don't know how to post a link to the group
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But it says, bring back Sam Thomas to ride Denman for the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

I have the grand total of.....2 in my group and 1 of those is me
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I can't find it.
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Go to the page, then c+p the link in the address bar.
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Then I can join!
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[/ QUOTE ] " Let's hope connections see sense and put his regular jockey back on."

In his racing career Denman has been ridden 3 times by Christian Williams, 6 times by Sam Thomas, 9 times by Ruby and once by AP. Therefore you can hardly call ST his 'regular' jockey. As far as I am aware he has fallen only once in his career and his jock that day was ST! Anyone can get it wrong.

I assume PN is happy for AP to take the ride and would guess he knows a little more about the horse than us armchair critics.
 
Paul Nicholls has said that he needs to get Denman sharper both physically and mentally like he was in the Hennessy and that AP did nothing wrong. That AP has watched the video many times shows that he has analysed the race and he was prepared to critisize himself. At the end of the day s**t happens and it did. It doesn't mean that the blame culture has to kick in.
 
Having watched the race quite a few times now I think Denman didn't like being 'pushed' into his fences, Mcoy kept constantly looking back, unbalancing the horse, for me the horse just didn't 'click' with the jockey, it wasn't a good pairing.
 
I have seen it and have no problem with AP. I have to say that I think this is a bit OTT and I do not rate Sam Thomas. There are better jockeys coming through. Sam Thomas is just fortunate to be working for the best stables. Look at Joe Tizzard he had big winners but is nowhere now without PN backing.

Just some stats AP rides 75% more winners than RW but is pretty much level pegging on prize money. Jonjo has very medicore horses and that is his main employer. Name the last time you saw AP on a superb chaser? It has not happened for a long time not APs fault but because he rides a lot of crap and turns them into winners.

Denman was miles off his best so how you can blame the jockey? Why are you not having more of a go at the trainer? Please get some common sense into this and look at the facts and not just use blind ignorance.
 
QR - First thought on hearing AP had the ride last Saturday on my current favourite steeplechaser - 'Alpha Male .. meet .. Alpha Male' and kept fingers firmly crossed.

No disrepect to McCoy, or any professional jockey. You only have to look at their gaunt faces to see what a tough lifestyle it is or wince when they hit the ground, plus these pros do what 99.9% of riders couldn't - that's a given.

Even as a young horse, the first-hand reports were you asked, not told, Denman what to do and he can be quirky. Ruby suggested blinkers after their last race and Denman needed Dan Skelton and his hunting whip at the start last Saturday.

Taking all that into account, I still think Ruby is the best horseman for The Tank. Plus, when it comes to Cheltenham there is none luckier than him.

Moot points.
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It looks like the Alpha Male partnership is set in stone for the Gold Cup. I shall watch the race from behind the sofa ..
 
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Denman was miles off his best so how you can blame the jockey?

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Not according to PN, or compared to his run in the Hennessy.

Why are you not having more of a go at the trainer? Please get some common sense into this and look at the facts and not just use blind ignorance.

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It wasn't the trainer that gave him two bad shots into the fence.
 
Paul Nicholls has said that he needs to have him sharper mentally and physically sharper like he was in the Hennessy so that is saying he was not at his best. However nobody should have been expecting to see him at his best as the aim is the Gold Cup. He has publicly said that the horse is lairy and that Ruby said after the Hennessy that blinkers would be interesting. They are not going to use them but may use a sheepskin noseband to help his concentration.
I have to conclude from this that Denman was NOT at his best.
 
First of all let me say that in all honesty Sam should have kept the ride as Ruby has other engagements in the gold cup on Kauto and what is the point of Ruby riding a horse in its last prep before Cheltenham when he is unable to take the ride on Denman unless something happens to KS between now and then.
That is no slur against Tony at all as I greatly admire him as a person and jockey and no matter what anyone says about him it will not change my views as we are all entitled to have opinions about people.
What I will also say though is that I do not think that Denman was up to his best that day, last Saturday. It was not jockey error and Tony did the right thing in looking how close the field were to him when he looked between his legs. Lets not forget, we were all ( or most of us anyway) watching the race broadcast from the track. Tony was the person sat aboard the horse and he is the only one who can give a complete analysis of the horse and his ride, not us!
He knew how well or not so well Denman was going.
Even before Denman made the howler which as far as I am concerned was not jockey error, I personally don't think he was going as well as I have seen him in previous races ( but as said before only the jockey would really know how well the horse was going, tired, blowing, full of running etc)
The fact that Niche Market was coming back at him on level weights when in the Hennessey Denman slammed that rival by 7 1/4 lengths conceding no less than 29lbs! to Buckler's charge ( including the 3lb jockey claim) tells me on the form book that either Denman was having an off day or that Niche Market who may well have beaten Denman anyway if he hadn't unseated his rider has improved at a rate of knots between the Hennessey race and last Saturday.
All will come to light after the gold cup and indeed grand national and then we will know for sure if the 'real' Denman turned up last Saturday or if it was a blip. Either way though from my own viewpoint I do not feel that AP was to blame in the errors that Denman made as I feel that Denman was not his usual bullish self. He failed to show that sheer determination and gallop away from his rivals that we have witnessed in the past.
I could go into past races into more detail as I have most of them apart from a few novice races on tape but I really can't be bothered.
I will also draw attention to the comment made about AP and Valiramix though. Yes AP was mad. Wouldn't you all be as a jockey if you were sat on a horse with huge potential and with a winning chance in the biggest hurdle race at the Cheltenham festival and to be going so well and then to slip up and fall? Why was his outburst any different to that of other jockey's such as Paddy Merrigan who fell aboard Special Envoy who had a race at his mercy back in Nov 2007 at Haydock. Merrigan was so angry he threw his hat to the ground. Was McCoy's outburst so different because his mount died?
Tony was actually upset when he realised the horse was injured. I can dig the tape out and try to upload it to the pc as I have all the Cheltenham festivals going back to 1995 I think? The same as he was upset when Gloria Victis died as well that he rode in the Gold Cup in 2000. I saw him at another track the Saturday after the race and AP was still clearly very shaken. He went to the racecourse had one ride, it won I think from memory and I can remember putting my hand on his shoulder and saying how sorry I was.
AP and Sam and Denman aside though, I will also say that while we may air our opinions on here about race riding, trainer/owner decisions and the selection of jockeys to ride Denman it is frankly none of our business. Denman is not our horse, it belongs to Paul Barber ( who I have a great deal of admiration for as he knows his horses very well, through experience in the ptp field) and Harry Findlay. It is trained by Paul Nicholls and those trio of people are the only ones whose real business it is to select where there horse should run and who should ride it.
We can moan about things as much as we like but it will not change a single thing. They are the decision makers not us and rightly so!
 
I seriously rate AP as a jockey, and he'd win on horses others wouldn't.
That said, he's not perfect, no jockey is, and other jocks will win on horses that he is too hard on.

It was me that mentioned Valiramix. AP's first reaction was to tantrum and chuck the helmet on the ground, and only then when the struggling of the stricken horse caught his eye did V's fate even cross his mind.
Compare AP's reaction to Norman Williamson's reaction to Nick Dundee's fall in the RSA who's reaction may well have saved the horse's life.
It's all very well being upset after the event, but AP's first thought was losing the CH, not the horse.
Again, he is a brilliant jockey for SOME horses. But not all.
 
We will have to agree to disagree then lol because I still feel whether he had a tantrum or not after the incident it bore no bearing on him either as a person or a jockey. I have seen plenty of people 'lose' it momentarily after a fall or losing a race/event in equine events, including racing. Why AP was more out of order than anyone else who has done similar is beyond me?
I also believe that being the competitive person that I am, that I would have acted in exactly the same way if I had felt I had been robbed of winning one of the best hurdle races in the UK. I would not feel guilty in feeling that way either.
AP did recognise the fate of the horse though but perhaps felt at the time that the horse had not been injured as badly as it was because the horse had been going so well at that point and it was actually recorded as a slip up rather than a fall.
I think that we can all be guilty of preaching our views about others conduct when it suits but perhaps sometimes we should take a step back and consider how it would feel to be inside that other person's shoes for a moment.
On reflection how one would act is very different sometimes to how one would act in that situation at that time. It was not apparent immediately that the incident was to be fatal and that the horse was severely injured.
He was not on that horse after it had gone down.
If you compare this to perhaps say the Amy Tyron incident in which a capable rider should clearly have known she was riding a lame horse and yet continued to ride it out then I do not feel that what Tony did that day was remotely bad at all.
 
I'm not comparing AP to AT. It's not the same issue. But I am comparing AP to NW, which is.
I was disgusted at him that day, however, it still doesn't tarnish my view of him as a great jockey who wins more races than anyone else.
That said, I am not blinded by his win record to ignore what I see.
And at no point have I questioned his personality.........just his race attitude.......
 
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