Sandown made the right call. Hands up, my criticism to pass fit the hurdles course was another example of my ignorance. It just goes to prove there is no substitute for experience and knowledge when it comes to making correct decisions.
I thought Sixmilebridge was very impressive in the only Grade 1 of the season named after a local roundabout. He jumped well, adapted to the harsh underfoot conditions and galloped all the way to the finishing line. What was there not to like. It was an overdue second Grade 1 for a jockey whose ability in saddle suggests many more should have come his way by now and a fitting reward for the Megsons, owners of Sixmilebridge, people who invest regularly in the sport.
For what it is worth, I agree with Fergal O.Brien, and disagree with Tom Scudamore, that Cheltenham and the Brown Advisory is the fitting next target for the horse, where I believe he will not look out of place come the finishing post.
Strangely, the one horse at the meeting you would have bet the family jewels at even-money that would relish the heavy ground ran, perhaps, the worst race of his life. Mr. Vango’s whole demeanour once the tapes went-up was that of a horse who wished to be anywhere other than on a racecourse and it was all Jack Tudor could do to keep him interested. There must be something amiss with the horse, if not, on that display all thoughts of him as a genuine Aintree National horse are just pie in the sky.
Frankie Dettori, the jockey, is no more after today. At Gavea racecourse in Rio de Janeiro, the greatest silk-adorned showman of British horse racing history has his final rides. He has been gone from our shores for 2-years and yet his name, if not his actual presence, has remained in the air and on our lips, come every big race and racing festival. I wish him a hundred-years of happy retirement and ask everyone with belief to pray nightly that without a jockeys’ licence he can keep to the straight and narrow. From today, I will miss him, and still believe British racing should stage some sort of festivity to celebrate his career and to thank him for his contribution to our sport.
The Tattersalls Ireland Novice Hurdle must be the most competitive race of this kind so far this season. I have an inkling that Blake, trained by the resurgent Noel Meade, might get amongst the better fancied horses of Mullins and Elliott, and to me he looks a value each-way bet at 20/1.
I also have an inkling that Anzadam will force himself into the Champion Hurdle reckoning today. Harry Cobden has magic hands, as well as being strong in the saddle, and though I would like his orders to be to go off in front, whereas Ruby Walsh has advocated the complete opposite, I think, potentially, he has more raw ability than the two mares.
In the Dublin Chase I think the heavy ground will play to the strengths of Found A Fifty.
Part 2 of A Botcher, Esq, satirically proposed rules and regulations to improve the sport pre-1924, and which I feel stands the test of time come 2026. ‘That horse-racing having been originally devised for the sole benefit and enjoyment of the upper classes, it shall revert to that special use; and that no merchant, banker, trader, shopkeeper, artist, author, actor, or other low person shall participate in the sport, on pain of instant annihilation.’
The build from the top-down approach of the B.H.A., with no support for those who race through the sheer love of the horse and the sport, suggests that their aim is to introduce ‘Botcher’s Rule 2 102-years after it was first printed.