Review of the day

I’m almost at a loss to know what to say after today – I really am…

For those of you who weren’t with me last season, let me explain…

Cootamundra was my ‘cliff’ horse last year – that is the horse I was prepared to follow over a cliff edge…

I tipped him just about every time he ran (including come out of retirement to tip him when he ran at Punchestown in April) and I was absolutely convinced that he had a big handicap chase in him…

Ofcouse it never happened last season: his connections chose to campaign him in graded races and as a consequence, he got a mark about 10lb higher than his ability…

He made his seasonal debut at Roscommon back in September and ran really well..

I remember thinking to myself ‘oh, not again’ as I foresaw tipping him again all this season, with the same results as last campaign.

He than ran again Cork just before the TVB season began – and he ran disappointingly – really disappointingly…

I have to admit, that was a bit of relief: the temptation to tip him again had been removed as the horse was clearly regressing (he will be 11 in the new year).

I even had a wry chuckle to myself when I first saw the decs for todays race…

I knew I would have been all over him12 months ago – but fortunately, I am a lot wiser now (sic)…

The rest is ofcourse history…

He came there cantering up the straight (as is his want) – only this time he went through with this effort and won…

I really didn’t know what to feel.

I backed him – as I said I would this morning – but I also layed him off rounding the home turn.

In a way, I am delighted for the horse.

I knew he had the basic ability – but he was just never given the right opportunity (prior to today).

I honestly thought he had missed the boat – but evidently, his flame still burns bright…

There has been an interesting ‘debate’ on the blog, concerning progressive and regressive horses…

Cootamundra clearly fell into the potentially regressive camp – and Mark warned not to let go of those types too soon. If you think you’ve seen something, you  should stick to your guns…

Prophetic words indeed….

Anyway, s**t happens as they say – and it certainly happened this afternoon…

Just in case you were wondering, the 2 actual tips in the race ran very decent races:

Living Next Door was in 4^th place when he fell a the last; whilst Pass the Hat finished 6^th.

Both ran with credit…

The other tip, Barlow, also ran with credit – but he wasn’t quite good enough…

A bit like Cootamundra, he can travel through his races and he looked very good leaving the back straight.
But he doesn’t tend to find much for pressure – and I knew the writing was on the wall, when he was challenged at the second last.

I think he has the ability to win a race – but he will need a specific set of circumstances: decent ground; a sharp course and a short run in !!

As seems so often to be the case, it was a better day for the mentions, and Ratify must go down as one that got away…

As I said this morning, 5/1 about a horse in what was effectively a 2 horse race - and where the favourite had a question mark against him, should have been a risk worth taking…

I could see the scenario in which he would get beaten – but that didn’t materialise…

Instead, he was happy enough to sit behind Riddleofthesand and took up the running when that one started to tire entering the home stright.

Nothing else even remotely threatened to get involved in the race.

The other 2 mentions, Notarfbad and Skibabe both ran reasonable races but were comfortably held, with no obvious excuses…

On that did have an excuse, was Kings Apollo.

He had nowhere to go rounding the home turn – but was ran on like a lion up the home straight.

He looked a very unlucky loser…

Today wasn’t about poor luck though – it was about poor judgement.

I won’t forget Cootamundra in a hurry, that’s for sure…

TVB.