• HELP US - Become a Patron - Fat Jockey is a horse racing community focused on all the big races in the UK and Ireland. We don't charge users but if you have found the site useful then any support towards the running costs is appreciated ... a small donation each month would be a huge contribution. Become a Patron!

Champion Chase 2018

i personally think Min, Yorkhill & Douvan will be split up if they make the festival. With Min going CC then douvan and yorkhill being split between the ryanair and gold cup. I would say those three are the first string, with Great Field, UDS, Djakadam the second string.

Pretty good second string but i cant see ruby not riding either min douvan or yorkhill if all three get to the festival.
 
SAMCRO said:
i personally think Min, Yorkhill & Douvan will be split up if they make the festival. With Min going CC then douvan and yorkhill being split between the ryanair and gold cup. I would say those three are the first string, with Great Field, UDS, Djakadam the second string.

Pretty good second string but i cant see ruby not riding either min douvan or yorkhill if all three get to the festival.
Click to expand...

Agree with that Samcro , though feel that may change if Faugheen flops on Sunday. I reckon Yorkhill would be given the office to go back hurdling.
 
Altior misses the Tingle Creek. No full update yet, Just hope he's OK!
 
Altior's wind problem means he will not be ready in time to attend the Sandown meeting

I’M really disappointed to report that Altior will miss the G1 Tingle Creek at Sandown next month due to a wind problem that has surfaced which means he will not be ready in time.

He started faster work last week in the build-up to Sandown and did an excellent piece with Lough Derg Spirit last Tuesday, he was actually quite brilliant, and it is quite bizarre this has come up, as up until now he had shown no signs whatsoever that there was anything untoward.

However, he made a whistling noise on Saturday so we did an overland scope yesterday, which is basically galloping while being scoped, and between our own vet Dave Matterson and Geoff Lane they both concluded that he has a small issue with his wind whereby his larynx isn’t opening sufficiently. After discussing the matter with his owners Christopher and Pat Pugh we decided that he will need a small procedure to rectify the problem.


Unfortunately this is quite common. Indeed, Might Bite and Sprinter Sacre both had the exact same operation. Might Bite last autumn and Sprinter after the Supreme, but sadly this has reared its ugly head at the wrong time and there is nothing we can do about it. As a consequence, we have been forced to miss the Tingle Creek but hopefully he will be back in time for the Champion Chase at Cheltenham in March and perhaps the other Championship races in the spring.

Whether we are able to fit in a prep race, we don’t know and only time will tell, I certainly wouldn’t want to speculate. We can have racecourse gallops if we need too, but Altior will have a month’s box rest and we’ll go from there. His health is our only priority.

The irony of this whole thing is that it is literally a year to the day when I was forced to retire Sprinter Sacre and dear old Simonsig lost his life, so this is a week to forget but we have to face it and get on with things. We have the best advisors and surgeons ready to go and we intend to have this remedied as soon as possible, perhaps even tomorrow. The good news is that this horse doesn’t have to retire and he will be back, make no mistake about it.

The timing is brutal and it’s tough for us all and I was only saying last week how you need luck in this game to keep all the big boys going and sadly, for us, luck has run out temporarily.
 
My instant reaction was a setback for the start of the season but he'd be fine for later in the year, perhaps not :grumpy::( I didn't think a wind issue was such a setback?

Altior's wind problem means he will not be ready in time to attend the Sandown meeting

I’M really disappointed to report that Altior will miss the G1 Tingle Creek at Sandown next month due to a wind problem that has surfaced which means he will not be ready in time.

He started faster work last week in the build-up to Sandown and did an excellent piece with Lough Derg Spirit last Tuesday, he was actually quite brilliant, and it is quite bizarre this has come up, as up until now he had shown no signs whatsoever that there was anything untoward.

However, he made a whistling noise on Saturday so we did an overland scope yesterday, which is basically galloping while being scoped, and between our own vet Dave Matterson and Geoff Lane they both concluded that he has a small issue with his wind whereby his larynx isn’t opening sufficiently. After discussing the matter with his owners Christopher and Pat Pugh we decided that he will need a small procedure to rectify the problem.


Unfortunately this is quite common. Indeed, Might Bite and Sprinter Sacre both had the exact same operation. Might Bite last autumn and Sprinter after the Supreme, but sadly this has reared its ugly head at the wrong time and there is nothing we can do about it. As a consequence, we have been forced to miss the Tingle Creek but hopefully he will be back in time for the Champion Chase at Cheltenham in March and perhaps the other Championship races in the spring.

Whether we are able to fit in a prep race, we don’t know and only time will tell, I certainly wouldn’t want to speculate. We can have racecourse gallops if we need too, but Altior will have a month’s box rest and we’ll go from there. His health is our only priority.

The irony of this whole thing is that it is literally a year to the day when I was forced to retire Sprinter Sacre and dear old Simonsig lost his life, so this is a week to forget but we have to face it and get on with things. We have the best advisors and surgeons ready to go and we intend to have this remedied as soon as possible, perhaps even tomorrow. The good news is that this horse doesn’t have to retire and he will be back, make no mistake about it.

The timing is brutal and it’s tough for us all and I was only saying last week how you need luck in this game to keep all the big boys going and sadly, for us, luck has run out temporarily.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
Reassuring to hear that it's a small procedure, he'll have a month box rest and that Might Bite had the same procedure last season.
Hendo saying MB had the procedure last Autumn offers further reassurance as that one was on the racecourse in early November, this would suggest Altior could be back on the course before end Jan
 
Istabraq said:
Reassuring to hear that it's a small procedure, he'll have a month box rest and that Might Bite had the same procedure last season.
Hendo saying MB had the procedure last Autumn offers further reassurance as that one was on the racecourse in early November, this would suggest Altior could be back on the course before end Jan
Click to expand...

That was my take from the first half of that paragraph, no major concern in terms of the season as a whole but that second half was more bleak. Fingers crossed...
 
Announced via Unibet. Disgraceful.
 
Perfectly true as far as I know but it would be interesting to see which bookies changed their prices and when.
 
I wonder if there is more to this then what we are being told? If it's questionable that he may not even be back for the Spring Festivals then there may be more to it than a wind op

archie said:
Perfectly true as far as I know but it would be interesting to see which bookies changed their prices and when.
Click to expand...

There were whispers early afternoon and noticeable changes on the exchange around 14:00
 
Maybe he's trying to entice Willie to send Douvan to the QMCC, then will say Altior is good to go ;)

That's my sceptical thinking anyway.
 
PP./ BF cut the next 3 in the betting massively at 4:38pm but left Altior in at 4/6
 
special tiara solid ew now imo
 
Min still looks overpriced to me at 7s for this. Altior has to be a massive doubt now, wind operations are rarely straight forward. I can’t see any way Douvan goes for this regardless - his profile and breeding suggest he’s ready to be stepped up in trip. Great Field and Min perfect for this race and though I don’t often bet each way ante post I don’t see how a big each way punt on Min at 7s can’t return
 
I haven't quite processed this yet ... I can't decide if it is now MORE LIKELY or LESS LIKELY Douvan runs here.

On the 1 hand, Douvan is connections best 2 miler (Sorry CoD) so winning the more prestigious race would be 'sweet sweet justice' for last season...

However.... Min looks the be an out and out two miler and I've still not seen anything to the contrary ... and with Altior having no prep, this race would be very very winnable for Min (and obviously I know some that fancy Min anyway)... this would leave Douvan a justified shot up in trip as a step towards a Gold Cup Mayve the year after ....

I know someone also said about Min going Ryanair ... also UDS might deserve a shot at CC if he wins tingle creek again or its soft ....

So really, it's just too hard to be confident on how this might shake things up .... and that's only considering Mullins!

There is the fact Altior might recover well, AND Hendo is likely to be cautious but it would be mental to rule him out...

Plus, "if three is blood in the water ... sharks will come" .... could be a deeper race than anticipated IF he doesn't make it.

Just thinking out loud and not really got anything to do that'll affect my position on the race. I have the likely beneficiaries already that would shorten and I'm on Altior in a double from the flat season so my stake is only 2 pts
 
If it is purely a breathing operation then he should be fine. The fact he mentions that Altior could miss the spring festivals is worrying though
 
Faugheen_Machine said:
If it is purely a breathing operation then he should be fine. The fact he mentions that Altior could miss the spring festivals is worrying though
Click to expand...

The fact Henderson even mentioned it makes me think the worst.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom