All that is doing, is making a competitive race out of horses that wouldn't win a CC or GC though.
If the Ryanair wasn't there... they can run in the Melling?
Horses like Top Notch, we've no idea if he would be a Gold CUp horse, because he had this as an option so hasn;'t been campaigned towards it.
UDS deserves his chance in the CC - whatever the ground, only beaten at 2m by Sprinter Sacre is good enough to run! Certainly wouldn't think Min is a good thing to beat him, which puts him very very close to the top of the market.
Just because Altior is running doesn't mean we want nothing in the race.... to not have any depth WHATSOEVER? SOme horses might be suited to further, that is fine...
The Ryanair will probably be bigger than the Stayers by 2020 in terms of prestige and prize money - so I'm fighting a losing battle :highly_amused:
But are we
really that fussed about any horse that wouldn't win a CC, being in a CC? Likewise for the Gold Cup. If they had genuine chances of winning then I agree but otherwise they are just making up the numbers? Fox Norton has been beaten by Politologue (who just got beaten by the fav) in the Tingle Creek this season, wasn't able to win the race last season and has been well beaten by the favourite last year. And that horse Fox Norton beat Un de Sceaux on good ground. On good ground, UDS could only just beat Sire de Grugy.
On Altior and the Champion Chase - 100% we want depth and obviously a half decent field size.
But depth isn't just about the number of runners. I want competition for Altior, not because I think something could beat him but we can only tell how good he is by who he beats. But on good ground, UDS and Fox Norton won't add much to the race. Yorkhill and Waiting Patiently could be argued but I think both would be put in their place. If/when
Altior brushes both Min and Politologue aside, on the basis Douvan won't be running that's the best set of horses he can be tested against over the trip. This year - I'm not going to watch the Ryanair a day later and then think I wish they had put him in the CC and tried to give Altior a race.
I feel like there is justification at knocking the Ryanair when it genuinely takes away the clashes we want to see away. The biggest and most obvious example is Vautour going here and not the Gold Cup -
because he would have had a massive chance in the Gold Cup. And last year, UDS won all the CC trials during the season. Instead he won this race, but with Douvan's injury
he surely would gone very close. But I don't really see that this year. Instead we'll have a very competitive Ryanair, with plenty of intrigue and it may well be used in the way it should as stepping stone to the Gold Cup in later years for the likes of Yorkhill and Top Notch.
:triumphant:
