Towton Novices Chase Wetherby Saturday 4th Feb 2016
Despite all the build up, anticipation and expectations for us guys involved in the Delusionofgrandeur syndicate, after the starters flag came down, it soon became evident to me, things were not going well.
Just as Sean Quinlan did at Catterick, Danny Cooks plan was to set off and let the others catch him if they could….so far so good…but after three awkward jumps early on I`m thinking “whats happening here?”
Something was not right, because, despite the novicey jumping, to this untrained eye, he just didn`t seem to be travelling with the sort of enthusiasm in evidence at Catterick.
More jumping errors followed, yet despite DoG`s genuine willingness to race, and Danny Cooks urgings, the writing was on the wall, and it was obvious this was not going to be our day.
Anxious to get the jockeys verdict, we made our way to the 4th place spot in the winners enclosure anxious to hear what DC had to say.
On dismounting, never mind us guys, DC was looking only for one person…..Sue Smith.
The gist of what followed was…..under no circumstances do you ever run this horse on that ground again.
From DC`s manner, it was obvious this was not him trying to soften the blow for us guys.
I know he rates Delusionofgrandeur very highly, and after elaborating further before he went to weigh in, there was no doubt at all in his mind, the going, officially “SOFT” was in fact HEAVY and holding ground, which our fella “hated…absolutely hated.”
Jockeys final comment before departing was, “forget todays run, we know he`s a lot better than that”
Which leads me nicely to our Honourable member from Nantwich, and his passion for statistics, who decided to conduct his own forensic analysis into the validity..or not.. of DC`s comments.
The following makes very interesting reading.
Consider these statistics from last Saturday:
Sandown Going Stick 4.7 Heavy: 7 Races : Total times above standard = + 220 seconds
Wetherby Going Stick 5.8 Soft: 7 Races: Total times above standard+ + 314 seconds. Note one race at Wetherby was a bumper so this represents even greater disparity.
Conclusion: Ground at Wetherby was considerably harder to get through than at Sandown which would seem in accordance with the views of DC.
To conclude this report, its far too early to accept we are all suffering badly from the condition of our horses name so, for now, the RSA option is still on.
Richard
