Senior handicappers from Britain and Ireland found themselves fending off accusations of sentimentality after naming Many Clouds as the best long-distance
Neftali Feliz Womens Jersey chaser of the jumps season that ended last month. The 10-year-old collapsed and died seconds after producing the performance of his career at Cheltenham in January, when he outbattled Thistlecrack by a head. Surprise and scepticism was expressed by some on social media that Many Clouds could be rated 2lb better than Sizing John, who became the first horse to win the Gold Cups at Leopardstown, Cheltenham and Punchestown in the same spring. Phil Smith, Britain’s senior handicapper, and Andrew Shaw of the Irish Turf Club pointed out that Sizing John’s successes were achieved in close-fought finishes and insisted he could be rated no higher. Many Clouds collapses and dies after beating Thistlecrack at Cheltenham Read more “I’ve been called a lot of things but sentimental …” Smith mused at a press conference to publish the end of term ratings. “I’m quite pleased people think I’m sentimental.” “Maybe just the mental bit?” suggested his colleague, Martin Greenwood. Unbeaten in two runs in what proved to be his final season, Many Clouds won the Grand National in 2015 and may have been hampered by breathing difficulties when well beaten at Aintree the following year. He had a wind operation during the summer which his trainer, Oliver Sherwood, believes
http://www.authenticmilwaukeebrewers.com/Orlando-Arcia-Jersey allowed him to run to a still higher level this winter. “For many years, we didn’t have a Grand National winner that went on to win another race over fences,” Smith pointed out. “Many Clouds won a pretty damn good one as well, so all credit to the horse and his connections. “Many people may have voted with sentimentality when he won ‘horse of the year’ last month [after a public vote]. But there’s none from me.” Sherwood greeted the latest acknowledgement of Many Clouds by saying: “It’s very special and I’m honoured. It says a lot for the horse and I’m just sorry he’s not here to justify that rating next season. Advertisement “I’m sure the wind op made a difference to him. I’m adamant his wind was just catching him in his second Grand National but his last race, as it turns out, was his best ever, easily his best. “ He was really something. I’m just trying to find the next Many Clouds at Doncaster sales now.” A postmortem showed Many Clouds suffered a severe pulmonary haemorrhage when he died at Cheltenham. It happened moments after he became the first and so far only horse to beat Thistlecrack in a race over fences, prevailing
Keith Hernandez Womens Jersey after a thrilling finish. The third, Smad Place, was 17 lengths further back. Douvan was the highest-rated jumper of the season, despite flopping at the Cheltenham Festival after which it was revealed he had suffered a pelvic stress fracture. Willie Mullins’s two-miler is rated 174 but is expected to face stiff competition from Altior, who ended his season on 170, the highest mark ever achieved by a two-mile novice. “If the prospect of these two going head to head next season doesn’t excite people, you’ve got to find another hobby,” said two-mile handicapper Graeme Smith. The panel faced questions about whether it would be possible to align the handicapping processes in Britain and Ireland more closely, so as to avoid the controversies of the latest season in which Michael O’Leary withdrew his best horses from the Grand National in protest at what he saw as the unfair weight with which they were burdened. There were accusations of anti-Irish bias in British handicapping before Irish runners won seven of the 10 handicaps at the Cheltenham Festival. “We do the best we can,” was the message from the British handicappers, while Shaw said he had had very few objections to the treatment of Irish runners in Britain. The generally softer midwinter ground in Ireland was offered as one reason why a slightly different handicapping approach was warranted there. Shaw said the Festival is usually the first chance each
http://www.officialcardinalsbaseball.com/authentic-14-ken-boyer-jersey.html season for Irish horses to run on a sound surface, explaining why some horses show a lot of improvement
