Trainer Jim Best has been disqualified for four years and jockey Paul John banned for a period of 150 days when he cannot apply for a licence, having been found guilty of breaching the rules regarding the running and riding of two horses in December.
This comment seems particularly damming..

He is a dishonest individual who corrupted a young man to ensure horses were not run on their merits."

http://www.sportinglife.com/racing/n...r-years-by-bha

Oh no, what a shame...

If anyone could complete this questionnaire for my research project it would be greatly appreciated.

It is looking at the effect of sports betting advertisement on sporting consumption.

Many Thanks.

https://docs.google.com/a/student.le...bMvU4/viewform

Link explaining BHA findings and penalties:

http://www.britishhorseracing.com/pr...and-paul-john/

Trainer Philip Hobbs has announced that Balthazar King has been retired.

Hobbs said on Channel 4's The Morning Line: "He's now retired. After the fall, where he broke the ribs, the muscles have wasted away. He needs another year but by then he's 13."

I noticed a film on More4 tonight at 6.35 -

Dark Horse (2014)

It's the story of Dream Alliance, the 2009 Welsh National winner...........although it appears to be more about the group of Welshmen from a working men's club who decided one day to breed a racehorse.........

I probably won't watch it as I no longer have the attention span to watch films.........but somebody might enjoy it.......

I've put my bets on for the G/N:

OneNightinVienna
The Last Samurai
Aachen

Thistlecrack arguably the most exciting horse in training. If he goes chasing next season could be anything.

Douvan as a 5 yr old looked pretty impressive too. Where can that go?

Indeed and I suspect he will go chasing and as he's 8 if they want a crack at the top staying chases and the Gold Cup next season would be the best time to do it.


All the top 2 mile races and Cheltenham for the Queen Mother which he should have run in this year.

Exactly at 8 years old (9 by the time Cheltenham comes round next season) he hasn't got the time to waste a season novice chasing all next season. Maybe have a couple of novice runs before Christmas see if he takes to it and then it's got to be either the Gold Cup or go back to the World Hurdle.

The stables always got Cue Card in the locker for the Gold Cup anyway should he keep his form next season.

Spot on.


I hope he dopes but he'll be 11 next year and nothing over 10 has won it since 1969. Shame he fell this year as if he hadn't I think he'd have won.

Can somebody clarify please, what does "being 4lb outside of the weights" mean in a handicap race.

there's a minimum weight in handicaps to allow for a jockey and his gear

over jumps the minimum might be 10 stone or 10 stone 7lbs....................it would usually be stated in the race conditions

let's say it was 10 stone in a particular handicap race

and the top weight carrying 11 stone 10lbs was rated 150..................a horse set to carry 10 stone would be rated 24lbs lower, ie 126

But it might be that because there's not enough runners to fill the race that lower rated horses could get in

A horse rated 122 could get in and 'should' carry 9stone 10lbs.................but because the minimum weight is 10 stone he would be carrying 4lbs more than his rating dictated

the common parlance for that scenario is 4lbs out of the handicap or 4lbs out of the weights................it means he's carrying 4lbs more than he should according to his handicap rating relative to the other horses

I am not sure what the chances are that a top class staying hurdler brings that form to the bigger obstacles - I can't recall any champion stayers doing so in recent years??

No doubt they will have a crack at it next season but history shows that it probably isn't the best call ...

Well the greatest staying hurdler in recent memory Big Bucks was a failed chaser before returning to hurdling. Certainly hasn't been one for a long while. Though Big Bucks was around in the great Paul Nicholls Kauto/Denman era I think they'd have given him another crack at chasing if they didn't already have the ammunition they had.

The good staying hurdlers don't seem to move to the bigger obstacles strangely. They either go straight from novice hurdling to chasing or stay as a hurdler their careers.

I've only got one Account........it's with Stan James

I've just had an e-mail from them giving me a £5 Free Bet as it's my birthday........I don't remember them doing this before

Anyway I've stuck it on Una Valorosa in the 2.40 at Kelso

(By the way.......it's a tad embarrassing but until I just got that e-mail I hadn't realised it was my birthday.........)

oh well.........I didn't have to wait long to realise I'd done my free money.......

Now that I think about it.........it's not my birthday today, it's tomorrow !



wish I'd saved my Free Bet now........

I do agree up to a point. Though, as Psycho_Ned says, the division was dominated by Big Bucks for years. My Way De Solzen went on to win the Dipper and the Arkle, though never really progressed from that. More Of That has been plagued by injury problems since his victory, and ran an impressive race in the RSA this year having bled.

I think a particular issue is that the 3m hurdle division hasn't been particularly competitive ('slow horses who can't jump', as the joke goes). If you've got a good one, the temptation is naturally to keep them over sticks because they have the opportunity to dominate in that sphere.

Clearly it isn't as rich as the staying chase division, but between the Long Distance, the Long Walk, the Cleeve, the World and the Liverpool Hurdles, that's about £350k to the winner. Not to be sniffed at if you've got one far superior to anything else in the division, as Thistlecrack has done this year.

Newbury is off today.......waterlogged

They're pessimistic about tomorrow's card which includes the Guineas trials, inspection later this afternoon

Newbury has called off tomorrow's card but urgent talks are underway to see if one of the all weather tracks can step in at the last minute to stage the card

Chelmsford have stepped in to put on Newbury's saturday card

5 day entries will stand with a final declaration stage at 3.30pm today

In the handicaps runners will run off their AW mark is this differs from their turf mark

Well done to everyone concerned........I seem to remember a few years ago a big meeting (York ?) was transferred overnight to Newbury

I hope this becomes a regular feature for big race days.........

I think the World Hurdle (& top-class 3m+ hurdle races) are unfairly denigrated. Big Bucks was a top. top class long-distance hurdler. He was better over hurdles than fences - so what?

Don't see people crabbing top-class 2mile hurdlers for not being able to do it over fences.

Four winners at Ayr today have put Nicholls ahead in the trainers championship

Dave Nevison on RUK was chuffed with himself.......he'd advised punters to go with Nicholls over Mullins at the meeting even if Mullin's horses were short priced favourites.........the reasoning being that Nicholls always lays out some horses for this meeting whereas Mullins only entered his as an afterthought because of the trainers title