Ordinary NH punters becoming disillusioned
Take last Thursday week at Punchestown for instance and the first outing in this country for the Willie Mullins-trained ex-French horse, Min, whose name had been on the buses for many weeks.
Now Min had to face no less than 20 opponents, but was a 4-11 shot to beat them and did so with ridiculous ease by an unflattering 14 lengths.
Then at Navan last Saturday, Jessica Harrington’s Ttebbob was a 2-5 chance to beat just two opponents in a Grade 3 novice chase.
This really was a pathetic turn out for a contest worth almost €23,00 to the winner and Ttebbob duly completed his lap of honour to win by 41 lengths.
That was followed by another disappointment at Navan, a Grade 2 hurdle with a first prize of €26,000.
Only four faced the starter and two of them were trained by Willie Mullins. One of the Mullins inmates, Bellshill, strolled clear in the straight to win at 4-6.
On Monday at Navan, Gordon Elliott’s Whistle Dixie was a 1-3 chance when easily taking a mares’ maiden hurdle.
And also at Navan, Mullins introduced Black Hercules over fences in a beginners chase and he went off at 8-15.
Now back in the good old days bookmakers would be falling over themselves to lay a horse at such cramped odds on his debut over the larger obstacles, with 14 fences to negotiate.
But those days are long gone and they knew, as they have discovered many times before, that the real odds of Black Hercules scoring was probably more like 1-3 or 1- 4.
The reason is simply the lack of opposition in many of these cases and soon after the start, mostly, you are literally praying for a miracle.
The problem, of course, is that so many of the best horses in the country are housed in the same place - in Closutton with Mullins.
The facts are that Mullins is so far ahead of his rivals, including the admirable Gordon Elliott, that it has given the game in this country, as we have pointed out more than once in the past, a very lop-sided appearance.
It is great for Mullins, obviously, and more power to arguably the most talented National Hunt trainer Ireland has ever produced, but I get a sense from ordinary punters that they are growing increasingly disillusioned by the whole thing.
I mean how many punters were distraught when Clonmel failed to beat the elements on Wednesday, given it was a card set to house four odds on Mullins-trained horses?
Oh, and look out for more of the same at Fairyhouse this afternoon.
Christmas, hopefully, has the capacity to change much of the current thinking and one of the races to particularly look forward to is the Grade 1 Racing Post Chase on St Stephen’s Day at Leopardstown, which promises to bring together Ttebbob, Kitten Rock, Sizing John and Douvan.
Ttebbob has turned in two spectacular displays over fences, at Navan and previously at Thurles, while former useful hurdler Kitten Rock, successful first time over fences at Navan, is the horse it is hoped will propel Edward O’Grady back to the big time.
Sizing John was outclassed a couple of times over flights by Douvan, but has made a more than solid start over fences, two from two.
Mullins’ Douvan is potentially brilliant, as he showed when scoring at both the Cheltenham and Punchestown festivals last season. He was as smooth as silk first time over fences at Navan.
Charles Byrnes has had lots of publicity, rightly so, after landing what seems to have been a couple of decent gambles at Tramore last Saturday, with Rosie Alice and Cyprian Prince.
It is hard to know whether a massive amount of money was won or not, because, as Byrnes himself pointed out, it is hard to get on.
But whatever the Byrnes outfit won good luck to them, on the basis that this was all about recognising two opportunities in two bad races.
Watching the mares’ maiden hurdle, won by Rosie Alice - it seemed to me that she was the only one of the 15 runners that appeared to handle the dreadful ground and to possess real ability.
The stewards duly inquired into the apparent improvement in form of the daughter of Beneficial, compared to her previous run at Limerick, and I was intrigued by Byrnes’ explanation.
He said: “She ran very green (at Limerick) and continuously lost ground at her hurdles, before passing the stands in last place, and became more detached from the runners, which diminished her enthusiasm, resulting in her being left alone in the home straight when tailed off.’’
Prior to Saturday’s race, I had looked at Rosie Alice’s Limerick outing and, indeed, her promising debut in a bumper at Cork, in the belief that this was a poor heat and she might have a life if fancied in the market.
She certainly ran green at Limerick, no argument there, and seemed all at sea on the bend passing the stands with under a circuit to cover.
But I had no memory of her jumping poorly, so went back and looked at the race again.
So far behind was Rosie Alice in the straight that you cannot see her jump the last two flights, so I have no idea how she coped with them.
But, except for getting in a trifle tight to the sixth, there seemed little wrong with her jumping otherwise.
