Tony’s Spinner touch pure class
Statistically, he never figures among the leading trainers and doesn’t have anything like the firepower of the major yards.
But when it comes to laying one out for a race he has few equals. That major touch landed by Leg Spinner in the fiercely competitive two and a half mile Ascot Stakes at York on Tuesday was pure class.
Leg Spinner won on three occasions for Mick Channon in England last season and had run just four times for Martin, three of them over flights.
His last effort before York was at Leopardstown on June 1 when finishing a ‘promising’ seventh of 11 behind Oodachee over two miles. It was the first hint that Leg Spinner retained at least some of the ability he had when with Channon.
His three pops over flights make gas reading entirely. He started at Tipperary in April, finishing 15th behind Hurricane Alley on heavy ground.
How far was he beaten? Well, let’s just say he was 20 lengths behind the 14th horse! In May, he went to Kilbeggan, this time with moderate cut in the ground, and trailed in 14th of 15 finishers behind odds-on Iktitaf.
Later in the month Leg Spinner completed his education over flights, at Clonmel. This time he had his preferred fast surface.
But, in the words of the Form Book, “was never a factor’, filling 14th place again, contest won by Articulation.
A pop around on the level at Leopardstown, followed by a tasty pay-day at York, and the Tony Martin world was a rosy place to be. Brilliant, but the really beautiful part of this story has yet to be written. You see the National Hunt handicapper has alotted Leg Spinner a slot over hurdles.
The magic figure is 79, a bad horse’s mark. And, on what we know of Leg Spinner over jumps, he’s a bad horse.
Oh stop laughing, this is a serious business. The world and it’s mother, yes including the handicapper, now know that whatever else Leg Spinner is, he isn’t a bad horse. What a wonderful game.
BBC commentator Jim McGrath got it spot-on as Rakti went berserk on the way to the start of the Queen Anne at York on Tuesday. Which was a lot more than could be said for some of his colleagues, particularly Willie Carson and Ray Cochrane.
Any idiot, with a modicum of sense, could see that Rakti was literally disintegrating in front of our eyes.
He completely lost the plot, was like a bull who had just downed a bottle or two of whiskey, and was never going to run his race.
But Carson and Cochrane made light of it and, to me, were simply talking drivel. Carson was a great rider and there was no greater friend to punters.
But quite what he brings to the BBC party is a total mystery.
BALLYDOYLE may have won two classics this season, but here’s one who remains convinced that their three-year-old’s lack any sort of depth.
It was tremendously encouraging then to see the manner in which Ad Valorem finished at York this week when runner-up to Shamardal in the St James’ Palace Stakes.
Unbeaten in three runs as a juvenile, the son of Danzig has clearly been very slow to come to hand, but may well emerge as a star as the campaign progresses.
IT might be prudent to make a note of Willie Mullins’ Euro Leader over fences through the summer.
He was taken out of a race very late at Cork on Saturday, after Ruby Walsh, who had won the previous contest, advised Mullins that the ground had become very fast.
Mullins didn’t hesitate and immediately withdrew the horse. Connections usually only behave like that when they think plenty of their charge!
