Missing out on Breeders’ Cup a huge disappointment
Things don’t always go as smoothly as you plan it. So you enjoy it on the good days and just accept it when you get a knock. That’s racing and that’s horses.
On Sunday I had an across-the-card double at The Curragh and Punchestown but the following day we weren’t happy with how Pathfork worked and that little setback meant we had to rule him out of the Breeders’ Cup.
It’s nothing serious and will not have any detrimental effect on him for his three-year-old campaign.
But I always said that for us to make it to Churchill Downs, everything would need to go right. You have a plan and you work to that but I was not able to work Pathfork this week and would not have been able to catch up.
With the travel and everything else that would be involved, he would have needed to be 110% and that wasn’t going to be the case.
It’s a big disappointment for the owners, who would have loved to have had a runner at the Breeders’ Cup in their home state. They agreed though that we couldn’t get him there in necessary shape and so that was it.
It’s a big disappointment for me too. Pathfork would have been my first Breeders’ Cup runner. He would have been my first runner in America.
But that’s how it is and it is only a setback. We’ll put him away now for the winter and we still have plenty ahead to look forward to with him. It’s just one of those things. You get good luck and bad luck and I’m well used to the slings and arrows of this game by now. It always disappoints when something goes wrong but you can’t dwell on it or you’d go mad.
We have unusually quick ground for this time of year which means that I’m holding off on sending my jumpers out. We have been schooling away and I’m very happy with them.
The likes of Saludos, Roberto Goldback and Summit Meeting look to be well and I’m looking forward to aiming them at some top prizes as the season progresses.
Back to last Sunday and Banksters Bonus was a definite surprise. You don’t expect to win a colts’ and geldings’ maiden at The Curragh at this time of year because there are a lot of serious horses out.
He’d worked nicely but he really raised his game on the track and stuck his head out well to win by a head from Aidan O’Brien’s horse, Apache, and there were three and a half lengths back to the third, Giant Serapis.
That form means he is entitled to step up to a listed race now for his second run. There’s one over nine furlongs at Leopardstown on the last day of the flat season and we’ll go for that.
It is another success for his sire Big Bad Bob and what a story that has been with his first crop still only three-year-olds. We’ve had a few winners for him this year. Bob Le Beau has won four, Bobskier won one and Bible Belt won one.
He will move to the National Stud next year where he’ll stand for €6,000 and the more publicity he can get from siring winners, the better for them. It’s brilliant for his owner and breeder Mrs Cristina Patino, whose horses race in the colours of Anamoine Ltd. Mrs Patino owns Snow Fairy, who won did the Oaks double this summer, and I have always trained horses for her.
Gimli’s Rock had a really gritty win at Punchestown. Tommy Treacy timed it to perfection as he waited until the last minute and he got great satisfaction out of it. Tommy has ridden for me a long time and he gets on really well with this horse.
We just don’t know what happened to him in Listowel… Gimli’s Rock, not Tommy. We did all the tests but we couldn’t find anything wrong afterwards. He did seem low though and is really just coming to himself again.
He runs in the October Handicap at Naas tomorrow and you’d have to think that he’ll run well in it. Greenbelt Star got in as well and it’s his first handicap. I know it’s only a mile and a half but he’ll like the ground as he got stuck in the mud at Listowel and Navan The ground will suit Maybe Grace in the listed race and Somethingdifferent in the winners’ bumper while we’d be looking for an improvement from Why But Why, who was a little disappointing at Dundalk.
At Cork tomorrow, we have a couple in the maiden hurdle and Redzer Gazgoff in the handicap, while Takeyourcapoff will hopefully run very well. The ground was against him in Tipperary and he’s another who will relish the surface this time.
At the same venue today, we have Jumbo – or Jumbajukiba to give him his racing name – in the listed race . The ground is not ideal but there are only a couple of races left for him so we’ll just have to go.
Finally, we have Thieving Gypsy in the Downpatrick bumper. She’s another who got stuck in the mud last time out. She will enjoy these conditions much more and should run well for Katie Walsh.
