Cheltenham Moments

mr.jingle

Don't want to hijack any other threads as some of them are in a mess but as we look back at a fantastic festival put betting aside what was the most impressive performance for you? Fav Ride? Fav race? Worst moment? Best Moment? Worst or most disappointing performance? Heck we can even have your fav Alistair Down montage!

Most impressive Performance:
Personally the most impressive performance one is the hardest one to call. So many top winning performances, can't remember a festival having so many clear cut winners.
UDS,Faugheen and Douvan on Tuesday.
Don Poli, Windsor Park and Dodging Bullets Wednesday.
Vautour,Uxizandre,Cole Harden yesterday.
Coneygree today.

Some great races in there but top 3 would have to be:
Coneygree 3rd
Un de Sceaux 2nd
Vautour 1st

Love watching a horse attack a fence and all three done that with aplomb.

Favourite/Best Ride:
Love when a horse goes from the front and dictates the race and I thought Gavin Sheehan gave the ride of the week on Cole Harden. Nico de Boinville was also fantastic today but McCoy comes a close 2nd with Uxizandre and well any of Ruby's rides on the Mullins big winners are up their too. Geraghty also produced Peace and Co perfectly today i thought.

3rd Coneygree
2nd Uxizandre
1st Cole Harden

Favourite Race:
Think this will have to be the Champion Hurdle, I know Faugheen won well but i thought it was a cracking race and seeing the legend Hurricane Fly get up the hill for 3rd was a fitting end.

Worst Moment:
Think like many others had to be the fall of Annie Power, I had Glens Melody(Disgraceful after timing I know :P ) but even so my heart sank when she hit the deck.

Best Moment:
I think seeing Nina win today on On the Fringe was my favourite moment I was ettin emotional watching the interview afterwards and the first thing she said was about JT McNamara and just brought it all back to earth for me and I thought that was absolute class from her. McCoy winning was a close 2nd along with his entry into the parade ring after Ned Buntline finishing 4th.

Worst Performance:
Sprinter Sacre, Sire de Grugy, Silviniaco Conti,Kings Palace, Black Hercules, Very Wood, Mullins Bumper horses!
The demise of Sprinter Sacre was hard to watch, I hope they can just retire the horse now and not run him into the ground.

Alistair Down piece:
I thought the piece on Kauto today was fantastic.

Well done to all the forum lads(ROSSOM and Aidan in particular) who made a lot of money for people and fair play to the lads Sonnky and Nulty for running comps. Thought it was a fantastic festival even if i didn't have the greatest of weeks myself. Roll on March 2016!

mailburner

mr.jingle wrote: »

aplomb.

Favourite/Best Ride:
Love when a horse goes from the front and dictates the race and I thought Gavin Sheehan gave the ride of the week on Cole Harden. Nico de Boinville was also fantastic today but McCoy comes a close 2nd with Uxizandre and well any of Ruby's rides on the Mullins big winners are up their too. Geraghty also produced Peace and Co perfectly today i thought.

3rd Coneygree
2nd Uxizandre
1st Cole Harden

I'll nominate geraghty as he knew exactly how he would win that race and
how to ride that horse to perfection
mccoy because I backed ma filleule and was cursing the ride he gave uxiz


worst performances
ss, sdg the doubts were there though
conti....will probably never win there

fuzzydunlop85

Not a massive racing follower but surely Annie powers fall will be one the most iconic moments in racing history in a few years?

Harry Angstrom

fuzzydunlop85 wrote: »

Not a massive racing follower but surely Annie powers fall will be one the most iconic moments in racing history in a few years?

Not as iconic as Dayjur's though....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xgZV9ADl9s

Still gutted after all these years.

Trouble in P

Geraghty ride on Peace and Co oozed class

mr.jingle

Harry Angstrom wrote: »

Not as iconic as Dayjur's though....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xgZV9ADl9s

Still gutted after all these years.

Carson didn't know what to do or say in the interview after the race. Certainly iconic.

Annie i'm sure burnt more people but hopefully in 25yrs she is remembered for better reasons than that fall

Cantonesque

Wow see the similarity with the shadow. I reckon my AP will be your Dayjur for many years to come. Had 3 decent accumulators on her and thought we were just there. The highs and lows of backing horses but it's a great game.

Roll on March 2016.... Irrespective of the losses !

jimjamcos

The performance of the week, by a distance, was Vautour. I had always been of the opinion that Faugheen and Un De Sceaux were better than him but I'd seriously doubt that now. On good ground, over any distance around Cheltenham I think he's on a different level. To use Mullins phrase from last year, he scated round!. He was like a bunny the way he popped around and the ease with which he put distance between himself and top horses was amazing and still can't quite believe it. The next Kauto IMO. Low point is obviously the great Sprinter Sacre being pulled up, probably the last time we'll see him on a racecourse. One of the true greats.

BumperD

Day 1 lived up to expectation. I didn't expect that.

And sting was right about Coneygree. I didn't expect that.

That is all.

Esroh

Performance: Vautour. The scope he showed jumping was special. Also Ruby's the reaction . He let the veil of the hardnose jockey drop .

Ride: I'd give this to AP on Uxizandre. Blinkers do change the ride you get and having watched it a few times it takes some strength of belief to let a horse bowl along at speed and trust them to jump at speed. Uxizandre being a very different jumper to Vautour/Coneygree who soar over the fences .

Worst Moment . Annie Power. It could have been a horrible fall for both .

Re worst performance. Not a betting man so it would be more a disappointment to see SS fade away.

Best Moment. 3 interviews stand out. a)Nina post win thinking of JT b) Lady Oaksey wondering would John still have agreed it was the right choice re Gold Cup, and Mags Mullins not being sure how to react to Martello doing Danny out of his winner.

I'd give Frankie Dettori a special mention as Wally of the week for his overplay of joyful breeder. A winner at Cheltenham was a longway from the agenda when covering plans were made

mailburner

annie cost me a nice bet
cost me more last year having her in a bet with vautour and faugheen (7/2+11/4)

a lot of independants are probably still open now because of that fall though so a lot more folks have jobs :pac:

HarshOstrich

A lot of the big races were won by front running tactics

Vautour
Uxizandre
Coneygree
Un de sceaux
Cole harden
Faugheen
Martello tower was up there but milsean was the front runner and ran a cracker
Dodging bullets and winsor park were up with the pace.
Something to be aware of in future

Miall108

My favourite moment:

Not many as it wasnt the greatest of festivals for me but seeing Hurricane Fly's courageous effort in defying age and a star studded field to fight his way into 3rd like the great champion he is sort of stood out for me. Other special mentions go to Faugheen finding another gear when being pegged back by Arctic Fire and co before the last, Coneygrees unbelievable story and performance and AP McCoys win on Uxizandre


My least favourite moment:

Seeing Annie Power fall at the last was a crushing blow
Seeing the legend Sprinter Sacre look a shadow of his former self and being pulled up near the end was very very saddening

Best Performance:

Vautour and Coneygree without a doubt with Faugheen a close second

Worst Performance:

Has to be Silviniaco Conti mainly because for the 3rd year in a row, he went in as one of the big favourites and again came nowhere. Sire de Grugy and Sprinter Sacre too although in the case of SS we know why. The New One was very disappointing too I thought




Also the C4 Alistair Down piece on Kauto Star was a wonderful tribute to the legend. Loved the little mention of him and Denman rolling back the years trading blows in front heading towards the last in 2011