Champion Stakes Day Leopardstown

tryfix

Churchill 10/11

Eminent 4/1

Poet's Word 8/1

Cliffs Of Moher 10/1

Success Days 14/1

Zhukova 14/1

Decorated Knight 20/1

Moonlight Magic 25/1

The Grey Gatsby 33/1

Taj Mahal 50/1


As usual it's a tricky enough race to get your teeth into. For sure Churchill is a worthy favourite and has been backed down for this from early on as if he had improved since York.

At just around even money he's not hugely appealing for a horse who could bounce after his excellent comeback.

With 10 runners in the field there's an each way market and the short priced English horses Eminent and Poet's Word make the prices of others in the field. Even with Frankie on board, I don't think Eminent's flashy French form puts him near Churchill. Poet's Word although he's improving rapidly has too much to make up the proper GP1 horses.

Cliffs Of Moher will be better suited to this race than he was to the York one where he was sacrificed as pacemaker. Taj Mahal will likely take up Pacemaking duties tomorrow and with Seamie on board COM should be capable of showing his true form, might sneak a place.

If the ground is reasonably good then Decorated Knight is the EW horse for me, he was top class at Ascot and hasn't run well since with excuses for the Eclipse and York is a funny old track where the ground wasn't in his favour. He loves Leopardstown and showed a savage turn of foot to win the Meld Stakes there, which is probably why his trainer is running against the odds on his winning.

Success Days is an admirable mud lover but it'd hard to believe he was good enough to even place in a race like this. The Great Gatsby was awesome in this years ago but it'd be the training performance of any century if Dermot Weld could get back to winning this.

Zhukova, now there's a conundrum, her form even the best of it isn't great. She likes this track, loves a cut in the ground and Weld called her his Arc horse at the start of the year. She stands a great chance of placing if the ground is Soft.

The rest are meh...

1 Churchill
2 Zhukova
3 Decorated Knight

Francie Barrett

GOING REPORT for Sat 9th Sept
Issued 1pm 8th Sept
Inner Track – Good to Yielding
Outer Track – Good to Yielding, Good in places

The Mig

Some rain we've got the last 2 hours. Will be soft I'd say

NaiveMelodies

Marshall Jennings a very generous 25/1 in the last. Had Baraweez(current fav) beaten in Galway until he was stopped less than a furlong out by Riven Light and has 3 pound in hand now on that run. Cut in ground should suit.

tryfix

That old disaster US Army Ranger is running in a terrible quality GP 3 Enterprise Stakes over 1m 4f tomorrow and it's still hard to fancy him, but he's a tasty enough 13/2 in a poor enough race. Moore has deserted him for Spanish Steps but Donnacha might get a tune out of him especially if the rain has messed up the ground.

Copper_pipe

Ive 2 Leopardstown tickets going spare.

First to PM me can have em

diomed

It is a lovely sunny morning in south Dublin.
There are some big clouds.
Looking at the rainfall radar it shows heavy rain in Co Down.
My hope is Dublin will miss the rain this afternoon.

Francie Barrett

Got a tip for Clique in the first.

diomed

I put €10 at 6s on Dubhe in the 13:50 Haydock.
On TV the horse looks to have the biggest feet I've ever seen.

tryfix

diomed wrote: »

I put €10 at 6s on Dubhe in the 13:50 Haydock.
On TV the horse looks to have the biggest feet I've ever seen.

Hard luck and a beautiful pedigree.

On the big feet thing, I can remember someone saying that they'd backed the mighty Generous for the Dewhurst on the basis that he'd big feet. He won @ 50/1

tryfix

That Midterm is an awful yoke, the bookies must love it. He looked like he was back on track to be a decent sort the last day and today as usual the old waster Midterm turned up.

Francie Barrett

A 66/1 shot (Massif Central) that's running in the 4th race and is still a maiden went for €200k there. Mental.

diomed

€20 on Brando at 5.7 in the Sprint Cup.
He looks to have plenty of muscle.

Harry Angstrom

Outstanding sprinter.

mailburner

6/5 winter looks pretty good to me, also really like the 2s on sir john lavery

Harry Angstrom

No way was Lordan going to use the stick there.

Copper_pipe

Harry Angstrom wrote: »

No way was Lordan going to use the stick there.

He couldnt get it beat :pac:

mailburner

mailburner wrote: »

6/5 winter looks pretty good to me, also really like the 2s on sir john lavery

lord almighty hard to take getting nothing out of both of these
sir john far and away the best horse, could see trouble a long way out sadly

Gringo180

Ryan Moore is appalling there. How has he got that beat.

BoroMan32

Moore the 'best in the world'.

Gringo180

BoroMan32 wrote: »

Moore the 'best in the world'.

Lol

Harry Angstrom

Doesn't say much for the quality of this race when the third fav is a fairly exposed Group 3 horse.

DDC1990

Safe to say Ryan Moore is not the most popular man in Leopardstown today. Be interesting if he can get Churchill home in front.

Harry Angstrom

DDC1990 wrote: »

Safe to say Ryan Moore is not the most popular man in Leopardstown today. Be interesting if he can get Churchill home in front.

He's due a change of luck.

DDC1990

Harry Angstrom wrote:

He's due a change of luck.

Nope... Not sure if its just horrible luck or Moore is just way off today. Churchill never had a chance there.

tryfix

DDC1990 wrote: »

Nope... Not sure if its just horrible luck or Moore is just way off today. Churchill never had a chance there.

Hard to know what to make of Churchill, he bounced after his good comeback run at York but he was allowed coast home again after he'd failed to pick up when asked to go win his race today and he seemed to run as fast when winding down as when he was going flat out.

His best chance would be to go back to a mile and to strike the front early and to keep plugging away where he'd be hard to pass. For now it's best to stop making excuses for him and to just assume he's never again going to be the horse he was in the Spring.

diomed

Churchill might have fallen victim to the usual move of stepping horses up in distance beyond their proven distance.

UrbanFret

DDC1990 wrote: »

Safe to say Ryan Moore is not the most popular man in Leopardstown today. Be interesting if he can get Churchill home in front.

I'd say he'll be looking over his shoulder before long. Been piss poor most of the season and he seems to be getting worse.

Harry Angstrom

tryfix wrote: »

His best chance would be to go back to a mile and to strike the front early and to keep plugging away where he'd be hard to pass. For now it's best to stop making excuses for him and to just assume he's never again going to be the horse he was in the Spring.

QE II seems the likeliest race for him. Straight mile and let him bowl along. If it doesn't work out there's always next year's Triumph

kfallon

UrbanFret wrote: »

I'd say he'll be looking over his shoulder before long. Been piss poor most of the season and he seems to be getting worse.

It's been going on for 2 seasons now!

mailburner

Getting sir John lavery beat took some doing in fairness, worst I've seen in quite a while, should have won that 2/3 lengths

Harry Angstrom

Shocking ride alright. Makes us appreciate just how good Murtagh and Kinane were when they were first jockeys for Ballydoyle, especially Johnny.

Gringo180

mailburner wrote: »

Getting sir John lavery beat took some doing in fairness, worst I've seen in quite a while, should have won that 2/3 lengths

Worst ride ive seen in about 10 years and I though Jim Crowley on Ibn Malik couldnt of been beaten last week :pac:

MyStubbleItches

Some amount of pocket talk on this thread.

mailburner

MyStubbleItches wrote: »

Some amount of pocket talk on this thread.

You are spot on, the ride on sir john lavery wasn't half bad

hefferboi

Moore rides every horse the same way. Keeps it near the back and always 7/8 lengths off the lead with 2 furlongs to go he makes his move. It's like he always wants to come from nowhere to win or else he thinks every horse he's on is a machine.

A lot of people rate him as the best flat jockey in the world but imo he's not even the best at Ballydoyle.

tryfix

hefferboi wrote: »

Moore rides every horse the same way. Keeps it near the back and always 7/8 lengths off the lead with 2 furlongs to go he makes his move. It's like he always wants to come from nowhere to win or else he thinks every horse he's on is a machine.

A lot of people rate him as the best flat jockey in the world but imo he's not even the best at Ballydoyle.

I think the worst part is how he finds trouble in running so easily, he very often gets blocked in and really struggles to get going before it's too late. He's brilliant at pushing the head off a horse when he's in the clear, but he's not even a Jamie Spencer from the back

tryfix

With Gustav Klimt out and Moore now on the Frankel colt Rostrprovich in the National Stakes, that would be a very valuable winner if he could get it home in front...

That Gustav Klimt is quite likely to be a dodgy sort who costs punters a lot of money some day, he's a full brother to boards favourite Mars who was a monkey who promised so much.

Harry Angstrom

Nice performance by Cracksman there. It'll be a shame if they don't go for the Arc with him.

Whiplash85

What was the point of bringing Seventh Heaven to the Curragh today? Which races is Heffernan allowed try and win I wonder.

Harry Angstrom

Caravaggio must have touched a decent price in running there.

kfallon

Harry Angstrom wrote: »

Shocking ride alright. Makes us appreciate just how good Murtagh and Kinane were when they were first jockeys for Ballydoyle, especially Johnny.

Ahem.......

Harry Angstrom

kfallon wrote: »

Ahem.......

Ahem, his ride on Sir John Lavery was shocking. I didn't back him so I'm not talking through my pocket but it was a shyte ride.

Harry Angstrom

Taking a chance with Inns Of Court to turn over Ribchester in the Prix du Moulin at Chantilly. Ran very well in the Jacques Le Marois while Ribchester's Sussex run is still a head scratcher.

Harry Angstrom

Harry Angstrom wrote: »

Ahem, his ride on Sir John Lavery was shocking. I didn't back him so I'm not talking through my pocket but it was a shyte ride.

I think that went over your head.

Harry Angstrom

TheTorment wrote: »

I think that went over your head.

No it didn't. Irrespective of what happened with Caravaggio, it doesn't negate his poor ride on Sir John Lavery.

Fanny Wank

Harry Angstrom wrote: »

No it didn't. Irrespective of what happened with Caravaggio, it doesn't negate his poor ride on Sir John Lavery.

It did go over your head so.....

Gregk961

Harry Angstrom wrote: »

No it didn't. Irrespective of what happened with Caravaggio, it doesn't negate his poor ride on Sir John Lavery.

You're having a shocker there Harry!

BumperD

Harry you forgot how good Kieran was

tryfix

And that's how you ride Order Of St George, he's a very hard horse to keep up with. Should be his 3rd Irish Leger in a row.

BumperD

Verbal dexterity wins the national stakes. Long long time since he has a decent one for the amount of breeding he does. I imagine his bank manager will be happy if he can sell it to Arabs