King Moscow

tiedcottage

So, guys, Moscow for the King George. Are connections going to be dissuaded by Mr Geraghty from the match everyone wants next Dec 26th, between Moscow and Kicking King.

Chuck into the equation that fact that Well Chief is already being touted to step up in trip and it could be very mouth-watering. Forget Best Mate, however, who hates Kempton, and whose best chance of winning there would ironically be the soft ground he hates everywhere else but in which he won his King George. Mind you, I doubt BM will be taken to Ireland again after the Christmas affair, so he might have to run in the King George.

I think Moscow would get 3m at Kempton, but the Melling is a funny old race, many horses look like they're staying on at the end of 2½m at Aintree than struggle over Kempton's 3 (think Remittance Man, Native Upmanship, etc).

I think Moscow would beat Kicking King. And possibly Well Chief would, too, in the King George.

I hope Inglis Drever wins tomorrow, because he'll wrap up the Order of Merit and make Azertyuiop's run at Sandown pointless. Maybe they'll then consider Punchestown as the only one who could even remotely give Moscow a race if at his best. In terms of 2 milers, Az is like Mill House coming up against Arkle.

I'm for Moscow running in the King George...anyone else...

DaBreno

Correct me if Im wrong(and I just may be) but wasnt there talk last week about a possible End of Year meeting between Moscow and Best Mate?
Would have to take time of work to see that!

DaBreno

DaBreno wrote:

Correct me if Im wrong(and I just may be) but wasnt there talk last week about a possible End of Year meeting between Moscow and Best Mate?
Would have to take time of work to see that!

Was full sure I read this on Racing post. Cant find that article but did come across this concerning the same two Horses. Very good read.


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2094-1533108,00.html

Hugh McIlvanney: Flyer joins Festival?s immortals

Among those who regularly put their solvency under siege at the racetrack there is a natural readiness to exaggerate the quality of any horse that gallops to the rescue. But the multitude of the addicted at the Cheltenham Festival rarely have to over-praise the jumpers that bring them relief (and most of us were granted at least a little of that blessing between last Tuesday and Friday). Class is always so abundant at the incomparable jamboree in the Cotswolds that, whether we are travelling to glory or perdition, there is usually the feeling of being carried there by Rolls-Royce.

As a punter, I have never been seriously threatened with glory but I take satisfaction from reflecting that my occasional glimpses of it have been the result of attaching my tattered banner to truly great horses, of which Istabraq was the dream example. When Istabraq broke down while seeking a fourth Champion Hurdle triumph in 2002, making retirement automatic, JP McManus as owner hosted a party near Cheltenham that was partly a wake but mainly a celebration of marvellous achievement. And it was there that the man who had been the horse?s perfect ally in the saddle, Charlie Swan, delivered one of the most arresting long-range tips I?ve ever heard. ?I?ll give you a certainty for next year?s Festival,? said Charlie. ?Moscow Flyer will win the Champion Chase.? Then, just as I was warming to the notion of 12 months of optimism, he added: ?All he has to do is stand up.?

That, of course, is all Moscow Flyer has ever had to do over fences ? that and maintain the partnership with his jockey. In smoothly securing his second Champion Chase victory on Wednesday (the Swan prophecy was fulfilled in 2003 but Moscow unshipped Barry Geraghty last year and the race was won in style by Azertyuiop) he was sustaining the phenomenal sequence that has seen him finish first in all of the 18 steeplechases he has completed. Yet there was real weight in Charlie?s testimony, and not simply because he was such a cerebral rider. His belief had close-quarters validity, having developed while Moscow Flyer was providing immensely formidable opposition to Istabraq over hurdles. Once the former rival had swiftly revealed an aptitude for fencing, remarkable performances as a steeplechaser were predictable. But the volume and season-by-season persistence of his brilliance have become historic.

In races negotiated without mishap, he has not been beaten since going down by 4½ lengths in a hurdle event at Gowran Park in April 2001. Obviously, consistent jumping is the essence of his business and assessments of his ultimate status among the greats of two-mile chasing must take account of the three instances of unseating his rider and the two falls that blemish his record over fences. But Jim McGrath, of Timeform, is not alone in seeing him as generally a very sound jumper, forcing us to agree with Jessica Harrington, the gifted horsewoman who trains him in Ireland, that the problems are produced not by flawed technique but strange lapses in concentration.

My concern in the stands on Wednesday was minimal. As I watched this incredibly fresh and vigorous 11-year-old impose an untroubled, almost proprietorial authority on a contest distinguished by the presence of at least two high-calibre opponents, Azertyuiop and Well Chief, it wasn?t only the thought of the salvaging job he was doing on my battered finances that left me in awe of his understated majesty. The plain truth is that, at the risk of seeming heretical, I am inclined to regard Moscow Flyer rather than Best Mate as the greatest talent to emerge from National Hunt racing in the past few years.

Naturally, I recognise the counter-case as intimidatingly powerful. Best Mate?s three consecutive successes in the Cheltenham Gold Cup (the blue riband of steeplechasing he had to miss last week because of burst blood vessels), the fact that he has never fallen or done worse than finish second, his sheer beauty as a specimen of his breed and his wonderful rhythmic fluency when in action all justify his admirers? willingness to hail him as the peerless star of his generation. However, as the impeccably objective and analytical McGrath observes, the last time he looked regal, ?like the horse that made us drool?, was in cruising to his second Gold Cup in 2003. His third win was a life-or-death struggle against utterly modest opposition. There is also the important issue of the unrelenting caution with which he has been campaigned, a severe contrast with the marked boldness of Moscow Flyer?s schedule. Best Mate, while jumping all the way, has lost four of his 15 steeplechases. Moscow Flyer?s errors have brought defeat in five out of 23.

Timeform?s ratings place Moscow Flyer third among winners of the Champion Chase, on 183, behind the 1965 victor Dunkirk and the miracle horse Flyingbolt (1966 winner), who was Arkle?s stablemate and had a stratospheric rating of 210, just 2lb lower than that of the four- legged god. Best Mate?s highest rating was 182 and he is currently at 176. Kicking King, breathtakingly impressive in Friday?s Gold Cup, went to post on 182 and many think he will eventually improve on that figure.

The Festival emphasised that this is an exciting era in the jumping game, not least because it seethes with excellent excuses for an argument.