The more I read that article, the worse it gets. Who wrote it?

James Willoughby

https://www.thoroughbredracing.com/arti ... eph-obrien

I'm shocked he wrote it because I respect his judgement and is very good with US racing but I disagree with him. That last part ( but only if he remembers that the very act of running wide is usually a huge blunder – irrespective of the earlier circumstances of the race) is just plain wrong.
If that's true then trap one would always win in greyhound racing, because he's got the shortest distance to go( being that they like the rail) and we know it's not true. If Aussie was in the inside and had to come out wide to make his move then he would have had to put more into his run but he was swinging along on the outside and just travelled into the race without much effort.

Knowing that he's a US racing fan I'm surprised he's talks about racing into the turn while running wide ( Increase your speed above 56 miles per hour and your fuel efficiency begins to decrease exponentially. So, if a horse accelerates into a turn while running wide, so much the worse), that's another thing I disagree with him because unless it's a real sharp bend and leoparstown aint then u lose nothing by doing it. If James is right about running wide how is it that lots of horses run wide at Longchamp and win.

I think James is just blowing smoke up Ryan's Backside.

Leopardstown is a notoriously tricky track

Lets say u are right( I don't see it like that) but he was taking the trickiness out of it and placing him on the outside. Ryan had some luck in the race because his horse couldn't go the pace running into the bend so he had the option to go where he wanted because of it.

Aussie will have the chance to prove himself at Ascot, hopefully all the best horses will turn up and we will find out who's best.

I would think he has already proved himself mate 3 time G1 winner Derby Form well and Truly Franked
Juvenile Form given a huge boost + Juddmonte had some decent yardsticks in it he is a proven g1 performer
Aidans Best ???? think time is running out for him to prove that he is i don't think it matters what he does at Ascot
He wont get that recognition off the back of 1 more G1 win The rock had notched up 7 by the end of his 3yo career
amazing how underrated he is almost forgotten about when champion milers are mentioned he was some machine
maybe not in the league of Frankel but certainly one of the best milers of all time

I think Galileo is their best 1m4 horse and Giants Causeway was their most talented horse, it took a outstanding dirt horse Tiznow to beat him in that classic.

The problem with The Rock was he never won flashy, Harbinger won one flashy race and Timeform gave him a really stupid rating( what a joke). The Rock had more talent than Harbinger.

Never won flashy what about this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4Movl19Oho

Jockey never moved a muscle i have not seen a classic more easily won

Please explain to me how the Derby form has well and truly been franked? How many winners have come out of the race? Everyone knows the St Leger is the poorest classic and hardly any winners of that race go on to be top class horses, unless they are stayers.

Ps Juvenile form doesn't count for much at all. Look how many good or even top 2yo's cant even win a G3 at 3.

Me and timeform disagree about Flashy and ratings but timeform tells us who's great and who's not by their ratings(Right ).

To me greatness is not just how u win but who u beat, I've been watching racing since the early 80's and to this day the greatest performance by a miler was Zilzal winning the 1989 Queen Elizabeth, he won by 3 but beat a unbeaten French horse Polish Precedent and my fav miler Distant Relative by 5 and there's not many horses could have put 5 in him.
If a very good/outstanding race horse beats inferior horses easily then it's worth nothing because he's just better than them and The Rock was better than them, not very stellar group.

Paul I've said who I think was Aidan's best horses so who do u think was his best horses over each distance. And not by hype actual performance on the track, that's something that does my head in these days in racing, a horse wins 2 races and he's better than sliced turkey and gets rated on that hype.

U can tell the jumps are just around the corner

I think we have our first interesting race of the season, the Novice hurdle at Listowel looks a right hot heat.

Sprinter - Stravinsky
Miler - Rock of gibraltar
1m4 - High Chaparral
Stayer - Yeats

Derby
Kingston Hill Dual G1 winner 1 (Since Derby)
Romsdal 2 times G1 Placed 1 (Since Derby)
Arod conditional winner by 9 lengths (Since Derby)
Red Galileo G1 Placed (Since Derby)
Western Hymn G2 Winner (Since Derby)
True Story G3 Placed (Since Derby)
Kingfisher G1 Placed (Since Derby)
Orchestra G1 Placed (Since Derby)
Our Channel twice group placed (Since Derby)

Beaten in a handicap
)[/quote]

Dont see how that is good form? Two winners and one was at 2/9 vs handicappers.

Harbinger was a seriously good horse. A lot of horses can be visually impressive, but until you break down the times of a race you cant see how good they really are. The sections and the overall time in his King George were very, very good.

This year we saw Telescope and Eagle Top look very impressive at Royal Ascot but the sections and overall times weren't anything special. Eagle Top may well turn out to be very good but his King Edward was nowhere near as impressive as it looked because the rest were crawling home in the last two furlongs, due to the frantic pace which had been set. The last two furlongs were slow for a top class race over that distance. Hence why I was all over Taghroodha in this years King George and could not see Eagle Top getting anywhere near her. He probably ran better than I thought he would.

Its all about opinions but beating average horses on the bridle in an average winning time proves nothing. Setting good times, compared to other races on the same card, against proven horses is a proven way to rate horses and always will be. Thats why from time to time Timeform rate horses so highly on one run. Most of the horses they have done that with have sadly not ran again or were injured on their next run. Im not saying they are 100% right but id rather that than a horse winning multiple races whilst at the same time beating nothing getting a high rating.