JULY Cup weekend is done and dusted at Newmarket, and there was some decent racing at Ascot and in France.
But who or what has made my latest Good, Bad & Ugly column? Let’s find out…
GOOD
This is every easy this week, but impossible to pin down to one moment, as Cieren Fallon, Roger Teal, Pinatubo, Mohaather and Jim Crowley all deserve a mention!
Let’s start with the July Cup, and when Kieren Fallon retired, Frankie Dettori must have thought ‘thank goodness for that’ in his bid for his first win in the big race.
But it was not to be thanks to the offspring of Kieren in the brilliant young talent that is Cieren Fallon! Fallon rode Oxted to perfection and what a refreshing result for a trainer with the numbers of Roger Teal to land a big one. Happy for all of them.
Let’s hope Oxted gives Battaash a race next time.
I have always kept the faith in Pinatubo, and he was back winning a Group 1 in the Jean Prat in France. He’s not as dominant as he was as a juvenile, but he’s still a really good racehorse and I just hope he’s totally trained for the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Keeneland. That is his race.
Mohaather was my ITV racing horse to follow this year, and he was a monster in the Summer Mile at Ascot. Oddly enough he would be ideal as well for the Mile in America. What a smash up that would be.
And take a bow Jim Crowley, who is proving a master at picking the right one when he has a choice of Hamdan al Maktoum runners in a race. He did it again with Motakhayyel at Newmarket on Saturday. That is a Group horse in the making.
BAD
For racing fans it was bad news that Barry Geraghty hung up his boots at the weekend. With his departure we have seen the likes of AP McCoy, Ruby Walsh and Paul Carberry go in recent times.
That’s a quartet of incredible talent to lose from a sport and all we can do is thank them all for the good times.
They were all different with separate characters. But they all had the same thing in common – they were brilliant riders.
Walsh for style, McCoy for brute strength, Carberry for flair and Geraghty for a mixture of everything. We will miss them.
UGLY
I wonder if JP McManus and AP McCoy will agree over the next JP number one rider?
Perhaps they will get the gloves off and have an ugly smash up! Who knows?!
Anyway, I would definitely give Mark Walsh the job, even though he seems to be preferred more in Ireland than over here.
Aidan Coleman would be perfect for the UK runners, or they could give young Jonjo O’Neill the job and build him up.
Whatever happens someone is going to get a great opportunity. Yeeehaaa!
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