DAQMAN ON 60% NAPS AND 75% LAYS: One week ago, Daqman started a naps sequence of three out of five with the 11-1 champion hurdler, and he is currently 75% with his lays (six out of eight).
You may think itās border line. But I believe that, as with Kauto Star, the great sprint warrior Borderlescott, who is scheduled to run at Lingfield on Saturday, has done enough.
The authorities keep banging on about animal welfare but picking only the obvious targets and, though I have no particular axe to grind with any one owner or trainer, I believe that a horse which has won a series of major races, or reaches a certain age, has done enough.
I believe that, in winning big races, he has taxed his engine in full throttle at top gear to the maximum over a sustained period. I believe that he should be paraded as a hero before the worldās stage of racing, before something happens to him.
Yes, itās fantastic to see the Caracciolas of this world win a major race at 12 ā as he did the 2009 Queen Alexandra at Royal Ascot ā but itās also soul destroying to see some of them run until they fall or trail in, downtrodden (sometimes literally) and deposed ex-rulers of their equine world.
In December, The Tatling had the 18th success of his career at age 14 at Wolverhampton, his 176th appearance.
His rating had deteriorated from 116 to 61, and his last two wins came after 42 straight defeats. No doubt he ātoldā connections that he still ālovedā his racing. I hope so.
Just one week earlier, they finally decided they couldnāt āget Denman backā, and he was retired at age 11, unable to win a race since November, 2009. He was ātellingā them enough is enough.
Of Kauto Star, I said after his defeats in the 2010 King George and 2011 Gold Cup (in which heād fallen the year before), and his subsequent demise at Punchestown, that he should quit.
That he then beat his gold conqueror, Long Run, in both the Lancashire Chase last autumn and the King George on Boxing Day does not rob me of my conviction but it would have robbed those who want to see records broken.
They had their way and he had to be pulled up in last weekās Gold Cup, connections now claiming that they āran out of timeā with him but that retirement āhasnāt crossed their minds.ā
He will be back next season and they will also be baying for more World Hurdle blood from Big Buckās next March; he will also have to be put away and be āgot upā for it.
He had seven races in 2007, five in 2008, six in 2009, four each in 2010 and 2011 and is likely to have only two this year, returning in the winter, so at least he wonāt be overraced though, whatever his style, he will be giving his life for those races.
My guess is that he will be kept to the Long Walk and the World Hurdle for just two runs between December 2012 and March 2013 (if heās still ātellingā them).
By the time the World Hurdle comes around he will be 10. He, too, has won his share of gut-busting prizes and my betting now would be: odds on he āgets beatā and leaves the stage, head bowed.
Borderlescott had his sole AW success at Dundalk in October, 2008, yet heās hoping to avoid the kick-back on Saturday with an all-the-way Lingfield lung-opener.
In fact, heās only won two other (turf) races since then, and none since Goodwood in July 2010, his Grade-1 zenith having been the Nunthorpe in the summer of 2009.
Last year, he slipped back to Listed company (and āgot beatā). Despite 11 defeats for the one win at Goodwood, his rating has slipped only 5lb to 111 (109 on AW), making it impossible (please) to run in handicaps, which ā until September 2006 – were the springboard to his conditions race success.
After that, as his powers increased, he ran only in the Stewards Cup. Age of winners of that race? 22 out of 23 were six and under. Of the Kings Stand? None over the age of seven.
Saturday will be Borderlescottās 56th contest, of which he has won 13. I hope that is not an unlucky number for this great warrior, who should be parading solo, in front of the stands not going to the start with the others.
DAQMANāS BETS
BET 2.7pts win BUCKIE BOY and 2.8pts win (stakes saver) KATCHMORE (3.00 Exeter)
BET 7.5pts win QASPAL and 6.9pts win (stakes saver) MUSH MIR (3.30 Exeter)
BET 7.1pts win (nap) HANNIBAL HAYES (4.10 Kempton)
BET 5.7pts win TAPPANAPPA (5.10 Kempton)
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