...give me THE NEW
ONE slogging through the Ffos Las mud any damn day of the week!
OK, maybe not the Ffos Las mud every day, I mean I'm not insane, but you know what I mean!!
As much as I was blown away by Cracksman at Ascot yesterday, and bloody hell he was good, I was significantly more
excited by the uber-consistent THE NEW ONE making it 7/7 off a break of 121+ days, making it 8/8 in the Oct/Nov period and making it a remarkable 17/19 when racing at G2 level and below! That, my National Hunt loving friends, is just exceptional!
And adds to an already
exceptional career for the 9yo.
Sure it would have been great had he picked up a few more Grade 1's in his career (he has 2 so far) but let's be 100% honest here, each and every one of us, bar none, would give any part of our anatomy requested to own a share in that horse.
He almost
sums up our love of the National Hunt game on his own.
We argue amongst ourselves about what distance he should be running over..."he's a Champion Hurdler...don't be stupid he's a World Hurdler...nah he's stuck in the middle, keep him for Aintree"...
We point the finger at Twiston-Davies and
tell him he's campaigning him all wrong...
We say half the time he can't jump for sh!t and that right-handed jumping tendencies of his are going to cost him dearly...
But you know what, the horse doesn't care a jot!
He's like 'talk amongst yourselves guys, I've a job to get on with'...
And get on with it he does! He's almost won a MILLION POUNDS in prize money! Not bad for a horse that's been 'campaigned wrong' for most of his career!
He's won 19 times and still consistently runs to marks in the 160's, 32 starts down the line!
He deserves a statue somewhere when he retires, ideally one where he's jumping a hurdle slightly to the right, I think that would be the perfect pose for him!!
I love
the bugger, I really do!
And the thing is you know that when he's setting foot on the track for his seasonal debut the National Hunt game is just about to get proper serious...
