Jumps Season not my bag now ( Apart from Istabraq ! )

[mhorro]

Suffering with the jumps this season this year. In my 30's I loved Istabraq and the great horses of that time in NH, now I am not that keen on NH at the top level anymore.

It is a close knit club with a couple of big owners turning up to Cheltenham and other festivals and clobbering the smaller owners.

I used to go the to club at the Cheltenham festival every year but have not been for 4 years due to this.

I remember Nortons Coin etc Klairon Davis, Miracle Man etc. The Milday May of Fleet race

I don't know if being 50 has numbed my brain but the NH game seems to be dull nowadays.

Roll on the Flat!!!!

PS: We all get older!

[Derek27]

The 1997/98 season was the year I got back into horse racing after a ten year absence. His 12 length demolition job in the Champion hurdle is probably the best performance I've ever seen from a hurdler. As Timeform said shortly after his retirement, of the five triple champions that preceded Istabraq, three tried and failed to gain the elusive fourth crown, but it arguably took the intervention of foot and mouth to deny Istabraq the honour!

It's not doom and gloom though. Sprinter Sacre is still fresh in my memory, along with the Nicholl's four. In the last few years we've been unfortunate with the number of top horses getting injured before the top festival races and the Gold Cup looks substandard this year. But what I like about NH racing is that even when you don't have exceptional horses around there is always something in the novice's departments to get excited about.

[mhorro]

Lovely comment.

I watched Istabraq in all of it's wins at Cheltenham and it's loss at Aintree running over 2m 4f on heavy that day!
( We were celebrating my mother-in-law's 70th I knew she had to jinx it!!!!! )

I totally love this horse and it will stay in my memory all my life.

On it's 3rd Cheltenham hurdle win I remember watching it through my binnoculars on the home bend thinking he is coming off the bridle and then he won quite comfortably. An absolute beautifull horse and has a very emotional story behind it.

Another horse which I loved but did not reach the top was "Back In Front" ridden by N. Williamson.

So great horses who just got on with it!

Thanks