which way?

i think you know the answer to that Andy
gracious as ever Matt
facts are he was not there
facts are he would have won

Now now . I simply meant it in a light hearted way. Let's not get too worked up about it. The race is what the race is as I've said before to Joe about the 8f races.

It was a great win.

I thought this was the banter thread? It was a joke.

Feat Ping wouldn't have won.

he would have Matt he is a machine you can read the review it will be up shortly
i am not sure how much weight Versions would have got from him it would have to been a stone to stand a chance
Awesome Horse you should be proud of him

Hates the course though. He is a good horse but there will be better over 2m4 in the league next season. And it might not be from me.

As Andy said any horse winning a G1 handicap off top weight is impressive. So well done. Maybe you should enter him in the Melbourne Cup!!!!!!!

Results for the week. 7 winners from 13 entries.

2 year olds

Really a 2 year old G1 fest. 5 G1 races and when I looked at the schedule before the start of the season I had 5 2 year old entries really aiming for this week. Given how there's a little more variability in these races I would have accepted 2/3 G1s. I was pleasantly surprised to see they won 4/5 contested. Really have to highlight Lassair here who must be in the running for 2 year old of the season and has ended up winning a G1 in her last start. She's never placed worse than 3rd and has won every 5/6f group start (5 G2s and 1 G1). The sole start she had in a 7f G1 had her place second and the distance really didn't suit but I needed an entry . Definitely the star of my two year olds.

3 year olds

Bragi had the first G1 Mile win for the season for the stables completing the full set of G1s for me from 5f to 14f . It was a close finish and I wouldn't have been surprised if either Jalupen/Nashwan had won it.
Domnu just about picked up the Champion Sprint Stakes. Entered her as she wouldn't have a weight penalty and I'll be looking to find her a G1 to enter next week so all the sprinters have G1 wins if possible.
Anyigba ended up in 7th in a 2m race where she carried a weight penalty and I'd flagged this one up as one without any pace which was the case. Not surprised with that result.
Entered the two handicaps really late (5 minutes before declarations closed) as I knew I didn't have much of a chance running of top weight but in the end my curiosity about how far they would be off won over.
And lastly the 10f Champions Race was another headache to enter a horse. 1m2f and soft at Ascot really doesn't suit very well. Decided against Taran and entered Quhalom and had he drawn a more favorable starting position might have held on. In the end the jockey's decision to run the 1st 6f wide for better ground backfired.

Spoilt For Choice Nearly got me a group 1 Win in the sprint Handicap I feel that was my best chance of a group win gone I would like to run two 2yo's in the t j smith please Pretty please


Gray

1 winner for me
1 second
2 thirds

Ted Alia Knight won the 5f 0-100 handicap really happy with that win..
Her grandfather Alia Black did a nice 3rd in the G1HCP almost won if he just held on a few more seconds....
I have the same thought as you Gray I think that was the closest I could get to G1 success too..

Congrats all winners and placers..

Headline news for the flat newsletter!

I cannot believe that this has happened and with a gamebred horse as well. It really shows that this breeding business is over rated all you need to do to win in the league is to scan the weekly auctions

Highlight of the week for me was Foreign Victory beating Yima in a group 1 at the Breeders cup

And it was very well done too . I had this as one of my bankers for the week and it was the only G1 Yima entered that she didn't win

thanks

I already have made huge improvements over 12f. My NH game has a sire that is producing incredible 12f horses. Unfortunately they never raced at 3 so are all 4YO and up. But I have some good 3Yo's and I'm finally under 2.30 at Epsom with 3Yo's. SO may be able to challenge for honours at 12f next year.

Although as always my best horses will go jumping.

Final week results.

All G1s and G1Hs. Won 5/10 which is slightly under par for me . Really about the ones that got away. The Breeders Cup Classic and Turf which were won by Nashwan and Leon respectively. The races were close but the winners ultimately had just that little bit more.

Highlights for me this week and for the season. Nortia winning her 5th G1. Actually the whole sprints division did great for me. There were 12 G1 5/6f races in the schedule (2 2 year old 6f G1s and the rest either open or 3 up) and it was a clean sweep for the sprinters. I don't think that will be likely next season as Jalupen has shown he's caught up. Note that I don't include 6.5f in the sprints as they run like 7/8f races in that pace makes a huge difference to result whereas at 5/6f it's a flat out sprint).

Also Bragi won a second consecutive G1 Mile race (just) . Can't win one all season and in the last 2 weeks they come good. The 7/8f races were the most open of the G1 races all season. The 3 year olds won just 3/12 G1 races. The 2 year olds did comparatively better winning 4/7 for a cumulative win rate of 7/19 G1s.

Just to round off the other distances.. if we split them up every 2f. So 5/6, 7/8, 9/10 etc etc

At 9/10f, the win rate for G1s was 4/10 so quite open still though the horses did come 2nd in 4 of the remaining 6 races. No complaints there.

At 12f there were 12 G1s (2 were 4+ so no runners for us) and the win rate was 9/10. If we include both St Legers (14f+) then it's 11/12 G1s won. There were quite a few close races and luck probably accounted for a few of these victories.

So for the season - 138 races entered 81 won (58.7%). The sprinters and stayers did pretty good. The middle distances were the most hotly contested and that's where I'm planning on doing some work. FWIW I don't think I can improve the sprinters. I think there is a finite limit to how fast they can run and it'll be interesting to see if Jalupen hits the same wall or if he goes faster. Everything 7f+ could probably be improved.

A fairly successful season all things considered and next season will be harder as I'm sure the gap will narrow. To an extent, I'm burnt out and there's only so much breeding I care to do now (which is probably good overall for the league! )

Thanks again to the league team but also to all who entered as more trainers make the league better. Here's looking forward to a much more open league next time around.

Oh so close to winning two group one's , it proves u can run u horses properly and still win the group one h'caps. If only I hadn't run my horse in it's last two races ( went up 12lbs) I think my horses would have won the Melbourne Cup.