Hunt Ball rolls into town

[scanman]

Originally Posted by my miss storm cat

Well he certainly didn't disgrace himself today. I thought he did well... gave it everything he had.

Would love to hear your thoughts, scanman.

(I'm sure you saw it but for anyone who didn't and would like to...)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lunrm0TmqGc

Yeah, he ran a really game race. While he was never going to win it, they found a lucrative, level weights race for him to pick up some decent money for his connections. Certainly, Cheltenham and the other big/expansive UK racecourses favor his running style, and as such, can still be useful.

The Ryanair Chase was a good spot for him. The race shaped well, in that, it became a softer race because of the defection of Sprinter Sacre from the Champion Chase. Had SS ran in the Champion Chase many of the horses that ran there would have gone in the Ryanair instead, whereby I am certain HB would have been an also ran.

However, it would be foolish to bring him back to the US, as he has proven that US racecourses do not favor him. The only exceptions to that would be to run him at Butler, Glyndon, and/or Great Meadow over timber fences. Those layouts are huge (Butler has a 3/4 mile straight finish).

It will be interesting to see where they will point him. For now, his only entry is in the Grand National, which would be a waist of time as it is a handicap and he is rated way too high and he's a non-winner beyond 2 5/8 miles.