Bigger In My Day!

I see that Aintree have taken the unusual step of making some of their fences on the Mildmay course easier to jump by making them smaller and narrower at the top.  I bet that some of the old jockeys would be saying that they have been turned into dandy brushes!  I can still remember Tom Scudamore's grandfather Michael (who won the 1959 Grand National aboard Oxo) telling me years ago that the fences were much bigger in his day...I wonder what he would say now?!  It seems to me that years ago everything was bigger and better than it is today, yet I suppose in twenty or thirty years Tom will be telling his children or grandchildren how the fences were bigger in his day!

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It was a surprise when Johnny Murtagh resigned from his position as stable jockey at Aidan O'Brien's powerful Ballydoyle stable, but it didn't take long for the Irishman to land another top job.  Indeed, he has just been named as the retained rider for the Aga Khan's Irish trained horses (numbering about 120) - an association that has previously reaped great rewards aboard the likes of Derby hero Sinndar.  Johnny is a world class jockey and I guess it is true what they say, you can't keep a good man down!

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Talking of owners, looking through the statistics I couldn't help but notice that J P McManus is nearly as dominant in the owner's table as his retained jockey A P McCoy is in the jockey's championship.  JP has won 52 races from 230 runners - that's more winners than all bar four trainers!  Those successes have put him over £200,000 in front of his nearest pursuer, Tony Bloom and he looks to be a certainty to collect another championship.

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It was no great surprise to see Kauto Star withdrawn from the Hennessy Gold Cup on 27th November.  He would have had a very hard race trying to concede upwards of 8lbs to all of his rivals, (even though most would be out of the handicap proper), especially with a tilt at an amazing fifth King George at Kempton on Boxing Day only a month later.  As it stands, Denman will likely be topweight on the day, but that allows 2008 winner Madison du Berlais to creep into the weights on 10-1.