Where would you rank him in terms of the great Arc winners?

Yeah.

I d- I don't think we can say he's one of the, the greats, can we? 'Cause he kind of, he can be a bit hit-and-miss during the year, but look, he's delivered absolutely on the day again, hasn't he? And really, um, it was one of those races as well where I think you're trying to give chances to lots of different horses, and then you're kind of kicking yourself for not just tipping up the favorite 'cause it's just really obvious thing to do.

And look, he was well backed as well, I suppose, on the show, wasn't he? Like, you say he's got him returned at 6 to 5, or there's plenty of, you know, 15 to 8, 7 to 4 available in the days beforehand.

So, like, really well-supported, dominant winner, really.

He put the bed to, like, he put the race to bed in a, in a matter of, of strides, really.

I just think what went well in the race, great ride by Oisin Murphy on Bay City Roller, um, you know, to, to stay away from the, uh, to just stay away and use the draw he had and just, you know, stay out of trouble and keep a clean line.

Mm.

Mm.

So that's something.

Um, Thunder Call for William Haggis and Jerry Chow has been really, really popular.

You do get some of these Hagga- Haggis horses who just seem so far ahead of the handicapper and, and look really good at York back in June.

Um, not quite as good at Newmarket last time, in that the horse didn't win, but still ran perfectly well in defeat.

So I expect Thunder Call to be on the premises.

But again, you are taking a bit of a, a, a leap of faith from a jockey point of view, and that's not to say that this isn't a jockey who, who's ridden many, many winners, but just slightly different to the norm.

Mm

Is Ilete Tom that good because the market got this spot on or was it that he picked up the pieces today and ultimately, ultimately Tom, where are we with Majber?

Well, a couple of things on this.

Firstly, my assessment was the same as yours, in that my assessment yesterday was that maybe just the way things happened in the champion chase, he was flattered by the way things panned out.

He picked up the pieces.

But again, he picked up the pieces yesterday when he dropped in on the home turn and absolutely cruised, essentially, past Marine National, who, like you said, appeared as if he had the running of the race.

I'm wondering, did he go a little too soon? But look, it was obviously the situation.

That was the plan, to go out and make plenty of use of him.

But yeah, I mean, Paul Townend, he was seen at his best, I suppose.

it is kind of now in the preserve of big stables, big yards, and it's turned into like a classic handicap as opposed to, you know, horses that might be really suited to the demands of the race that don't get a look in anymore.

Yeah, I feel like more races need to go the way of the Grand National rather than the Grand National going backwards.

You know, we have a massive issue with under, you know, small fields in graded races.

And if you made more of these graded races handicaps, then you are far more likely to end up with more horses running in them, you know.

So, yeah, I can see that.

Look, there are very few romantic stories.

But, you know, if you put a million pounds on the table, Like the big guys are going to want to gobble it up.

you know,

And she does run nine runners.

Yeah, and look, the mare's obviously, she's obviously taken a little bit of turn for the better.

There's no doubt.

She's obviously better in herself.

You kind of see the videos around the race course.

She's lively and bright.

And look, that can just be, Willie Mullins mentioned that a couple of weeks ago, you know, a little bit of sun there back.

What do you like?

Thoughts?

Yeah, I mean, you feel bad for people who have to market racing because they're so often, they're just, you know, just a hostage to the weather fortune, aren't they? But like the weather was amazing.

The racing, and I don't like to get into that everything is awesome sort of territory, but...

We were just saying it off air.

Two of us bounced into the studio here and said, wasn't that a great Christmas race? And it really was.

It had everything, you know, I know we kind of mentioned during the week as well, oh, is Willy Mons out of form? Like, he still had like 12 winners or whatever.

Gordon Elliott dominated.

know what I mean lugging a welder right around what did you make that race and what did you make a brighter days ahead um

Six winners across three different tracks in Ireland yesterday, Leopardstown, Limerick and Down Royal.

Yeah, and as Tony said, should have been seven as well with El Cairo.

It's an absolutely bizarre situation we have in that kind of supreme picture as well there, because my daddy Paddy was beaten at... was beaten at Aintree quite handily, really.

And then, you know, El Kairos falls and he still ends up pretty much favourite for the Supremes.

So that's just one of the kind of ridiculous situations we're in now with Andy Post racing.

Yeah, Gordon, I kind of agree with Johnnie as well on the jumping point.

But one thing I say is that's probably just he got put under a little bit more pressure.

tom are you of a different disposition to johnny about these handicap chases