GETTING TO KNOW 'DENMAN' DAY NEWBURY 13.02.2010

NEWBURY SATURDAY 13.02.2010 “GETTING TO KNOW ‘DENMAN’ DAY” PREP RACE THE AON CHASE
FOR TONY McCOY TO PARTNER DENMAN AHEAD OF CHELTENHAM GOLD CUP ENTRY IN MARCH.


Monty Robert’s words “Let the horses do the talking ....” How can we apply these words to the actual performance that ‘Denman and Tony McCoy’ achieved together in this Aon Chase?

NOTE. It was found not so long ago that DENMAN suffered a fibrillating heart. He came back from veterinary treatment for this complaint to win the Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury on November 28th 2009. But did his heart kick in, in the closing stages of last Saturday’s Aon Chase? When McCoy was needing to ask him too give more?

Newbury’s 3m Aon Chase inclusive of 18 testing fences, with going stated to be good to soft in places, 6 runners to post.

Denman travelling and jumping well for McCoy throughout this race from the first fence and on throughout up and until attempting to tackle the fifteenth fence, four from home. There DENMEN found himself in trouble, directly McCoy asked him for more he had nothing left to give, he made a valiant attempt to get over fence fifteen unseating McCoy who only just managed to stay on board. A bad mistake at a critical stage in this race, will have shocked Denman giving his confidence a hefty knock.

Staring disaster in the face McCoy forced Denman forward riding with no time to spare, the broken warriors headed together for their final disaster at the sixteenth fence, three from home, Denman scarcely took off at all, more like threw himself at this key sixteenth fence crashing through it, this time loosing McCoy.

Trainer Paul Nicholls states that Denman is not the easiest of horses to train, that he is “Leary.” This means that Denman can at times be unpredictable, he is careful, he uses his brain and senses to protect himself from what he deems to be dangerous or spooky, his preference being to act to save himself from harm.


ENDS