2025 Novice Chasers

[Carnage at Taunton]

I get what you are saying but he doesn't have to jump better than the others because he has a better engine than the others.

Possible of course.
Its also possible that he could lose ground at fences if others jump faster, as eg L’eau du Sud imo did the other day.
Is he a natural 2m chaser?
Not sure myself, personally be more confident that ITP and LDS are.
But yes, he does have an engine on him for sure.

[Odin]

Thought Ballyburn jumped fine, not spectacular but certainly nothing to worry about. I said before the race though that I thought it would be a shame he wasn't tested but actually he went at a pace that was closer to standard than any other race except the first so he wasn't just dawdling like I thought he could.

Definitely looks like the 2m route is the one they have in mind, the Limerick race is made for him to step up into if they were thinking further. What would be more interesting would be if they ducked the Naas race - the quote clearly says "There's no race at Xmas for him" and it's worth noting that the only other options in the UK are the Towton (2m3f Wetherby), Hampton (3m, Warwick), Lightning (2m, now Windsor, previously Doncaster?) in January. Surely he wouldn't go for the Scilly Isles or Kingmaker in Feb over the DRF?

[Carnage at Taunton]

Thought Ballyburn jumped fine, not spectacular but certainly nothing to worry about. I said before the race though that I thought it would be a shame he wasn't tested but actually he went at a pace that was closer to standard than any other race except the first so he wasn't just dawdling like I thought he could.

Definitely looks like the 2m route is the one they have in mind, the Limerick race is made for him to step up into if they were thinking further. What would be more interesting would be if they ducked the Naas race - the quote clearly says "There's no race at Xmas for him" and it's worth noting that the only other options in the UK are the Towton (2m3f Wetherby), Hampton (3m, Warwick), Lightning (2m, now Windsor, previously Doncaster?) in January. Surely he wouldn't go for the Scilly Isles or Kingmaker in Feb over the DRF?

There’s the Wayward Lad at Kempton over Xmas.
Thats a race for him I would have thought.

[darlojim]

I agree Jim… but in this instance no one claimed to be privy to information - it was all just ‘I’ve heard from my mate that he jumps like a snooker table’ chat on Twitter

Don't believe thats the case mate

Theres a couple on here who knew the craic.

[Odin]

There’s the Wayward Lad at Kempton over Xmas.
Thats a race for him I would have thought.

"BALLYBURN did things very well. He took a good blow during the race which means there is plenty of improvement to come. He jumped from fence to fence and we are very happy with that. He has a lovely, low head carriage and usually horses like that are very good jumpers. There's no race for him at Christmas and we won't go Limerick or Leopardstown. We might look at Naas [new Racing Post-sponsored Grade 2 novice chase on January 5] or we could go to England; we'll have a look. We haven't been looking past today - Willie Mullins, trainer."

Bolded part of the quote is my key takeaway. Both Naas and England suggested after indicate to me he's not thinking of doing anything before January hence the options I provided and the statement that he would be ducking the best of the Irish if he didn't go Naas.

[Carnage at Taunton]

"BALLYBURN did things very well. He took a good blow during the race which means there is plenty of improvement to come. He jumped from fence to fence and we are very happy with that. He has a lovely, low head carriage and usually horses like that are very good jumpers. There's no race for him at Christmas and we won't go Limerick or Leopardstown. We might look at Naas [new Racing Post-sponsored Grade 2 novice chase on January 5] or we could go to England; we'll have a look. We haven't been looking past today - Willie Mullins, trainer."

Bolded part of the quote is my key takeaway. Both Naas and England suggested after indicate to me he's not thinking of doing anything before January hence the options I provided and the statement that he would be ducking the best of the Irish if he didn't go Naas.

Understand
Just saying that there’s a 2m nov Chase available for him.

[darlojim]

I do hope Willie sends him to Naas. I think ITP, who will almost certainly run there, is the most natural and accomplished jumper we’ve seen of the big guns. That should be as much of a test of Ballyburn’s jumping as we will see. It should be a good match up.

Yeah would agree with this, ITP looked a complete natural, and could easily end up being Ballyburns #1 danger in IRE. The Naas race coupled with ITP's jumping would certainly test Ballyburn, then we could get a real look at him jumping at a proper pace.

[DenmanSacre]

There were too many people on here saying his schooling didn't go to plan for it not to be true. Horses though can school badly and jump well on their chase debut. What we need to see from Ballyburn is a good jumping performance next time. We only need to look back at last year with Marine Nationale. He jumped really well first time, didn't jump as well the 2nd time and last time he looked like he lacked scope at his fences.

I think Ballyburn was quite an economical jumper and hopefully he shows that again next time.

[Lobos]

All I'll say on this is, we have people who come on to this forum and give us some guidance, as they are privvy to more information than the general public - whether that be injury news/race targets/jockey bookings/horses well beings and general news.

They don't have to share this information with us, but it helps us all when they do.

It doesn't always work out as simple as things are said, but it has paid off countless times to the benefit of all our pockets.

Lets be respectful when things are said on here

Get all that and there are a few on here that I totally trust but clearly there were no issues with his jumping so the info was woefully wrong. This season especially ,the rumours/info/twitter stuff have mostly been way off the mark and people have been thrown by the comments and also left out of pocket. Folk need to seriously think about posting stuff if they have any doubts at all about it being correct or at least make it clear that it might well be bullshit and come from a shaky source. It works both ways.

[darlojim]

Get all that and there are a few on here that I totally trust but clearly there were no issues with his jumping so the info was woefully wrong. This season especially ,the rumours/info/twitter stuff have mostly been way off the mark and people have been thrown by the comments and also left out of pocket. Folk need to seriously think about posting stuff if they have any doubts at all about it being correct or at least make it clear that it might well be bullshit and come from a shaky source. It works both ways.

I'm sure people wouldnt post stuff if there was any misinformation being passed across.

Its upto you as an individual how you take said information and whether to act on it or not.

[Lobos]

I'm sure people wouldnt post stuff if there was any misinformation being passed across.

Its upto you as an individual how you take said information and whether to act on it or not.

I'm not entirely convinced by the first point but completely agree with the second. Some on here though do take everything as being spot on and act accordingly which is the worrying factor.

[darlojim]

I'm not entirely convinced by the first point but completely agree with the second. Some on here though do take everything as being spot on and act accordingly which is the worrying factor.

Yeah on second read I agree with you regarding the first point, but we know who those type of individuals are.

anyway back to the racing..

[Lobos]

Yeah on second read I agree with you regarding the first point, but we know who those type of individuals are.

anyway back to the racing..

Yep, 24000 posts in I'm just of getting my head round who to listen to and not

Yeah, back to the proper stuff now............

Don't you just love that head carriage of Ballyburn. Just adds to his whole character. He looks a real proper genuine NH type. Flashback to the old days. Can't wait to see him again.

[darlojim]

Don't you just love that head carriage of Ballyburn. Just adds to his whole character. He looks a real proper genuine NH type. Flashback to the old days. Can't wait to see him again.

Makes me think about how good Klassical Dream could have been as a chaser

He was faultless on his chasing debut, shame he's obviously been plagued by niggles, they tried to get him chasing a good while ago but had to stick to hurdles due to issues.

[Quevega]

I'm sure people wouldnt post stuff if there was any misinformation being passed across.

Its upto you as an individual how you take said information and whether to act on it or not.

Bit naive to have this opinion.
And even if you feel everything is posted/passed on in good faith, which is more believable. And it would be nice to think this is the case.

It can still lack context, detail and have bias attached from somewhere along the whisper line - and therefore can sometimes be misleading.

So the second point is why any information passed on should always be questioned further IMO.
Most would happily provide as much details as they feel comfortable or able, and if not, explain why.