Emmet Mullins surprised by Thousand Tears gamble

By Sporting Life

Horse Racing

Tue November 15, 2022 · 2y ago

Emmet Mullins says he was surprised by the ante-post gamble that took place on Thousand Tears ahead of the Unibet Greatwood Hurdle.

The seven-year-old was as short as 4/1 for the Cheltenham Sunday feature going into the weekend, only to drift back out to close to his original price on the day, starting at 18/1 and pulling up early in the contest.

The trainer told the Nick Luck Daily Podcast: “I suppose he just went back to his original price. If the gamble hadn’t materialised, and I’d like to see the liabilities from a bookmaker point of view, bringing him into 4/1, if that hadn’t materialised, then there would only have been me disappointed on the day.

"He wasn’t a standout at home by any stretch of the imagination, there was nobody backing him who’d been watching him work here I’d imagine.

"I thought he would run better than he did and would be an each-way bet if he was an each-way price but what transpired was very disappointing.

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“From a betting point of view he probably started at the price he should have been. What happened in the meantime is a bit of a mystery to me as anyone who knows the horse wouldn’t have been shouting about his chances."

Thousand Tears was always towards the rear of the field and was pulled up after two flights by Aidan Coleman. Subsequent tests have so far failed to reveal any physical problem.

“He’s a funny horse. I told Aidan to jump off in the box seat and get a bit of cover as he can be keen and was in a first-time hood but he said by the time he got to the what would have been the last hurdle, where they were dolled off, the horse just dropped the bridle. He struggled for two furlongs, stuttered over a hurdle, didn’t want to know and pulled himself up," the trainer added.

“It’s something that happens. Even before we got him, he refused to come out of the parade ring at Roscommon so has a bit of a history of this sort of thing and unfortunately it’s one of the ones we haven’t been able to master.

"He’s been scoped, the BHA vets looked him over afterwards but in all the veterinary work so far, he’s 100%, there’s nothing to fault him on and we have no reasons for the bad run. We just think it’s attitude."

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