Jockey Angle with Paddy Flood: Butch Cassidy; he absolutely gobbles the hill up. On this week's episode of ‘The Jockey Angle’, brought to you by William Hill, Paddy Flood talks about one of his favorite horses in training at the moment. A stunning son of Walk in the Park owned by Mrs John Magnier. Race replays are FREE to watch from all Irish tracks and a selection of premier British tracks sponsored by William Hill. Paddy Flood’s Analysis One of my favourite horses in training at the minute. I've got to sit on him loads in Henry de Bromhead's yard, he is a horse called Butch Cassidy. A great name, Butch Cassidy! This horse is beautiful. I don't know if many of you have seen him in the flesh. He's 17 hands, he's got a savage pedigree, and when I started riding him at Henry's, I was disappointed with him. He was such a big animal. Big middle, big frame. Everything about him suggested that he should be an absolute superstar. The first couple of mornings that I rode him, I was disappointed. If you looked at him in the box, you'd say, "Oh wow, look at this horse." But up on his back, I just found his action a little bit short. He was hanging and he was a bit moody. For a big, strong gelding, I would have expected him to be a bit more straightforward. We got galloping with him anyway, and he ran in Fairyhouse and pulled up. There was just something not right with him. I was riding him away, and plenty of the other lads were riding him away, and we were all in agreement that something just wasn't clicking with this horse. We were riding him out one day and he was just hanging like a gate with me. Eventually, we pulled the cross noseband off him and I think we stuck a pair of hind boots on him. He was just clipping his back legs a little bit from hanging. The day we took the noseband off, he just started to straighten out. That gave everyone a bit of faith, and his work got better. Then he won, and he improved again. He won again, and he improved again. Heading into the country and up a hill to this boy is absolutely nothing. Just look at the ride Darragh gave the horse. He's sitting on the outside here in the famous Magnier colours. One thing I would try to get you to pick up on here in the video footage is the horse's lead. When I say lead, I mean the leg that he's leading with. You see here, he's leading with the outside leg. And for me, Butch Cassidy, you see it there? He just switched. He goes from the outside leg. If you watch it carefully, you'll see him changing onto the inside lead. Watch him jump off his inside lead. He's so nimble and so quick. He is tricky. I think he loves going left-handed with a small cut in the ground. Not heavy ground, but a bit of cut is the goal. It's so interesting when you're riding out at home that if he's on his right lead, he hangs in. But if you get him back onto his left lead, everything becomes really, really easy. So I think, is this horse just improving? He's only six. He's 17 hands, 17.1 hands. I reckon there's an engine in here with this guy. I think he's just starting to tap into it, but I just love him. When he does get down to gallop, you see him there again, he makes the fences look small. He must be an absolute joy to ride in a race. The man on his back, he's just an outstanding jockey, really. He can do absolutely nothing wrong in my book. Because if you've had a bet on a horse, if you own a horse, and you put Darragh O'Keeffe on its back, it is getting every single chance to win that race. He's trained on a hill at home in Henry's. He absolutely gobbles the hill up. He's a horse to follow. I've been following him all along. I really, really enjoyed just trying to figure him out when I was riding out in Henry's, and he really is a horse to follow. Who's to say he might turn into a Gold Cup horse in two years' time? As I said, he's only six and he's 17 hands plus. Hopefully, he can go on and do better things.
