WINNING A GROUP 1 DOESN'T MAKE YOU A GROUP 1 HORSE

By Matt Nicholls

24/07/2012

melbourneracing@gmail.com

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I ALWAYS have a little chuckle when people try and pump up the quality of a field by the fact it has a Group 1-winning horse in it.

Take this Saturday’s Group 3 Bletchingly Stakes (1200m) at Caulfield for example.

The list of 20 nominations contains a few Group 1 winners.

The Mick Priced-trained Heart Of Dreams is one of them.

This bloke loves to chew punters’ money, but he is a good horse.

He does have two Group 1 wins to his name.

But the other Group 1 winners are not what I would call “Group 1 horses”.

If trainer Tony Vasil accepts, Green Birdie will start as the topweight on Saturday.

He’s eight years old, about to turn nine, and he’s had 24 starts at Group or Listed level and produced just three wins.

Of those three wins, just one was at the Group 1 level.

To be fair, Green Birdie did win a top-class Group 1 in the Krisflyer Sprint, beating champion sprinter Rocket Man at Singapore in 2010, but that doesn’t make him a Group 1 horse in my eyes.

Green Birdie has raced at Group 1 level 14 times and won once.

Eight of those starts were after the Krisflyer victory, so it’s looking more and more likely that it was a fluke, where everything went right on the day.

The other Group 1 winner nominated for Saturday’s Bletchingly Stakes is Eagle Falls.

Now isn’t he a little darling?

The David Hayes-trained gelding is about to turn seven and he has raced in 11 Group 1 races for just one win.

The Group 1 race he did win was the Oakleigh Plate in February last year.

If you go back through the field of that race, not many of his rivals have gone on to great heights.

Now I’m not saying Green Birdie and Eagle Falls are bad horses, because clearly they’ve more than paid their way for connections ($3.5 million-plus between them), but winning two Group 1 races from a collective 25 starts is not an impressive statistic.

Having them in this Saturday’s Bletchingly Stakes does make the race somewhat stronger, but it doesn’t make it a super race.

For this time of the year, though, it is more than handy.

Below is a story produced by Racing Victoria on Heart Of Dreams.

Mick Price has his sights set on another Underwood Stakes with forgotten gelding Heart Of Dreams.

The dual Group 1 winner hasn't started since finishing sixth behind Lion Tamer in last year's Underwood and Price said the 1800m Group 1 that he won in 2009 was again his initial spring goal.

“Another Underwood wouldn't go astray,” Price said.

“I'm not sure if he fronts up in another Cox Plate or not – maybe yes, maybe no – but we'll just see if we can get to the Underwood in good order first.”

Heart Of Dreams also contested the 2010 Underwood, finishing seventh behind So You Think.

The winner of six of his 28 starts and $1.6m in stakes will begin a fifth Spring Racing Carnival campaign in this Saturday's $125,000 Group 3 Bletchingly Stakes (1200m) at Caulfield.

He is one of 20 nominations for Victoria's final Black Type race of the 2011-12 season.

The son of Show A Heart experienced inflammation in a knee after last year's Underwood, which followed a second placing to King's Rose in the Group 2 Memsie Stakes (1400m), and his lengthy absence has been by design.

“He's still very vibrant horse with plenty of energy about him,” Price said.

“He didn't have an operation or anything, his owner was quite happy to be patient and give him a nice long spell, which we did and was good, and he's had pretty much a perfect prep and his knees are good.

“He's done some dressage work and he's done some beach work and he had a good time since he's been back at Caulfield.

“He's very sound, I've done some galloping with him and he has not done anything wrong and he's pulled up good. There's no heat in his knees or anything, so it's all very good.”

Heart Of Dreams is one of two Bletchingly nominations for Price, who has flying mare Tariana entered.

A quality field looks set to line up with Green Birdie and Eagle Falls other elite-level winners nominated, along with Sir John Monash Stakes winner Platelet and All Victorian Sprint Series Final winner Ready To Rip.