MONDAY MUSINGS - WEEK 2

By Matt Nicholls

30/07/2012

melbourneracing@gmail.com

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I’VE LONG been a supporter of jumps racing and I still am, but the sport is in real strife at the moment.

Yesterday just four horses went around in a $100,000 hurdle at Sandown, which was watched by no more than 1000 people at the track.

Worse still, the race was named after one of the doyens of Australian jumps racing in Jim Houlahan.

Luckily for organisers, the issue was covered up by the fact Zaman won the race, which is co-trained by Jim’s daughter Fran Houlahan and Brian Johnston.

One of the problems for jumps racing is the attrition rate of horses.

The two jumps racing carnivals – at Oakbank and Warrnambool – are early in the jumps season and many of the top quality hurders and steeplers are not still racing by the time it gets to the end of July.

Oakbank has always been at Easter and Warrnambool is always in May, so that won’t change, but jumps racing is going to have a major problem if we continue to see low numbers in feature races.

While we don’t want a Melbourne Cup-size field, we do need a minimum of eight runners in those top-class events to justify the prizemoney.

I think Melbourne Racing Club chairman Mike Symons, who is a part-owner of champion hurdler Black and Bent, is keen on getting jumps racing back to Caulfield and on a Saturday.

This can only be good for the sport’s profile.

Personally, I’d love to see jumps racing back at Moonee Valley.

The Hiskens Steeplechase was one of the great races and punters love it because you feel like you are a lot closer to the action at the Valley.

One thing’s for sure, if things stay the same, all the hard work that has been done to keep jumps racing alive will be for nothing.

You can’t keep a product if the paying public and punters won’t support it.

READY To Rip scored a nice win in the Group 3 Bletchingly Stakes on Saturday for followers of this website (Phil Purser also tipped him on Brisbane Racing) and I read yesterday that Moody was thinking about setting him for next year’s Stradbroke Handicap in Brisbane.

At this stage he’s probably not a Group 1 horse, but then again, you haven’t needed to be a Group 1 horse in recent years to win the Stradbroke.

If you go back through the race since 2000, there have been some quality horses compete, but not necessarily win, the 1400m race at Eagle Farm.

Ready To Rip’s stablemate Mid Summer Music won it this year, and before that Sincero (2011), Black Piranha (2010-11), Mr Baritone (2008), Sniper’s Bullet (2007), La Montagna (2006), St Basil (2005), Thorn Park (2004), Private Steer (2003), Show A Heart (2002), Crawl (2001) and Landsighting (2000) took honours in the Stradbroke.

Some OK horses in there – all of them profitable – but no real champs.

The fact Black Piranha could win the race two years in a row is testament to the fact it hasn’t been a strong race in recent years.

We’re yet to see the best of Ready To Rip, so it will be interesting to see how he goes this spring and next year under the care of Moody.

SOME other things of note from the weekend ...

1. Yesterday’s win by the Peter Moody-trained Mulaazem. The half-brother of Sepoy won by a massive 10 lengths in the opening race at Sandown. On a heavy 10 track, the colt, who turns three this week, won in a respectable time of 1.22.64. That’s not bad considering it was a bog track. Will be interesting to see where he goes next, considering his pedigree.
“His work has been good without being brilliant, but he's obviously taken a bit of improvement off that run at Echuca, when he just got a bit lost, and the winkers have obviously helped him focus,” Moody said after the race. “It's very important for a well-bred colt like him to get a metropolitan win on board. It looks like there's plenty more wins in store the way he got the job done today. I think there's certainly going to be a nice race or two in him.”

2. With Luke Nolen and Craig Newitt both winless at Sandown, Nolen held on to win the metro jockeys’ title by five victories, winning 74-69. Moody won the metro trainers’ title, while injured apprentice Katelyn Mallyon won the metro apprentices’ title with 23 wins, despite not riding since May 19.

3. Up in Queensland, two “boom” horses had mixed results. Bradbury Chocolate, the unbeaten filly I talked about earlier this month CLICK was beaten in the QTIS 3YO Handicap at Doomben on Saturday. Some say the Donald Baker-trained filly was unlucky, but I reckon she just wasn’t up to it on the day. Punters did their dough, with Bradbury Chocolate starting at $1.75. You can read Lindsay Gallagher’s betting ring report at justracing.com.au which he provides each Monday.
The other “boom” horse was Jabiru Dreaming, who won his ninth straight race with a victory in the Cleveland Bay Handicap in Townsville, regarded as North Queensland’s premier sprinting race. Trained by Patrick Inwood at Mount Isa, Jabiru Dreaming got a lot of media attention in unusual sources during the week and it was surprising to see him win the 1200m race at the generous odds $7. The question must be asked, though, what has Patrick Inwood been able to do that Rick Hore-Lacy couldn't?. If I was the previous owner I'd be asking Hore-Lacy some hard questions.