King Of Pain and Bernard Fayd’herbe led all the way to beat Beach Beauty and win the Gold Challenge
The now notorious ‘Cape Crawl’ appears to be a spreading virus. Not only is it affecting our run-of-the-mill races but some of our best. The Gr1 Rising Sun Gold Challenge was infected as King Of Pain lived up to his name and Anton Marcus aboard Hill Fifty Four dished up the same medicine in the Gr1 J&B Met. One hopes that the virus does not spread to next weekend’s Vodacom Durban July but the signs are ominous, writes Andrew Harrison.
The unfortunate consequences of a desperately slow pace were there for all to see in the Gold Challenge. Don’t blame Bernhard Fayd’Herbe on King Of Pain for doing what he is paid to do – winning races – but the ‘tactics’, or rather lack of them, behind him had disastrous consequences. Both King Of Pain and Hill Fifty Four were allowed to “steal” their races, but more importantly the lack of pace in the Gold Challenge led directly to Jet Explorer coming down and being severely injured and rider Richard Fourie carted off to hospital.
But where does the blame lie? The trainers or the jockeys!
I suggest the jockeys.
Grade 1 races are mostly the domain of the top riders and if the pace doesn’t suit their mounts, surely they must take a calculated decision and press-on, regardless of paddock instructions. A horse reefing a furlong into a race is one thing, but if the pace has not quickened up a furlong later and your mount still wants to “oil” surely you have to make a decision?
Do you continue to “strangle” or let your mount stride along at a pace that is relatively more comfortable. Currently it appears that “strangle” is the safest option as all sink in the same boat.
I suppose this is where “hands” come into play. Some riders have the ability to settle their mount regardless of temperament or pace, other riders, not matter their abilities in a finish, just can’t.
Andrew Fortune has great hands
Ask Andrew Fortune!
The use of “pacemakers” is often frowned upon as unsporting. The recent “herrie” over Pat Cosgrave setting the pace and then giving Vercingetorix a free run up his inside in a Dubai feature has two schools of thought. The Dubai stewards gave Cosgrave a six-month suspension for uncompetitive riding. That ruling was over-turned by their British counterparts, who in the past had tarred Aiden O’Brien with the same brush but refused to enforce Cosgrave’s ban in the UK.
In essence it all boils down to race tactics.
Any trainer or jockey worth their salt – and remember this is the profession they eat, live and die for – should be able to analyse a field in the context of their mounts ability or preferred running style and reasonably sum up how they expect a race to unfold. If things do not pan out as expected, it must surely be up to the jockey to make an informed decision.
Granted, even the best make mistakes, but they owe it to the owners of the horse, the trainers and to the betting public to get it right more often than not.
Saturday’s Vodacom July field is bereft of an obvious pacemaker and casting around amongst various trainers with runners, they are either just as concerned or not giving on.
However, given the adrenaline of the occasion, the July is seldom run at a crawl and a good early clip usually makes for good racing. However, in a race where no quarter is asked or given, a slow early pace will inevitably test a few nerves in the pack followed by a few hard-luck stories in the weighingroom.
www.goldcircle.co.za
