When the 8 year old mare Rouge Allure (Kahal USA- Mekyaas GB by Pivotal) recently won her first Stakes race in her 95th start, it raised some interesting discussion points about racing and breeding and the interplay between them.
Robin Bruss writes that firstly, as an owner, who wouldn’t dream of owning such a warrior – colt or filly or gelding for that matter – who races frequently, dishes out earnings like an ATM, wins 13 races, runs 35 places, generates R1,217,750 in stakes and enjoys a career that spans six seasons.
Rouge Allure cracks her first stakes win at run number 95 (Pic – JC Photos)
Rouge Allure did not race as a 2 year old, but since her first start in August 2016, she has run 95 times in 67 continuous months, essentially earning an average of R18,175 per month!
What I find so admirable is her soundness, her durability, her constitution, her toughness.
Moreover, to stay racing for so long, she must have supreme good health and powerful immune system with a grand heart and lungs. And she could carry big weights and was versatile from 1200m to 1800m.
Alastair Cohen called her a Champion in his commentary on her 12th win, “in her own right”, he said “because how many horses achieve these attributes!”
She is also a testament to her trainer Stephen Moffat, whose policy of racing her often has paid dividends for owners Albert Rapp and Mick Goss (who also bred her at Summerhill Stud).
Stephen Moffatt
How many trainers extract such a record out of any horse, let alone a filly. Most are ready to give up when the filly reaches the end of her 4 year old career and pack them off to stud.
The NHA stats recorded that 5645 horses raced last season running 34 923 times for an average of just 6 starts per year per horse.
If training fees average R10 000 per month, that is a cost of R120 000 per annum, and a horse runs 6 times, it essentially costs the owner R20 000 per start.
It seems a somewhat awkward and perturbing statistic, especially when the remedy is to follow the adage of old time trainers who say: “I only let my horse run full out when he runs for money!”. That is, less gallops at home and racing on the track more often.
Such a practice might also reverse the small fields we currently are seeing and the trend of abandoning races for lack of entries.
There are 2342 juveniles registered in the current crop but in the first two Graded Stakes for 2 year olds, the Gr3 Protea Stakes for colts has 6 runners (3 from one stable) and the Gr3 Pretty Polly Stakes has 7 runners. Why is that ?
This art of training for frequent racing as best epitomised by 11 times Champion USA trainer Hirsch Jacobs (1940’s and 1950’s), who most famously raced the stallion Stymie 130 times in six seasons, winning 35 times and running 68 places to earn a world record $918,000 in those days – sometimes racing 3 times in a week.
Hirsch Jacobs with Stymie, who retired in 1950 as the richest racehorse i(Pic – Meadors Photo)
Somewhat like Rouge Allure, he won his first stakes race late – it was only in his 60th start ! But then he added another 21 Stakes Wins afterwards ! Hope for The Rouge yet !
It’s also a common practice amongst Australian trainers to race a horse frequently when peaking.
For example, the Melbourne Cup is run each year on the first Tuesday of November over 3200m. The majority of the local runners will have their final prep race three days before on the Saturday.
As the horse peaks in form, its is raced often and as it wanes, it is sent for a short spell, then returns for the next campaign. It is something of a wave motion of training.
Golden Loom aka ‘Goofy’ with the late Buddy Maroun
The late Buddy Maroun in the 1990’s exploited this admirably often running horses twice a week.
Watch a replay here:
His champion Golden Loom, after whom a Stakes Race is named, was a huge crowd favourite, raced 77 times from age 3 until age 11, winning 22 races including the 1998 Gr1 Computaform Sprint.
So why don’t the bulk of our horses race often? Is it that our trainers train on a different basis to the old school and prefer not to? Are the horses not as tough or sound as they used to be? Or is it that the racing programme doesn’t suit this plan?
Perhaps the merit racing system is at fault ?
Actually, the Merit Rating System and racing programme loves this style. Rouge Allure turns out not to be the only warrior mare – there are others that race often in similar style and earn big and perhaps you may not have heard of them.
Webber’s evergreen Rabia The Rebel – soldier! (Pic – JC Photos)
Brett Webber trains a 7 year old mare in Johannesburg called Rabia the Rebel (by Rebel King), who just had her 89th start. She won for the 9th time in December and took her earnings to R728,000.
And yet, her current merit rating is 65, and she defeated the favourite, a 3 year old who had won first time out and was set to concede Rabia 3 kg. Welcome to the merit rating system.
Corne Spies has the 6 year old mare All of Me (by Var), another admirable campaigner, who has won 12 races from 64 starts and earned R836,000.
Corne Spies’ All Of Me (Pic-JC Photos)
Her merit rating is 95, she has no black type wins, but did run 4th in the Poinsettia S. Gr.3 once. Millionairess status is looming.
I asked why she hadn’t gone to stud. Corne said because he had tried to sell her but no takers because she had raced so much !
As he owns All Of Me himself, the mare will carry on racing, and pretty soon, as her rating drops a few points, she will win again. Like Rouge Allure, she is admirably sound and tough – and he exploits it.
Hardknocker Ginger Biscuit (Keagan de Melo) is led in by Karen and Pat Lunn (Pic -Candiese Lenferna)
In Durban, Patrick Lunn recently retired Ginger Biscuit (by Admire Main), another Summerhill bred, who was turning 10 years old, and stopped at her 90th start, with 11 wins and R877,950 in earnings, without ever running in any stakes race.
Her highest rating was her last win at merit rating 72.
The most raced mare of recent times was Oasis Queen(by Golden Sword), yet another Summerhill bred, who retired at her 97th start in Port Elizabeth where Hekkie Strydom coached her to 7 wins and R508,000.
Her first win was on a merit rating of 55 and her 7th win on a rating of 58. She ran in the Gr1 Thekwini Fillies Stakes as a 2 year finishing last of 14.
But ultimately, she has earned almost as much in stakes as the winner did.
So here are some inescapable conclusions to all of this :
- South African horses are as tough and sound as ever.
- Most trainers don’t exploit this.
- The Merit rating system loves this type of horse.
- Owners also love a horse that is an equine ATM
- The Operators love horses that run often and fill fields
- Punters love such horses as they are fully exposed and more predictable
- Durability, toughness and good health can be more important than ability
- Sound horses can win more and earn more than most graded stakes winners
- Breeders don’t like to breed with such hard raced mares, even though they have the very traits of soundness, toughness, durability and good health that breeders are aiming to reproduce.
- In the next article, we will look at hard raced mares and draw some further conclusions about their impact on the Stud Book.
