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Mark Johnston’s comments lack thorough research, if any research at all.
Strangely, neither his comments, nor his/Hughie Morrison’s comments from 2006/07 have been acknowledged at all over here.
Life goes on.
view from a HK Aussie (Alan Aitken) in scmp:
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The best sprinters on turf are Australian-bred. That isn’t random chance – it’s the way Australia’s breeding and racing is geared. The ultimate achievement for an Aussie breeder, owner or trainer is an autumn
two-year-old which can run one minute, eight seconds for 1,200m. Countless young horses have been butchered there with that goal for the past 50 years and no-one should be surprised that such pressure would forge some diamonds.
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If that is so why are their performances at 5f so much better than at 6f.
I would accept that at 5f they have proved the point (Overdose apart) but at 6f Aussie sprinters have not stood out as better than anyone else’s.
They aren’t though Blackheath – there are plenty of top sprints in Australia at 6 and 7f – think the Australia Stakes, Doomben 10,000 etc and the top Aussie sprinters are more than capable of taking those – the 6f race being after the 5f race is likely why they run better in that and also the undulations of the course.
Poor stuff, sour grapes. Why doesn he ring his mate Hughie and ask what he used to get a son of Sahkee winning Group 1 sprint races?
Wit – he’s using ALan Wells as he Scottish bretheren and fast, nothing to do with any substance allegations. You’ve read it wrong mate.
It’s true, although Celtic Swing was effective at 1m4f, he did finish second in the 2000 Guineas. Takeover Target’s two half brothers by a son of Mr Prospector (Celtic Swing’s grand sire) were both sprinters themselves. Takeover Target’s grand dam won a listed race at 5f before going on to be second over 7f at Group 1 level. Celtic Swing also produced the very fast British sprinter Celtic Mill who’s out of a sprinter.
Value Is EverythingDoubtless amongst those signing up to Mr Johnston’s allegations are the same people who bought the nefarious uneven watering theory of the mysterious Ascot bias. Lazy minds looking for easy answers in both cases.
carvillshill
Presumably those would be the same lazy minds that have based their opinion of the watering of Ascot on the Friday night on the comments of trainers and jockeys who actually walked the course beforehand and had runners in the race?
Just one example from a Greg Wood piece –
"The ones that came up the stands’ side looked like they’d been out jumping," David Nicholls, who had four runners in the Wokingham, drawn 31, 20, 19 and 3, said yesterday.
"The lass who washed down Van Bossed [who started from stall 3] said that he was covered in mud, but on the others, there was no mud at all. Something certainly happened somewhere to level it up compared to the rest of the week. You have to remember that it’s still really a new course, and so you’re bound to get teething problems, but if it’s all the same for everybody, people won’t get as upset as they are.
"What happened on Saturday took a lot of people by surprise. I spoke to Kevin Ryan after he’d walked the course and he said that no way did you want to be stands’ side. There was no sort of a race there, but we won’t get our money back."
So a lazy mind would be anyone who doesn’t agree with you and the official line despite all of the evidence to the contrary?
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Blackheath
As Robert99 pointed out in an earlier post on the subject, the stand side ground was poached by the end of the meeting, purely as a result of traffic throughout the week. That much is evident on the replays by the divots being kicked up, but that does not mean the ground was any softer, and it certainly didn’t hinder Art Connoisseur coming up the stand rail to win the Golden Jubilee.
Conspiracy theories apart, it’s difficult to see what possible advantage the Ascot executive could feasibly gain from anything other than a fair and even racecourse?I was absolutely delighted that Takeover Target was unable to run this year.
Strange sort of a person who finds delight in the fact that a horse is unwell.
To accuse the ‘colonials’ of cheating because they have been able to win a sprint race at Ascot is purely sour grapes–no one in Australia ever accused Dermott Weld of cheating when he won the Melbourne Cup with Vintage Crop and Media Puzzle–in fact the whole of Australia lauded him as on of the world’s great trainers. Of course Johnston’s record of travelling a horse to Australia for a Melbourne Cup is still ridiculed–Double Trigger beaten out of sight
Almost 50 years ago a gentleman by the name of George Ryder imported to Australia a stallion named Star Kingdom–prior to then the major racing in Australia was over a distance, however Ryder used his position in the Sydney Turf Club to create the Golden Slipper Stakes over 6f for 2 year olds–SK sired the first 5 or 6 winners and his sons went on to sire even more winners. From that time the whole landscape of Australian racing changed dramatically with precocious sprinters becoming the norm.. By selectively breeding for speed, and rearing in an environment much more favourable to greater bone growth and muscle development the modern Australian sprinter has evolved into what we see today,
Australia’s most popular race is still the Melbourne Cup over 2 mile, but it is only 1 of 4 races nation wide over that distance–at least 75% or races in Australia would be over distances of less than 1 mile. The greatest issue facing Australian horses going to UK, and NH horses going to Australia is the problem of travelling–some travel well, some don’t. Those horses who have raced in the Golden Jubilee from Australia have all been backing up from the King Stand–my understanding is that Choisir (who was extremely tough, and won up to a mile) is the only horse to ever win both.
……Wit – he’s using ALan Wells as he Scottish bretheren and fast, nothing to do with any substance allegations. You’ve read it wrong mate.
Let’s hope so. I’ll read it again:
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….I’m not one of the ‘smoking syringe’ theorists…. However, I still can’t help but wonder how it is possible to get [Scenic Blast] to look like a cross between Alan Wells and a Quarter Horse….
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best regards
wit
no one in Australia ever accused Dermott Weld of cheating when he won the Melbourne Cup with Vintage Crop and Media Puzzle
No one in the States accused Muhannak, Ravens Pass, Donatavium, Conduit or Goldikova of being on drugs at the last Breeders either. Could that possibly have been because they were running on surfaces over distances that European trainers specialise in? Could the reciprocal of that situation have occurred just as easily at Royal Ascot last week?
The "plot" thickens
.Doubtless amongst those signing up to Mr Johnston’s allegations are the same people who bought the nefarious uneven watering theory of the mysterious Ascot bias. Lazy minds looking for easy answers in both cases.
I wouldn’t "sign up" to either, but suspect that there is more to both episodes than meets the eye. The laziest minds are the ones that accept without question the "party line" given out by those who would be best served by them being true (not that that includes you Carv, of course)
no one in Australia ever accused Dermott Weld of cheating when he won the Melbourne Cup with Vintage Crop and Media Puzzle
No one in the States accused Muhannak, Ravens Pass, Donatavium, Conduit or Goldikova of being on drugs at the last Breeders either. Could that possibly have been because they were running on surfaces over distances that European trainers specialise in? Could the reciprocal of that situation have occurred just as easily at Royal Ascot last week?
The "plot" thickens
.The key difference is the condition of the horses. If Muhannak had turned up in the States looking like a Hungarian weightlifter, then maybe a few people would have raised an eyebrow.
The key difference is the condition of the horses. If Muhannak had turned up in the States looking like a Hungarian weightlifter, then maybe a few people would have raised an eyebrow
Scenic Blast is 18 plus hands high. Would look more at home in a Budweiser advert.
Do they have drugs that make horses taller as well?
….. looking like a Hungarian weightlifter…..
this Hungarian weightlifter – do we also wonder how (s)he looks that way without using a syringe (as MJ with Scenic Blast), or do we accept its all natural (as with Alan Wells) ?
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