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I notice Polarisation makes his hurdling debut in a few minutes. This season on the flat he was asked to race 14 times at trips ranging from 7f to 1m 4f. I think this is a long hard season in anyone’s book, starting in March and finishing in September.
Following such a tough campaign you would have thought this young horse would be given time to recover, but John Ferguson sends him over hurdles today, presumably with one eye on a tilt at the Triumph Hurdle. Is this fair on the horse?
Mark Johnston is an extremely good talker, and has some very laudible views on the sport and how it is run. But he does seem to have a policy of running some horses into the ground, which is hardly fair on the horses in question, or for the image of the sport. Maybe he is doing what he is told by owners that want their horses campaigned this way. However Polarisation is owned by the Maktoums, whereas his other recent winner Fire Fighting is owned by Alan Spence, so one assumes it is a Mark Johnston policy of over-running these young horses.
I watched Fire Fighting’s win at Kempton the other day, and thought commentator Mark Johnson had made a mistake when mentioning in the closing stages it was the animal’s 25th race of 2015. But no, Mark Johnson was spot on. Fire Fighting had been on the go since 22nd January, and had no more than a couple of weeks between races, was shipped initially to Meydan, and was competing over 9f-14f. Surely this cannot be fair on any horse? I know people will defend saying if the horse didn’t want to do it he wouldn’t and certainly wouldn’t be winning a race at the end of the year. However like humans, some animals are less able to say no than others, and maybe poor Fire Fighting is one of those.
Not all horses are the same. Some horses want big gaps between races, some thrive on racing, Mark Johnston is very good at identifying a horse’s needs and was proven right with both horses you mention Ivanjica.
Polarisation disappointed on 4th March and wasn’t seen again for three months. On June 6th came second, then came a long run of performances showing progressive form, short head 2nd in Bibury Cup to Simple Verse and won the Melrose on his 11th start, won again on 12th start, equally as good 3rd next time, then disappointed on Sept 11th… For which he’s been given a break/not run since… That’s good training imo.
Fire Fighting won on his 25th start, putting up up a performance you’d expect from his form.
Seems good training to run them when fit and thriving.
Value Is EverythingI’m in favour of racehorses being raced too. Full marks to Fire Fighting for such a great performance.
To paraphrase Phil Hellmuth and Freddie Flintoff, though: where will he be in two years?
If Drill Sergeant, Bowdler’s Magic, Record Breaker, Tartan Gigha, Tartan Gunna and other old Johnston stable stalwarts are good indicators, he’ll probably be sulking round at the back of low-grade handicaps or handicap hurdles.
Johnston has a knack for keeping them going for one (or maybe 1.5) extremely long season(s), but the mileage catches up with them sooner rather than later.
Fire Fighting is an idle beast compared to Madame Jones.
In 2001 the 6-y-o, trained by David Evans, raced 61 times winning 12 races primarily over 7f & 8f. She was still winning in December of that year, being successful on her 54th & 55th starts. She raced 8 times in that month alone.
On an historical note, 61 is a record number of races for a horse in a British season and her tally of 11 handicap wins in one season has only ever been achieved by two other horses back in 1858 and 1869.
More to the point, does anyone know which horse was the most prolific NH performer in terms of races run in a) one season and b) over an entire career.
I don’t know the jump records you’re after, but Hiblaze http://www.pedigreequery.com/hiblaze holds the thoroughbred records for the number of career starts with 406 starts (79 wins).
The world record for number of starts in a single season (any breed) may be held by the Australian pacer Max’s Express, who ran in 86 races in the 1966-67 season.
Don’t know for certain about the Nh records, but from my own time watching racing, I’d suggest Sonny Somers as the most raced Nh horse. Different figures can be found depending on the source, but it seems that 126 races in a 14 years career is the likeliest number.
As for most runs in a season, I suspect Martin Pipe might hold that with a novice or juvenile hurdler, but one horse I do remember is a moderate chaser called Yangste Kiang, trained by Milton Bradley, who relished fast ground over fences. He ran in 17 chases in the 1987/88 season, most of them in the first three months from August to October.
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