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Warren Greatrex, the trainer of FLY DU CHARMIL (FR), unplaced, reported that the race came too soon.
Really? 22 days after last run.
I think a trainer is entitled to use that as a reason for not being happy with a run, it is not necessarily factually correct but can it be disproven unless you are willing to engage in a detailed analysis of its weight, training regime, energy output in previous race, going and energy output in todays race etc etc…?
As an aside, and a bit of a cheap shot maybe, but it could be argued looking at the daily fixture list in Britain that a lot of races come too soon for the competitors, i.e why are they being run at all? Particularly on Saturdays the volume of racing is questionable
Running in a race is as good as a schooling session. Many horses are just run in races when they aren’t ready to lower handicap marks, or to try pick up a bit of place money instead of just schooling. Then other times things go right for a horse one day but don’t the next.
Warren Greatrex, the trainer of FLY DU CHARMIL (FR), unplaced, reported that the race came too soon.
Really? 22 days after last run.
Horses recover at different rates Droffats. Some are particularly tough and can take two races within a week, sometimes days. Most NH horses are ready to run after around 3 weeks. Some need considerably more, a few might need a couple of months or more; although whether this is due to temperament rather than fitness is questionable. Have you ever heard the saying “best fresh”? Some horses I would not consider backing unless they had at least 3 months between races and (because they’re often raced too often) are best on their first run of the season.
Then there’s the type of race they ran in. If you look at Fly Du Charmil’s last run before yesterday. He won an NHF race at Newbury on 26th November, but it wasn’t a typical NHF race. On soft ground (I was there that day and it was very testing). Racing post in running comments say “Pressed leader, clear of others at good pace, led 4f out, held on gamely final furlong”. He was 15 lengths clear of the field at one stage, looked like being swallowed up at the last before guts got him home. Strongly run races on very soft ground where a horse has finished very tired can take a lot longer to recover from.
Unfortunately, horses do not go race pace in home gallops, so it’s impossible for trainers to tell whether a horse has recovered completely until it runs in another race (best they can do is an educated guess). Best us punters can do is see if there’s any pattern in its form to suggest it usually needs longer between races and/or taking in to account form comments of having a hard race such as the above.
Value Is EverythingIf Smad Place runs in the KG and runs flat. Then most probable excuse will be “too soon after The Hennessey”. This will be a full 28 days after his last race. I think most people would agree a valid excuse. So I think this is a valid excuse. If WG was suddenly starting to run the horse every 2-3 weeks some time in the future then yes possibly something fishy going on.
If WG was suddenly starting to run the horse every 2-3 weeks some time in the future then yes possibly something fishy going on.
When Fly Du Charmil had a very hard race (finished tired after a strongly run race on very soft ground) at Newbury and came out 21 days later – running poorly…
If Fly Du Charmil has an easier race in the future (may be a slowly run race on good-soft) why should there be “something fishy” if the horse comes out again in “2-3 weeks” Homer?
If you took part in a human race and went flat out from the start on a testing surface – you’d take longer to recover than if jogging the first three quarters of the race on a less testing surface.
Value Is EverythingGreatrex didn’t have to say anything, he could have said “I don’t know” and that would have been that. But he’s tried to be helpful to all concerned by making an educated judgement based on what he knows. Don’t know whether it’s been mentioned here but the horse sweated up very badly prior to the race and seemed very much on edge. Don’t know whether that is normal for the horse.
When a horse has two races within two to three weeks and doesn’t perform as well the second time, the race came too soon is probably a standard line trainers give if there is no immediate reason for the poor run – it could also be that being flesh and blood, the horse may have just had an off day with the old addage ‘horses are not machines’ applying.
Trainers on the whole should know their charges well enough to gage how long between races they need but then it is not an exact science as no one horse will react the same and that is what sets the great trainers apart from the average ones.
The thing that annoys me more is when the trainer makes that comment before a race and then regardless of it still goes ahead and runs the horse and then is somewhat surprised when the horse runs below par – all part and parcel of the sport i’m afraid.
Warren Greatrex, the trainer of FLY DU CHARMIL (FR), unplaced, reported that the race came too soon.
Really? 22 days after last run.
Not sure why he used that excuse.
Anyone on track yesterday? You could see the horse was sweating down the neck from the side on television pictures but once you saw the head on it was apparent he was covered in sweat. It was obviously relatively mild but I don’t believe anything else was sweating to any extent. He wasn’t like that at Newbury. I can’t recall any horse winning covered in that much sweat, let alone a relatively competitive race. The least I would have expected is the horse to have been checked over. If a horse runs loose before a race there is more often than not an expectation that the horse will not run as he will be deemed as unable to give his true running. To a punter who has placed a bet is there any real difference between that scenario and the state that Fly Du Charmil was in prior to yesterday’s race. In fact you could argue that a horse who had run loose had more chance of winning as they do occasionally overcome their exertions.
Given the way the horse ran first time and the usual Sheehan/Greatrex tactics it was a surprise to see the horse posted out wide and not making the running. Personally, I think Sheehan knew there was a problem and rode accordingly.
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