- This topic has 13 replies, 10 voices, and was last updated 3 years, 11 months ago by
.
- Posts
Would it be they don’t pick up the bridle and need to be pushed along at at early stage?
It means they are NOT a “morning glory.”
I am "The Horse Racing Punter" on Facebook
https://mobile.twitter.com/Ian_Davies_
https://www.facebook.com/ThePointtoPointNHandFlatracingpunter/
It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"It means their performances on the track are of a higher quality than the work they do on the gallops
The Nice Guy for instance is apparently nothing special at all at home then on the track he’s won grade 1s at Cheltenham and punchestown pretty easily
The opposite would be waterville who obrein said is an excellent work horse but has been crap on the track
Quite useful to have in a yard.
Not pulling your arms out in a morning. Good lead horse.
Then lights up when he or she sees the racecourse.“It means their performances on the track are of a higher quality than the work they do on the gallops”.
—————————–
Agree with this ^ by FF.
ie Work the particular horse does at home is no better than many stable companions who’ve shown lesser form on the track.
Value Is EverythingKissing Clive is the nearest. As well as not helping out in the kitchen they lie in and feign sickie days while others are out breaking sweat on the gallops. They will run if they spot a 🥕 or is that donkeys ??? They are far too relaxed at home – the term applied to humans is ‘ home bird ‘ or lounge lizard a bit like 🍪 man and I was called a lizard when a sprog. When they are out they are out when they are in they are in ! Out on the racetrack they are more in their element for action. It must be the change of scenery and the others horses that moves them – sometimes to tears or bottoming their dregs heroically in a nail biting Waterloo Boy type finish.
Exactly it gamble
I’ve been called all sorts in truth
Worst was I was likened to Boris Johnson. Untidy,liar, narcissistic, sexually untrustworthy and always late
Which was rubbish because I’m never late
Kissing Bojo Clive, your membership has just been confirmed, of the small but elite click; namely – the inglorious thieving Bastardos.
I myself am never on time, and am as honest as a judge, but lie like a rotten pork pie through the psychopathic forked brain and tongue, that is my nemesis, namely – the headshrinker that is gamble.
Might I welcome you in earnest, and offer you the three fingered handshake.
Picked up on this one late, but to my mind too many trainers just use the phrase as an excuse to train their horses on the racecourse and not at home. Certain trainers seem perfectly capable of turning out their horses fit to compete even after a lay-off, notably Lucinda Russell, Donald McCain and Mark Johnston.
One proficient but traditonally lower-grade trainer had their horses a number of gallops short of fitness before the turn of the year (0 from 26 before January, 8 from 37 since).
Simply a horse that doesn’t go out of its way to impress when doing their work, will do the bare minimum that is being asked of it – some might call it being a lazy individual or the horse equivalent of not being a morning person.
Can’t remember the name of the trainer but when interviewed after winning a race and asked about how the horse worked at home he responded along the lines of: he barely works fast enough to get out of his own way.
The way gallops are staged (especially when it is done on a racecourse) the trainers usually set it up to make the headline horse look good with the jockey asking him to quicken with the other riders on the galloping companions holding onto their mounts so they look to get left behind.
It is why you should always take with a massive pinch of salt comments about horse ‘x’ doing a spectacular piece of work that left observers shaking their heads and reaching for the superlatives…….
“The way gallops are staged (especially when it is done on a racecourse) the trainers usually set it up to make the headline horse look good with the jockey asking him to quicken with the other riders on the galloping companions holding onto their mounts so they look to get left behind.”
LD73 – I’m not clear about this. I would have thought that seasoned gallop-watchers could tell whether a horse is being restrained or not.
In a similar vein, I’ve sometimes wondered how useful gallops are for evaluating relative form lines from the watcher’s point of view because they don’t know how much weight each horse is carrying.
Seasider – Holding on to their mount was probably not the right wording, more like not asking them to quicken when the main horse pulls out to come alongside and then go on, thus making it look more like a superstar because it pulled well clear.
My point being great pieces of work at home can be an exaggeration simply because they have been specifically designed to look that way and even seasoned workwatchers can be taking in by it too.
Like you said you also don’t know relative weights each horses in the gallop is carrying and sometimes you might not even know who each horse is and their actual level of ability at all, so these gallops can be very misleading to what a horse potentially can do on the course.
I always remember Sir Henry saying that Reference Point was well known for being lazy and showing very little at home to the extent that Steve Cauthen chose not to ride him in the William Hill Futurity – at the other end of the spectrum he also had a horse called Desert Sun who came with a huge reputation from work watchers based on his spectacular work on the gallops and yet failed to live up to the hype on course to the extent that he was labelled a ‘morning glory’
I can’t find the book that tells this story, let alone the story itself, so details are necessarily vague. It takes place sometime in the 1930s/1940s.
Trainer#1 equipped his jockey with a concealed jacket containing 7lb of lead in order to hide the true merit of Horse#1 in a gallop. Horse#1 won the trial readily thus convincing Trainer#1 he had something to bet on next time out.
Before he could leave the gallops the jockey was approached by Trainer#2 to ride Horse#2 in a trial. Not wishing to expose the true form of Horse#1 by taking the jacket off, the jockey kept it on for the ride on Horse#2. This animal also won his gallop cosily, leaving Trainer#1 and the jockey with a good steer on the ability of both horses.
Sound ethical behaviour prevailed when they informed Trainer#2 of what had transpired. It was happy endings all round when both horses won their next races carrying the money of both trainers.
The moral of the story seems to be that sometimes a trainer doesn’t himself know how much weight his charge is carrying in a gallop.
(PS: I’d forgotten all about Desert Sun.)
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.