RACING TRIALS AND FITNESS

One of the most frequently misunderstood facets of race handicapping is the assessment of a horse’s fitness. It is said that today it is possible to bring horses into peak racing condition through the myriad of pre-training complexes and Taj Mahals for racehorses that are owned by some of the better known racing conglomerates.

I have to admit, that having seen some of these complexes, it must be like going to horse’s heaven compared to the facilities that were available just a couple of decades ago when I was involved in up to 15 syndicates. In my time as a syndicate manager a horses was lucky just to have a roof over it’s head, none of these course swimming pools, equitracks, chiropractors for horses, shock shod shoes and so on. The thoroughbred of my time in the industry must have looked forward to raceday, much the same as children look forward to their annual Show.

It’s extraordinary, isn’t it? In spite of all the modern luxuries, and in spite of all the private training facilities the basics of racehorse fitness as it applies to handicapping remain the same. There is no substitute for race fitness!

These days the race handicapper, whether he be the official club’s handicapper, or whether he is you or me. We all have access through computers to a wealth of information. We can, with a minimum of fuss, check almost any racing statistic.

You can go back twenty years, or even forty years and you will find the statistics for locating fit horses. Consistently through the year over 80% of winners last raced within 21 days! In spite of all the improvements in training techniques and facilities it is no easier to produce horses fit and ready to win without going through the time honoured process of racing them into form.

So what about barrier trials you say? Sure, these can be a guide to how a horse is coming along in training. It is even possible for some horses to win first up with only the benefit of a trial behind them. It is also possible for horses to win first up without any trials. All things are possible, but in our effort to find a winning method we should confine ourselves to a horse’s proven form history if we are to come out winners.

At this point I will divert for a moment to tell you about how a horse thinks. The thoroughbred horse is not a particularly smart animal. A noble animal certainly. A game animal, sure, they are bred to be. A horse acts on instinct. They react according to their instinct and their instinct is not clouded, as a human’s is, by all the tedeous day to day responsibilities that we have. When we attend a racecourse we mix with people from all walks of like but we are all of one mind whilst there. We unavoidably give off a mental message of anticipation as we each visualise the racing that is about to take place. You will all have noticed the way the thoroughbred reacts to this atmosphere in the parade ring. The thoroughbred tunes into our mental messages. The horse knows when he is at a racecourse and is about to race and cannot be fooled by trials, no matter how the riders dress up. It is the mental images that are picked up that count.

You will all at some tine or other noticed the way animals seem to react to your presence before you have been seen. At other times different animals are known to be able to sense the onset of physical events. They are able to sense your fear of them or alternatively your respect. Many a good trainer is able to improve the performance of a horse simply by establishing a rapport with them. An animal’s ability to read our mind if you like, is well established scientific fact. A barrier trial is good, if not essential, training technique, but there remains no substitute for real races.

In barrier trials neither horse nor rider are required to be fair dinkum. The weights, the gear, the intentions are not questioned. A winner may well have won only because the other horses are not there to win. I admit that I like to see a contender that I have selected has recently won a barrier trial. The horse may have last raced two or three weeks ago and needs a trial as a check on his well being. What I am saying though is that trials on their own are no real indication any more than the morning track work.

Many a horse burns the grass at the training tracks only to fail dismally on raceday. My own horse of many years ago Lord Chris, thrived on trackwork and I rode hom everyday, yet when produced on the racetrack he was a duffer. Unless he could stride freely, well away from the other horses he was no hope. It took me years to realise it but Lord Chris was afraid, afraid to do his best yet he enjoyed being a thoroughbred and loved his daily workout. But horses are like people, as varied as chalk and cheese. Some of our best known gallopers are renowned as lazy, unenthusiastic trackworkers, yet when produced on a racetrack give all it takes and more.