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the news
California Chrome arrives in Japan where Deep Impact once again dominated in 2019
¥7,773,484,000 (£53,914,000) were the best he has achieved in one season.
Shadai Stallion Station’s Heart’s Cry, another son of Sunday Silence, finished second.
Deep Impact was also the year’s leading sire of two-year-olds, the ninth time he has won the title.
The country’s leading first-season sire
was Kizuna. The Shadai-based son of
Deep Impact sired 27 winners, including Bien Fait, who won the Hakodate Nisai Stakes (G3).
Kizuna’s earnings of ¥491,530,000 (£3,409,000) were the second-highest achieved by a debut sire in the last 10 years after Deep Impact.
AT THE beginning of January the Kentucky Derby and Dubai World Cup winner California Chrome arrived in Japan for the next stage of his stallion career.
The nine-year-old son of Lucky Pulpit, the winner of seven Grade/Group 1 races and more than $14.7 million in earnings, has stood at Taylor Made Stallions since 2017, but it was announced last November that
JS Company of Japan had reached an agreement to purchase the young stallion,
whose first crop is due to hit the track this year.
He is to stand at Arrow Stud and his 2020 fee is ¥4 million (£27,500).
The 2019 Japanese sires’ table was once again dominated by Deep Impact and sons of the legendary Sunday Silence.
For the eighth consecutive year since 2012, Deep Impact, euthanized last July, won the leading sires’ title.
His year’s prize-money earnings of
....Girls aloud
Sally Duckett starts the year with a discussion on the whip... we promise that more than just this issue will be discussed in this column in 2020!
LOSE THE WHIP, we will lose racing. It can’t be stated any more starkly than the that.
The first to go will be NH racing.
Which self-respecting jumps jockey would care to gallop toward a 4ft6in black steeplechase fence on a 16.2hh chaser who has dropped the bridle ten strides out and whose
concentration levels on the job in hand are about as focused as Donald Trump is on environmental improvements?
I’d also like to find out which BHA member would be tasked to tell fabulously talented horsemen such as Robbie Power, Richard Johnston or Brian Hughes that they do not have recourse to the tools of the trade that they are used to riding with everyday both on the racecourse and at home, and which the horses understand and are trained to react to?
And that they are to put themselves and their horses in even more danger on daily basis than they do already, while furthermore they will not be allowed to get the most out of their horses in a race?
It would be a little like telling Lewis Hamilton to drive his F1 car with the handbrake on and with little in the way of brakes or steering.
The lazier horses will go to the races, enjoy a fine gallop for three- quarters of the race, drop themselves out and make a slow way home. The argument that jockeys could carry whips for only corrective
purposes is flawed.
Where would the line be held? Would a horse actually need to be
running out or dramatically drifting before a smack would be deemed acceptable?
What if a jockey is just beginning to get a “feel” that his or her horse is looking at the fence wings and for ways out of the job at hand? Could the rider act then or would he or she be in danger of a fine or ban? How can something that really is so intimate between horse and rider be understood by those watching from the stands?
We’ve seen subjective stewards’ decisions questioned this winter, we don’t need more areas of governance open to interpretation.
After losing the confidence of the jockeys, no-whip racing would quickly lose the support of owners – why should an owner pay to have a
horse in training who develops these tendencies? Just like children some horses learn very quickly just what they can get away with.
An interesting horse is Burbank, winner of the Betway Novices’ Handicap Chase at Newbury on December 28, and he is the one that brought me back to this discussion.
In his post-race interview jockey Jeremiah McGrath said that mid-race the horse had considered dropping himself out, but a couple of smacks saw the horse revitalise, re-purpose and go on to win his race by 9l.
The Racing Post’s in-race comments reported that Burbank “Led until 12th, mistake next and reminders, rallied after four out to lead after next, soon in command, stayed on strongly”.
In the analysis it says Burbank “was receiving reminders and going least well of the leading quartet turning for home, but he jumped back to the front three out and took control from the next.”
Burbank has plenty of ability, but sometimes just needs encouragement to put that talent to the job he has to do.
At the time of writing he was recorded as entered in the Listed Sky Bet Handicap Chase, a race worth £56,000 to the winner. Connections have also stated that the Grand National could be a target for the young staying chaser if he continues to maintain his momentum.
If all goes to plan, he could become a significant horse for the year for his owner Trevor Hemmings.
However, if Burbank had been allowed by McGrath to drift around at Newbury without focus, drop himself out and possibly even pull up, Hemmings might now be aiming the horse, despite possessing ability, for the transfer list.
This is really how small the margins can be.
To conclude, and this certainly is not my area of expertise but even for me it is quite obvious, that if aggregate form can’t be held to some account, that if punters can’t trust horses to put their best into their efforts, then punters will quickly lose faith in the sport as a reasonably educated gambling medium.
Racing all around the world certainly does not need any further reductions in betting turnover.
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