EXCLUSIVE: HOW AGEING JOCKEYS CAN FUND THEIR RETIREMENT – AND THE 2014 COX PLATE RESULT VINDICATED THE CURRENT WEIGHT FOR AGE SCALE

28/10/14

Until last Saturday night, I thought I’d seen and/or heard everything in racing. In my 2006 published book I concluded there were 647 variables working against the punter when they have a bet on an equine or canine athlete, meaning at every turn that the odds are stacked firmly in favour of the house.

After last Saturday’s Rosehill meeting, you can add one more to the “647” variables, as now we have 648 and the new addition to the ranks is “an ageing jockey’s knee may lock up in the run”. You see according to the relevant part of the Sydney stewards report in Race 4 out of Rosehill last Saturday, “On return to scale J Cassidy reported that his right knee, which he injured at Geelong on Wednesday, 22 October 2014 when he struck the gate leaving the barriers, had locked near the 200m in this event. J Cassidy was examined by the Club’s Medical Officer, who reported ligament soreness and J Cassidy was stood down from further engagements today”.

The mind boggles. What would have happened had Jim Cassidy’s old knee locked at the 50-metre mark as two horses fought out a soul stirring struggle in say a $3 million Cox Plate?

So rather than stress too much over that scenario unfolding in the near future, I think that a perfect marketing opportunity has now arisen for WD40 and Jimmy Cassidy to work together on formulating a new product. Put simply, as we age, things don’t work as well as they once did. For instance young people don’t generally have knee replacements or hip replacements – or the like. There’s little or no doubt that as our population is living longer – older jockeys will keep riding everything, including racehorses, for longer. So let’s get WD40 for joint mobility into jockey rooms around this country forthwith to help these older chappies get their rusty and creaking parts moving again. As per the advertising that I’ve written on the can of WD40 above, jockeys like Jimmy Cassidy could work with WD40 to endorse – and thus help sell their product. He could get “royalties” for a percentage of each can of “Ring-A-Ding-Ding’s New and Improved WD40” that is sold and this could help fund his retirement in the Greek Isles.

On another matter, let me say publicly before the event unfolds via the passage of time that “champion trainer” Chris Waller is on a kick in the teeth to nothing simply via taking over the training of Cox Plate winner Adelaide. If Adelaide had run a nice tenth in the Cox Plate, then Waller might reasonably have a crack at the horse, as put bluntly, he couldn’t go any worse under Waller. But when the horse 1) takes off 3 wide without cover from the 1000, 2) on debut in a foreign country, 3) at his first run in 41 days, 4) as a 4YO that the smarties said was “wrongly weighted,” 5) from barrier 13 of 14, etcetera – and wins – even his Cox Plate winning trainer Aidan O’Brien wouldn’t be able to top that, let alone Chris Waller. With all those factors working against him, all Adelaide’s win was able to prove was exactly “how bad on an international scale, on the balance of probability” the Australasian WFA crew are currently. If you disagree with that notion, well the only alternative possibility is that they are “all bordering on champion status” as when they hit the line in the Cox Plate, officially the first eight home all finished within 1.85 lengths of each other, yet they ran near track record time – and the track record is held by a champion Might And Power.

Personally I thought that there was one glaring and extremely interesting highlight that came out of the 2014 Cox Plate – and amazingly I’ve not heard it mentioned anywhere – and that is how spot on the current WFA scale is in this country, as given the race was run in near track record time, here are the official first eight home in the race, with their age, weight and beaten margin:

PLACING

HORSE

WEIGHT

AGE/SEX

BEATEN MARGIN

1

Adelaide

56

4YO stallion

N/A

2

Fawkner

59

7YO gelding

0.20

3

Silent Achiever

57

6YO mare

0.30

4

Side Glance

59

8YO gelding

0.50

5

Foreteller

59.0

8YO gelding

0.60

6

Happy Trails

59.0

7YO gelding

0.70

7

Criterion

57.5

4YO stallion

1.45

8

Sweynesse

49.5

3YO colt

1.85

 

So from the aforesaid table of just eight horses I’ve concluded the following facts:

1-All ages from 3YO to 8YO inclusive featured in the first eight home – except for 5YO’s.

2-A mare (Silent Achiever) had no problem almost winning against the males.

3-A 3YO (Sweynesse) was technically slaughtered by Chad Schofield, but then even saying that is a tough call, as what jockey in their right mind would think jumping onto the backside of Adelaide at the 1000-metre mark when he took off wide, would be astute? Given Sweynesse had no problem running the fastest individual 600, he obviously ran the 2040 metres out strongly, so young Schofield could have taken off earlier, but we’d all be a whole lot smarter with hindsight.

4-The Cox Plate weights showed that in contrast to the standard WFA scale, you could weight the two “4YO stallions” that finished in the top eight, totally differently – Adelaide (56kgs) and Criterion (57.5kgs) and the 1.5 kgs weight differential made absolutely no difference. To set the record straight on that score, Criterion is just over three-and-a-half months older than Adelaide as Criterion was born on 31/10/10 and Adelaide was born on 19/2/11.

5-Although he was written up in form guides as a “4YO horse (stallion)”, Adelaide by his birthday (19/2/11) is still, as at today, almost four months off turning 4YO, yet he was asked to carry a massive 6.5kgs more than Sweynesse, yet given Sweynesse first saw the light of day on 21/10/11, Adelaide, born 19/2/11 is only four months older than Sweynesse.

 

Today on www.brisbaneracing.com.au there’s the popular What’s In A Name segment from last Saturday’s races. On www.sydneyracing.com.au Bernard Kenny writes an interesting story on Japanese horses and notes, in my words, not his, how Darren Weir has nominated Trust In A Gust for the Japan Cup. Numerous times weekly in racing I just shake my head at silly things I see in the racing game in Australia. He’d have to be kidding. Next think he’ll bring She’s Archie out of retirement to contest next year’s Melbourne Cup – first up. On www.melbourneracing.com.au Victorian racing is perused.

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