ALMOHAD ON HIS WAY TO BIGGER THINGS.
On Saturday, ALMOHAD took his first serious step towards becoming a genuine race horse. It was his first win at 2200m and although the quality of the field was average to say the least (no disrespect intended to other runners), it was the way he won which convinced me that the horse has finally arrived.Don't get me wrong, I think the horse still has a good way to go before he becomes a complete race horse in maturity both physical and mental, however on Saturday he did what I have always felt he was capable of doing.
ALMOHAD wore blinkers for the first time on Saturday and many have asked me why I didn't go down that path earlier with him. The reality is that I have always believed that blinkers can do more harm than good when a horse is immature especially mentally. Blinkers can make an immature horse try to do things he is not quite capable of doing and hence do themselves some damage. The timing of when to put blinkers on him had to be spot on and I reckon we got it pretty right on the weekend.
At his previous start the horse switched off completely with about 1200m to go and showed no sign of getting interested again until he was inside the final 150m. I sent the horse back to Amelia Park for a couple of days "just to let him get his head right" and he was back in time for his only solid workout with blinkers on, when he worked on the grass on Tuesday morning. All the signs were good and I would have been disappointed if he had done anything less in his race on Saturday.
I have to say that his win was one of the more dominant victories I have seen or had the pleasure of training for a long long time. When you consider it was done over a middle distance and the horse was asked to race more forward than was his customary manner, I feel the performance can not be underestimated. The horse has pulled up a treat from the race and will again have an easy week before we make a decision on where to go next with him. The Perth Cup is an option but it certainly isn't a foregone conclusion. The horse will tell me what and where!
ALMOHAD wore blinkers for the first time on Saturday and many have asked me why I didn't go down that path earlier with him. The reality is that I have always believed that blinkers can do more harm than good when a horse is immature especially mentally. Blinkers can make an immature horse try to do things he is not quite capable of doing and hence do themselves some damage. The timing of when to put blinkers on him had to be spot on and I reckon we got it pretty right on the weekend.
At his previous start the horse switched off completely with about 1200m to go and showed no sign of getting interested again until he was inside the final 150m. I sent the horse back to Amelia Park for a couple of days "just to let him get his head right" and he was back in time for his only solid workout with blinkers on, when he worked on the grass on Tuesday morning. All the signs were good and I would have been disappointed if he had done anything less in his race on Saturday.
I have to say that his win was one of the more dominant victories I have seen or had the pleasure of training for a long long time. When you consider it was done over a middle distance and the horse was asked to race more forward than was his customary manner, I feel the performance can not be underestimated. The horse has pulled up a treat from the race and will again have an easy week before we make a decision on where to go next with him. The Perth Cup is an option but it certainly isn't a foregone conclusion. The horse will tell me what and where!
posted by Lou Luciani at
3:32 pm
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