THE CHICKEN AND THE EGG SYNDROME

We have all had the question posed to us at some stage...... Which came first, the chicken or the egg? I believe that the answer to that question is a lot more complex than the question I have asked many times recently to which so far I have not had a good enough answer.

My concern is with the programming (or more to the point the lack of programming ) of early season two year old races. I guess at the same time there will also be the question of how early is too early to run two year old races in a season however that is another point entirely.

Let me give you some statistics. The three states of Victoria, NSW and W.A all start racing two year olds at about the same time of the year. In fact the eastern states are a week before W.A. In Victoria, there are 21 two year old races programmed from the start of the 2yo season up until December 31st. These are run on city tracks and provincial tracks. There is a two year old race run on most week ends or at worst at a mid week provincial meeting. In NSW the number is slightly less at 18. Both of these states seem to cater for early season two year olds and both states have massive 2yo stakemoney races such as the Blue Diamond and the Golden Slipper Stakes.

In W.A. over the same period of time we have SIX races programmed and that comes with the threat that if there are not enough acceptors, the race will be called off! Now I am not saying for one moment that everything they do in the east should be done over here however the difference in the number of races available is somewhat staggering.

The reason given by those in charge of programming is that since the Karrakatta  Plate was shifted to the Autumn, trainers hold back running 2yo's and so there are less horses in work and hence they programme less 2yo races. My argument is that if as a trainer with a big team of young horses, I knew that there was a two year old race programmed weekly as there is in the east, I would have a lot more 2yo's in work early to try to get an early return for my owner as well as qualifying my horse for the better autumn races. From a business point of view, it does not make sense for me to have 20 two year olds in the stables in October November and December when there is only one race every two weeks that I can compete in! It is simply bad business.

It intrigues me that we continue to remove distance races from the programme as we no longer breed stayers; Yet, we breed for speed but don't programme races for early maturing young speed horses to run in. Doesn't seem to make a lot of sense to me. I have also often wondered about the theory against running 2yo's early and the perception that they don't train on. The list below from my stables alone does not support that belief.

Over the years I have had many 2yo winners with many of them winning one of the very early programmed races. The likes of EAGLE FLYER, TIMELESS ACTION, BUSINESS BEAT, LOCK THE VAULT, DARING HOMBRE, STORMY'S SON and others all won pre Xmas races whilst horses like HARDRADA, AMYQUILL, KING CANUTE, GUYNO, ISLAND MORN MR TANZANIA and HARD ACT all were either raced or trialled as early two year olds with most of them winning as two year olds. Each and every one of those horses went on to race and win as three year olds, four year olds and beyond.

Back when the Karrakatta Plate was run before Xmas, the winner and most of the field invariably went on to become the states top three and four year olds. Whether horses train on or not has more to do with training methods of two year olds and the surface on which they race and trial, rather than at what stage they are put under pressure. Obviously an immature young horse is less likely to stand up to the rigours of early season racing however far be it that early runners do not train on.

So back to the chicken and the egg. Do trainers not have two year olds in work because there are so very few opportunities for them to compete in or is there so few races programmed because there are so few two year olds in work? As I said earlier, if there were more races available, I like many other trainers with big teams of young horses would have no hesitation in having them up and running, ready to go from October 1st onwards.

I am not for one moment suggesting that we go 2yo mad and have all our two year olds galloping in August. Each to their own. Some trainers prefer to train late developing horses, others enjoy training young horses whilst others including myself prefer to have an even mix of babies and older horses. If only we had races for the youngsters in my team to run in!!

(Hoofnote: To the wag who sent the comment. I will make sure I use spell check in future. Thank you)