Saturday racing

Himalayan Hill eachway and swinger with Desert Maiden...

GB hope you got that quartet..!!!!!!!!



4 DESERT MAIDEN ew at 16/1...................

nice going there Greg, hope you didn't give much of it back later on.

My personal opinion and chatting to at least 6 other trainers we all agreed that although the track was not perfect it was still much better than it was this time last year. Enos is doing a good job there now. Clairwood is the worst track at the moment by a mile according to jockeys and trainers there. They have had real water problems to make it worse too. My opinion is that too many horses are allowed to gallop on course outside racing that probably REALLY dont really need to and the race tracks are getting too much traffic on them to keep them in the proper condition to race.

I believe Antonia Fraser suffered a very bad nosebleed. This has become something of a curse in our racing - bring on Lasix, or is that just a quick fix and not the answer?

Magic, imho it's a short-term pseudo-solution that leads to a slow but unstoppable downhill slide "in the old end". Nice for now, but trouble's coming down the line later, when bleeders have been bred to bleeders, over and over again. Guess what you get? ... no prizes for tipping this one correctly.

The Americans have set up a huge genetic experiment (inadvertently of course) and I can't help notice how few of their horses now raid overseas, and how seldom they are successful. Part of it may be to do with the different surfaces, but part is perhaps that they don't do quite so well off their medication? I haven't any figures to back this theory so I stand under correction.

Got to wonder too about importing stallions from the USA. Perhaps its a blessing in disguise that we can't often afford it, nor really "well-bred" yearlings to race and hopefully, turn into stallions later. Maybe Barry Irwin has a comment to make here ... he's complimented SA horses on their toughness before, so the effect of raceday medication on long-term breeding is obviously a subject he's given plenty of thought to.

Seems to me Lasix muddies the waters w.r.t. breeding. One doesn't know which horses have genetic ability ... which can pass on to their offspring ... and which ones won big races because they were on something or other ... which definitely won't.

Pity there is no accessible register of bleeding incidents on the racetrack. There ought to be something that breeders can refer to when choosing a stallion, and buyers when buying a yearling.

My sympathies are with the breeders and owners who need to balance their books, but my logic is with "No Lasix".

In my opinion and I have spoken to Peter Gibson about it, the major reason for the increase in bleeders is the Horse sickness vaccination.
In the past before we had to vaccinate so that horses can be exported we had 2-3% bleed. This was the same % in our yard in England.
Since we started vaccinating for HS some yards are saying that up to 60% are bleeding. Magic I think you know of the 1 trainer that scoped his horses after fast work and found that that many bled to different degrees. It is a live vaccine that you injecting into the horse not like the flu vac.It is not completely effective as horses still get HS after being vaccinated anyway. Does increase chances of survival though.
In the 20 or so years before we vaccinated for HS here at Summerveld I dont remember more than 2 horses contracting it here.I hate the vaccination in the current form but Peter says they are making progress on a dead vaccine. Lasix is a quick fix but we need to use it to help in the short term.

Interesting (and opposing) point of views. You don't have to tell me that AHS vaccines are not foolproof, I know this only too well from personal experience, and the link between AHS vaccines and the huge upsurge in bleeders has been suggested before. The problem appears to me that if you start using Lasix as a "quick fix" you end up going down a slippery slope and end up exactly where Mauvorneen says - with a horse population made up almost exclusively of the progeny of bleeders. On the other hand, if we already have 60% of horses bleeding then how much worse can it get if we do allow the use of Lasix in the stallions and broodmares of the future?

There is no right or wrong answer, I guess. For now it remains a curse for everybody involved - not least the horses themselves.

Craig Eudey Wrote:

---

> My personal opinion and chatting to at least 6
> other trainers we all agreed that although the
> track was not perfect it was still much better
> than it was this time last year. Enos is doing a
> good job there now. Clairwood is the worst track
> at the moment by a mile according to jockeys and
> trainers there. They have had real water problems
> to make it worse too. My opinion is that too many
> horses are allowed to gallop on course outside
> racing that probably REALLY dont really need to
> and the race tracks are getting too much traffic
> on them to keep them in the proper condition to
> race.

I agree wholeheartedly with Craig and rather than calling the track a “disgrace” the current course manager Enos Majola deserves praise.
Scottsville’s problems stem from a decision in previous years to put a layer of bark fines underneath the grass surface to provide a cushion effect.
The end result was that the grass roots could feed off the bark and had no need to travel further down.
Consequently the grass roots became very shallow and kickback and divots became a severe problem.
It is impossible to reverse this problem in one season, but as the overseer of all KZN’s tracks Ralph Smout says, the course has improved tenfold.
A verti-drain machine is now used in spring treatments that aerates the ground and also pulls out plugs which are then mixed together with the organic layer (including the bark fines) on top before being used as dressing.
Consequently the organic material now has a more even distribution while the loosening of compaction by the verti-drain also means moisture sinks further down.
As a result the roots are now growing downward seeking the moisture and are also finding food down there.
It will take two or three spring treatments before the roots are deep enough to not be kicked up when the ground gets wet.
In the dry period earlier this year there appeared to be no kickback at all, which was not the case a year or two ago, proving that the roots are already deeper.
The course might deserve some criticism but it’s going in the right direction and the current manager is doing a good job in difficult circumstances.

Thanks for the update Tipster and in that case well done to the lads in Natal, hope it will be in good shape for Wenesday

hibernia Wrote:

---

> 4 or five big hold up horses drawn high in the big
> sprint,you might think im crazy but winking Jack
> might get it easy out front and could place?
>
> 1: Kavanagh
> 2: WAW
> 3: Winking Jack

Considering how everyone has blasted the condition of the track and bias of the draw..Winking Jack ran some race to reach the money Race Replay