New Sponsorship for 2yo Race

I find it amazing that Australia runs its premier juvenile race in October before SA has even run its first maiden juvenile race.

gregbucks Wrote:

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> Just for interest how many of these 2 year olds,
> (mainly the ones that win/place in the 2 year old
> features) train on to be good 4 and 5 year olds??


Good question - maybe magic could provide some stats - in general I think not a lot - but you get different types of horses - some mature fast and reach their peaks early - and those are the ones who feature as 2 yr olds - then the 'slower maturers' catch up and in many cases surpass the 'fast maturers' - so if you don't take advantage of the 2 yr old races with an 'early type', you miss the boat

Frodo and the three year olds (ones that start there career at 3) turn out to be better horses imo...

Mac Wrote:

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> I find it amazing that Australia runs its premier
> juvenile race in October before SA has even run
> its first maiden juvenile race.

Not quite. The premioer Aus 2yo race is the Golden Slipper which I think is run in April (maybe Mach, at the earliest). But they do like to get horses going early and not only the babies. The Victoria Derby is run in early November, at about the same time as the Melbourne Cup.

Aaah tks Magic. And then there's the Magic Millions 2 yo Classic which I now see will be run mid January and which I thought was run much earlier. Anyway...

Mac, it is true that Australian-bred horses by and large are seemingly more precocious than ours. We've seen it here with a lot of Aussie imports doing well as early 2yos. A big part part of the reason is that the Aussies are increasingly breeding for speed, and any colt that wins the Golden Slipper is virtually guaranteed to have breeders knocking down his door when he goes to stud. Anyone who even thinks of gelding a good 2yo will probably be tied to a tree in the Outback and left to the dingoes.<

Of course, as pointed out there are far more opportunities for a really sharp early 2yo in Australia than there are in SA, so I suppose that breeders and trainers alike like to gear up for those early races. I suppose it goes back to the "vicious circle" that the horses will only be there if the races are there.

I hate the fact that their are so few Juv races - This helps dishonest trainers hide snails for way longer than the owner should have to pay for -

Agree (Newmarket..sigh) and disagree (if there were more juv races, more would be prepped) with Lips. Main problem is the going up here. Without Newmarket (at least), the Turf is taking a hammering. Too many meetings per square foot of Turf !

Coupled with this are the weather patterns, which have changed over the years, but much more noticeably over the last 3 years, in Gauteng. Rains are much later, courses take longer to knit after Winter and because of late rains, holes cannot be repaired in prep for Winter, as late rains create the "softness", which in turn leaves holes on the tracks. These late rains are still falling during Autumn, when temperatures are too low and therefore, not favourable for growth.

So, in a nutshell, we start later with pressure on our Juveniles, up here. Grass gallops are later....

The above are some of many points in my notebook which open my mind to the reality of the fact that the Investment in the Cape is an integral part of our Racing future and that WC Racing is set for massive growth and resurgence. There is no doubt in my mind that their Feature Season should and will be extended in the not too distant future.

And if I am correct, this spells good opportunity for myself and my team. The two T's refer -
Travel - have horse, will travel, done it anyway, for years....
Trading - have horse, will Trade, on behalf of my Owners....(we dont buy Sales Toppers, so margins are potentially pretty good on the good 'uns )

magiclips Wrote:

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I suppose it goes back to the
> "vicious circle" that the horses will only be
> there if the races are there.

Although in CT we have the same trainers who send out 2yo every year (less and less) while the big guns sit on classic bred types. Snaith pretty much has the 2yo races to himself in terms of "big" yards as the rest are happy to let them crack on viewing the finish line to be elsewhere in the future.

CT is a funny place, if a trainer comes out with an expensive horse for a 2yo race, they seem obliged to apologize that the horse is kicking the door down at home, that they have no choice but to run. If the bigger yards do have runners for 2yo races, it would be only one or two and the operator would end up throwing good money at poor horses for the most part.

A year later and most trainers think the guineas is too early in December. No surprise 2yo racing has collapsed in CT. We march to a different drum

In many ways the Western Cape deserves to be our showpiece province. If the most recent very wet winter in KZN is a sign of things to come and not just a natural one-off, our winter season will become increasingly vulnerable to the weather as well (with the same attendant damage to our tracks as Louis spoke about in Gauteng) and climatically Cape Town will become even more attractive than it should already be.

cape racing imo is the strongest in the country at the moment,but the powers that be always give them a raw deal.abt 15yrs ago jhb racing was strong,but at the moment there racing is going backwards.there are far too little top trainers in jhb and that coincides with the demise of the once poweful woodruff stable.honestly the only trainers from jhb and natal combined who at this moment can compete with the cape is mdk and d drier.the rest r avg to below avg trainers who cant win the big features(met and july).summer cup is a joke and no matter how much phumelela and tellytrack try to promote it,it remains a glorified handicap for the weak tvl trainers.truth be told those jhb boys dont hv the buying power of the cape boys and thats y the power shift to the cape.wen last did a natal horse or jhb horse,other than mdk win the met or july?its time the powers that be give cape racing the respect it deserves.its time they realise that the cape has huge potential and is the only province that has the ability to stage an international race in the future if everyone just gives them a chance.the cape has the weather,beautiful scenery and lovely people with a very nice racecourse and at the moment the best horses in the country.i know many will disagree, but the reality is that the strength of horsepower is in the cape.

Who can possibly disagree......?Future of decent racing is in the Cape......as I said a few months ago huge plans in the pipeline.
As for Snaith coming out with early 2 yr olds......great for the owner......better than having maiden unraced 4 yr olds!
Both Ebony Flyer and Princess Victoria ran in the juvenile race on Met day.....say no more!