At Flemington an unraced and not produced at trials Astro Castro blows them over at odds of 100 to 1.
Not a popular debut according to this report.
Opinion: Racing must jump out of the dark by Ben Asgari.
Ben Asgari@BenAsgariRacing
24 July, 2016
Astro Castro’s victory in the last race at Flemington Saturday should have been able to be enjoyed by all in racing for the fantastic story that it was.
Trainer Alan Hunter’s emotion post-race following his ‘throw at the stumps’ with a horse that started $101, racing in his grandfather’s colours, with a jockey who rarely gets opportunities at headquarters on his back, should have been the feel-good story of the day.
For most, myself included, it still was, but for many the victory was soured by the fact the horse hadn’t been seen publicly before he made his debut at Australia’s most famous racecourse.
Saturday is racing’s biggest wagering day and whether you like it or not, racing needs to do everything it can to keep punters interested, stop the migration to sports betting and attract new fans.
While people might have once been happy to bet ‘blind’, these days punters rightly expect as much information as possible.
Unlike in New South Wales where a horse is required to trial before it can race, there is no such rule that exists in Victoria.
Despite this, most horses do have a trial before their debut whether publicly at the official barrier trials or via an unofficial ‘jumpout’ like Astro Castro did over 900m at Ballarat in early June.
Unfortunately unlike the jumpouts held at Caulfield every Tuesday, Mornington or Balnarring on a Wednesday and Flemington every Friday, which can be viewed through either the Melbourne Racing Club or Victoria Racing Club’s websites, jumpouts at venues such as Ballarat, Cranbourne and Geelong either aren’t filmed, aren’t made available or don’t have the horse’s colours and name listed.
Don’t get me wrong, had the names and colours been listed for Astro Castro’s Ballarat jumpout, I doubt he would start much shorter than he did and he potentially starts an even longer price.
It’s somewhat of a myth that if jumpouts are made public that it ruins the one chance an owner gets to back their horse before everyone else. Horses that haven’t trialled publicly are often dramatically wound in by bookmakers as soon as there is even a small amount of money in the early betting as it is too much of a risk to lay them without a bookmaker knowing what they are dealing with.
Conversely, take a horse like the Mick Price-trained two-year-old Cambridge Lady who returned a top fluctuation of $26 in her debut maiden win at Cranbourne after opening at $15 the previous day on the back of two impressive Caulfield jumpouts, or the Ciaron Maher-trained Miss Wonderland who was $1.80 out to $3.80 and bolted in to win by six lengths on debut at Pakenham following a similarly impressive Caulfield jumpout win.
Logistically and financially I doubt there is any sense in forcing trainers to trial their horses in official trials and pass those potential travel costs on to owners when it is much easier for them to gain that much-needed experience at local jump outs.
What seems a more sensible and more cost-effective solution is, wherever possible, a camera is sent to country jumpouts as well as a club or RV official to record names and colours as is done at Flemington and Caulfield.
Many country race clubs would struggle to fund an extra staff member let alone a camera operator at their jumpouts so it would have to be funded by Racing Victoria.
I believe the additional costs incurred by RV would be potentially offset by increased punter confidence and wagering, particularly in two-year-old races where the betting pools are usually significantly smaller due to a lack of exposed form.
The end game would be to have all jumpouts appear in form guides but the first step is to list the names and colours of horses jumping out at Cranbourne and Ballarat, then to have jumpout vision at other regional centres such as Bendigo and Geelong available.
For all of racing’s current issues, this one doesn’t seem overly hard to solve.
WATCH: Astro Castro's victory.
www.racing.com/news/2016-07-24/opinion-r...jump-out-of-the-dark
Topic Author
