Just as Charles Dickens used to serialize his novels I am going to offer you my review of the flat in bite sized chunks. I have chosen 75 horses that for one reason or another caught my attention last season and they will appear on this small but perfectly formed web site in the time honoured “reverse order.” What larks as Joe Gargery used to say to Pip in Great Expectations!
Numbers 71 to 75
OK, what has crept into the end of this elite list? When compiling my list or horses to follow for the 2009 flat season I added a 7 year old called Woodsley House on the strength of a hat trick of wins in 2008. I looked up his trainer in my “Horses in training” book and found that AG Foster had about 20 in his string and operated at Cousland, Midlothian and one of my well informed friends told me that this was a stable to “look out for.” After his first 3 runs in which he did not figure prominently he lined up in a 7 furlong handicap at Musselburgh. On my web site preview I wisely commented that he had returned to his last winning mark but would appreciate some cut in the ground. Under what the racing pundits described as “an enterprising ride” by Neil Brown Woodsley House duly won at 20/1 on good to firm (how much do I know anyway!)
The assessor put Woodsley House up 3 lbs to a mark of 71 as a result of his win and I decided to keep a watching brief for a while. In the event he ran another 11 times without troubling the judge again and as during that losing sequence he came down to a mark of 63 I periodically became quite enthusiastic about his chances but sadly that success up in Scotland was not to be repeated.
The number 74 spot goes to a horse that, at the time of penning these notes, had run 125 times, and won 16 of them. There are not many 12 year olds still campaigning on the flat but evergreen sprinter The Tatling (pictured below) is still going strong. He used to contest group races at the top tracks and in October 2005 contested the Group 1 Prix De L’Abbaye at Longchamp with his career best win coming in the King’s Stand at Ascot in 2004. . Those heady days involving visits to Paris have gone and he often runs on the all weather now but he ran consistently in 2009 winning on turf at Bath and Newbury, not bad for a 12 year old.
I am reliably informed that only 15% of racehorses win a race during their careers. Such is the handicapping system that winning multiple races in a season is no mean achievement. A horse called Trip The Light (by Fantastic Light pictured below) managed to win 3 times in 2008 going from a rating of 46 to 71 in the process. Now you would think that such a horse would be difficult to place the following season but Trip The Light surpassed his efforts in 2008 by winning 4 handicaps during 2009, an achieve worthy of position number 73 in my list. For those interested in such things the horse has never won a race where there was an “s” in the official going description.
For number 72 I have chosen Mooakada, a 3 year old trained by John Gosden. This is the only horse in my “75” that never actually won a race during the season. As a horse to follow though he came very close to being more profitable that any of the others on the list. He twice finished runner up at odds of 20/1, in listed races at Yarmouth and Doncaster.
If following Mooakada would not have made you rich the horse in the number 71 spot fared hardly any better from a profit point of view as his only win came at odds of 1/5. Given that the race took place at Wolverhampton and was worth £2,590.40 to the winner it would be fair to question to ask how La De Two has found his way onto the “75.” In reality he went into many a notebook as a juvenile as on his only start he finished second at Doncaster splitting Kite Wood and Monitor Closely who went on to finish 2nd and 3rd in the St Leger. La De Two didn’t appear in 2009 until his Wolverhampton race the day after Firework Night by which time he had gone from his original trainer Barry Hills to Godolphin. Presumably his late arrival on the scene in 2009 was the result of a problem of some sort but although he didn’t beat much at Wolverhampton he at least showed his well being and may yet be able to fulfil his potential.
The next instalment featuring numbers 61 to 70 will appear shortly. I bet you can hardly contain your excitement! My thanks to the artist Lisa Miller for use of the pictures of The Tatling and Fantastic Light.
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