October
SeptemberHysterical
Richard Callander is great value, but logic isn’t his strong point and he occasionally gets a tad hysterical, as in his column deriding the Horse of the Year results (11/9).
While a case can be made, as Richard has, for Melito as three-year-old filly of the year, I don’t think it’s quite as cut and dried as he makes out.
The number of Group 1 wins in a season is not necessarily the be-all and end-all in determining who is the best racehorse, but the fact is that Faint Perfume and Melito won two each.
Yes, Melito beat the older horses and males to win her two Group 1s, but who’s to say Faint Perfume couldn’t have done so if asked?
Richard makes much of Melito’s minor placings at the top level and wins at lower levels, but many good judges would question the relevance of these (except in the case of a Group 1 handicap where a minor placegetter is giving weight to the winner).
Versatility is often cited as a factor, but neither Melito nor Faint Perfume displayed much of it —Melito couldn’t win beyond 1400m and Faint Perfume’s Group 1s came at 2000m and 2500m, although she did win the Group 2 Kewney at 1400m.
The bottom line is that the two fillies met on only three occasions (because Melito followed a sprinting trail in the autumn). Once (1000 Guineas), Melito finished a head in front of Faint Perfume (second and third respectively). The other two times Faint Perfume thrashed her (50 lengths in the VRC Oaks).
Richard is entitled to his opinion, but to start calling the judges who disagree "clueless" is to enter the territory of stones and glass houses.
I note Richard happily admits to voting for Typhoon Tracy for Horse of the Year, which to my mind was probably the night’s most questionable result.
Yes, she won more Group 1s than any other horse, but two of those wins were in small fields in "warm-up" events — not grand finals — and the other two were in those mares-only races of which there are now about half a dozen and which are the cheapest Group 1s on the calendar. When she got to her grand final, admittedly with her whack of weight, she ran 14th.
In my opinion there was no standout candidate for the major award, and that therefore it should have gone to the horse who easily won the best race on the calendar — So You Think.
Cremorne (Vic)