October
JanuaryProblem was Cup, not Coolmore
Surely it’s time the antagonists in the increasingly bitter debate over Aidan O’Brien’s "mistakes" went to the paddocks for a bit of a spell (14/1, 21/1). Once race comes into it it’s time to give it away. Perhaps they should be paying more attention to the breed itself rather than the breed of So You Think’s trainers, both of whom are from stout Irish stock.
I’m sure had this outstanding racehorse been trained right through by O’Brien he would never have started in such a debilitating race as the Melbourne Cup.
He would have worked things out a bit earlier in the best interests of the horse and his future prospects. He would never have started such a brilliant horse in what has become a $6.3 million bonanza for the dregs of the breed.
Maybe the "mistakes" were made earlier?
We only have to look at subsequent races from Maybe Better, Leica Falcon and Maluckyday to see what a hard run in this race, which is past its use-by date by 100 years, can do to a thoroughbred.
Just as well So You Think was given a superb, kind ride by Steven Arnold in the Cup or else his subsequent overseas performances would have been dismal indeed. It speaks volumes for his constitution and character that he raced so well as it was.
From day one, 350 years ago when we began to select for racing qualities, the breed has been refining itself, ridding itself of the course-staying, warhorse blood we put in from domestication.
We need to remind ourselves that the thoroughbred is the only domesticated animal bred as an extension of the way the species to which they belong fitted into the environment in the first place.
They were sprinters for perhaps 200 million years before we came along and bred warhorses.
In perhaps 1000 years’ time the thoroughbred may well be travelling at "cheetah speed" — a far cry from where it all started with races in four-mile heats.
In perhaps 100 years’ time the biggest problem facing Melbourne Cup administrators will be to entice horses from the National Hunt scene in England and Ireland in order to fill the field with horses capable of running 3200 metres. This trend has already begun.
The breed will continue to refine itself back to the way it fitted into the environment in the first place, as it must under the infallible laws of nature.
Euroa (Vic)