October
MarchA matter of timing
Mitch Matheson (28/3) rightly points out that many of our major winners this autumn will carry asterisks against their names given the limited competition available due to restrictions on the movements of people and therefore presumably horses.
But I doubt the winners will object too much, even if those in the biggest races at The Championships have to settle for half the prizemoney.
It’s instructive to look back on the last example of a similar (though far less serious) crisis — the equine influenza outbreak of 2007.
EI’s effect was restricted to the spring, so it’s interesting to look at the results of the spring majors — the Caulfield Cup, Cox Plate and Melbourne Cup.
Do people view Efficient as an unworthy Melbourne Cup winner? I don’t, but it’s worth noting that the 21-runner field included only three horses trained in the northern hemisphere — Purple Moon (second), Mahler (third) and Tungsten Strike (last).
El Segundo thoroughly deserved his Cox Plate considering he ran in three of them, finishing second in 2006 and fourth in 2009 after a long absence through injury.
There were no foreign raiders in that race but there were some fairly handy types including Haradasun, Miss Finland, Divine Madonna, Zipping, the aforementioned Efficient and Lad of the Manor.
Admittedly Caulfield Cup winner Master O’Reilly was no superstar and had 29 subsequent starts for three minor placings.
But it’s worth remembering that a genuine star in Maldivian probably would have won that race easily if some fool hadn’t placed a camera in his starting stall.
Sometimes it’s just about being in the right place at the right time.
Campbells Creek (Vic)