Winning Post - Letter Of The Week Archive

I can’t let John Adams’s field of Australia’s best steeplechasers of the metric era (19/8) pass without comment.
I can understand Crisp not being in there, given that he didn’t race in Australia after July 1970 and that his UK feats were achieved in a UK stable.
However, the disclaimer that “only performances in Australia and New Zealand were considered” is a lame excuse for leaving out the greatest Australian-trained international performer of the era, Karasi.
If we are rating Australian steeplechasers, clearly Karasi should be included as he was Australian-trained throughout his career.
If, on the other hand, we are rating performances in Australian steeplechases, why would results in New Zealand count but not Japan?
Where is the logic?
And if only Australasian performances were considered, why mention that Gogong “later had a successful career in America over jumps”, that So And So “later raced successfully over jumps in Italy and England” or that St Steven won the Nakayama Grand Jump?
From seven starts in steeplechases, Karasi won more than $2.9 million. I haven’t done the maths, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s more than Adams’s 12-horse field won over jumps between them.
He won the Nakayama Grand Jump, a race open to the world’s best, not once but three times.
And yet Adams apparently rates him below Leading Bounty. No knock on Leading Bounty, but please.
Judging by his summary of each horse’s achievements Adams seems obsessed by weight carried over the minimum. Isn’t the opposition a horse is beating more relevant?
In Japan, Karasi beat the host nation’s best plus the best of the overseas raiders attracted by a huge prize purse (by jumps standards).
Many of the horses in Adams’s “best of the best”, especially the more recent ones, were racing mainly against failed flat stayers.
If you want to line up the form, consider that in Karasi’s last Grand Jump win (2007), he came up against Personal Drum, winner of the previous year’s Grand National and Hiskens steeples.
Karasi won, Personal Drum ran sixth, beaten 10 lengths. They both carried 63.5kg.
Adams points out that in Leading Bounty’s second Grand National win, he had 67kg on a minimum of 61.5kg.
Well done him, but the question is who had the minimum 61.5kg?
The answer is Stacey Jones (ran second, only steeple win was in a New Zealand maiden), Down to Zero (third, steeplechase record 15: 0-1-1) and Big Zap (fifth, won a Crisp but steeplechase record 19: 1-2-0).
Eight ran in that Grand National, of which six completed the course.
In his Grand Jumps, Karasi faced fields of 14, 15 and 15.
The quality of this animal is further indicated by his fourth in Ethereal’s Melbourne Cup.
I realise everyone’s entitled to an opinion, but I’d have thought the inclusion of Karasi in the best dozen Australian chasers of the metric era would be what the Americans call a no-brainer.