Weekend Wisdom 10th April 2016
Championship Finale
There seemed a surreal quality to the second tranche of the Randwick Autumn Carnival. Yes, the dazzling mares, Azkadellia and Lucia Valentina, provided the necessary spark, but the fuse remained stubbornly unlit.
Day two lacked the “wow” factor of Winx and Chautauqua. For this I blame the track and the programme, in equal parts.
Last year I wrote: “It seems unreasonable, given the Harbour city's propensity for moist autumn weather, to expect the Randwick track not to play idiosyncratically. On Saturday, our most important day of racing, the moveable running rail was fixed in the 6m position, too wide for comfort and hardly ideal, but presumably necessary because the track had been used the week before.”
Six metres is too wide for such an eminent day’s racing.
Rail True is universally recognised as problematic for fence dwellers, nonetheless, the action is visually spectacular.
March the rail out to the six metre position and the racing takes on a slightly fluky quality. Did you have to be “up there”, or “on the fence”? There’s an unmistakeably hollow dimension pertaining to such introspection.
Missrock was the only winner from the “running line”, an atypically Randwick situation.
As to the programme, I sensed that winners appeared from nowhere.
While this is a perfectly acceptable racing phenomenon, for me it carries a European taint. That is, horses “parachuted in” to carry off rich carnival pickings.
Lucia Valentia, a lone probing Coolmore Classic return a month prior to her Queen Liz assignment.
Gallante, a masterly Lloyd Williams agenda, but bypassing the customary Tancred or Chairmans prelude.
Sofia Rosa, fresh off the boat, with a spring reconnaissance and a symphonic Bowman to guide her home.
Even Azkadellia was more a reprise of her fabulous Doncaster routine, than the culmination of a well-executed build-up.
“Well Played”, we clap politely.
Clearly the orgasmic denouement of Winx’s Doncaster assignation or Chautauqua’s T J Smith re-enactment remain resolutely seven days hitherto.
Classes of 2014/15
The Championship’s festival of eight million-dollar-plus majors must surely well-inform subsequent carnivals? Perhaps not.
There appears to be a sting in the Group One tail.
Of the fifteen Championship office-bearers (Criterion has dual membership), only three have managed to match subsequent expectation.
Chautauqua is the standout with 5 wins from an expected 3.5 wins, The Offer has snuck provincially (Hawkesbury and Bendigo) to achieve 2 wins from 1.4, while Mongolian Khan is relying on long starting prices to cling to 1 win from 0.8 expected.
The 5 female champions have been spectacularly unsuccessful. Peggy Jean, winless from 9 subsequent starts, Diamond Drille and Gust Of Wind off to the maternity ward after 8 winless appearances, Amanpour failing miserably in 3 post-Turf-Queen sojourns.
Rising Romance is the poster-girl. One cheap homeland win from 19 runs since her Oaks major. An expectation of 3.2 leaving her ardent admirers well in the red.
Safely underperforming since their Championship headlines have been Lankan Rupee, Sacred Falls, Kermadec and Criterion.
The hasty retirement of Pride Of Dubai after one plain performance now appears wise, whilst the termination of It’s A Dundeel’s racing career subsequent to his Queen Liz romp is evidence of either canny perspicacity or sheer serendipity.
Collectively our Championship heroes have started on 142 occasions since their Autumn pinnacles for 16 wins at an expectation of 22.5
Day One majors (TJ Smith, Doncaster, Derby, Sires) are running at 12 wins from 71 starts, expected 14.7, a mediocre performance.
But pitiable by comparison are the subsequent efforts of Day Two principals (Queen Liz, Cup, Queen Of The Turf, Oaks), 4 wins from 71 starts, when 7.8 wins is the line.
It would seem that the mountainous achievement of a Championship major renders our protagonists depleted for their ensuing career.
Or it may beg the question that the monstrous purse on offer lacks justification. An executive salary delinked from the earnings of the majority.
More Lotto than merit?
Lloyd’s Brace
Prior to this year’s Sydney Cup renewal, our leading trainer was perceived to have a stranglehold on the event, his triumvirate occupying three fifths of the market.
Waller’s well-prepared trio were ultimately denied by two-mile grand-final aficionado, Lloyd Williams with Gallante.
My eyes were drawn to the significant post-time support on the exchange for the eventual winner. It was then I perceived the execution of a masterly scheme.
Gallante emigrated to Australia on the back of six starts in France, including a 60-1 victory on Bastille Day in the eminent Grand Prix De Paris.
One run in last year’s autumn preceded a light spring campaign encompassing a Randwick familiarisation in two WFA appearances.
This time in, Gallante resumed unflatteringly in a Caulfield mile, before, tellingly, preparing for his Cup assignment by attempting to “make all” in the Manion.
It is this sudden front-running that announces winner-readiness. Witness Prince Of Penzance, preceding his Cup victory with a front-finding Moonee Valley Cup hit-out after four rearward-settling runs from a spell.
And so Gallante safely repelled the thrusting Team Waller, giving Lloyd Williams his third Sydney Cup, Major Drive and Mourayan having taken the more customary Chairmans route to their victories.
Preparation is king.
@justideal
