The Corner with Garry Chittick
“The Carnival is Over”, and what a joy it was. Four days of top-class racing, renewed crowds, increased wagering; once again Melbourne has put on an event that they are so capable of. Is this the resurrection, partly, possibly, but a long way to go.
The Cup with four only Australasian-breds, whilst a great event, is hardly a vote of confidence in the horses we are breeding. This begs the question: should our wagering margin be simply an ongoing target for Northern Hemisphere-bred competitors.
I am not going to dwell on the reasons our breeders are no longer focused on the breed most suited to run two miles, as the two of you will have had the opportunity to have digested my view more than once. But I do wonder if part of the reason we are universally confronted with declining foal crops is we have taken the romance out of our game.
At the risk of repeating myself, let me say breeding is not, in the coldest terms, an ideal business model. Starting with potential sires making moon money when we all acknowledge the potential success rate, the dream of our beloved filly, when retired, with mostly a modest race record, producing a number of saleable offspring is just that: a dream. My point: to be a breeder, you need that element of respect and love to hang in.
Apparently, Cup Week and the Everest attracted a number of the millennials; are they likely to be our breeders of the future – I hope so, but it won’t be horses. As with last week’s Corner I confess after fifty years trying to find the answer, I am no nearer to the solution. Sixty years ago, the post depression, post-war individuals were just that: individuals, mostly rural, to whom the horse was not only part of the family but part of the social interaction.
Remember, Rugby, Racing, and Beer- no, you probably can’t, but you can understand breeders of that era seemed to have the time to wait; after all, they would have never been without a horse, so allowing the horse to mature, the wait only lengthened the dream.
Times have changed.
Every now and then we at Waikato are allowed a little boast; it’s very hard to win at Flemington on any day. The Cup Week is even harder with competitors from all states and many countries. Many years ago a fledging trainer Danny O’Brien and I scored on consecutive Saturdays, Group 1, then Group 2 with the beautiful Glamour Puss. I read a summary of the past week with major training establishments starting upwards of fifty horses, bearing in mind the quality of their purchases, let alone the breeders offering you would expect results and results they got. Well done.
We at Waikato only had two competitors; they both won, perhaps there is still enough of the romance in what we do.
Cheers,
G
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