This Saturday, Australian two-year-old superstar Pierro will
attempt to make history when he starts in the G1 Champagne Stakes at Royal
Randwick in Sydney. The Champagne is the third leg of Australia’s two-year-old
Triple Crown, and Pierro enters the 1600 metre contest off decisive wins in the
first two races: the Golden Slipper on April 7, and the Sires Produce Stakes a
week later.
Pierro represents everything I love about Australian racing.
Trained by celebrity conditioner Gai Waterhouse, Pierro has danced every dance
and dismantled all challengers this campaign. Declared “the 2012 Slipper
winner” by Waterhouse after his debut victory last October, Pierro was put away
for a few months to rest up for a bold autumn campaign in Sydney. The Darley-bred
son of Australian champion sire and first-season American shuttler Lonhro
opened 2012 with a win in the G2 Silver Slipper Stakes over 1100m at Rosehill.
His next task was the G2 Todman Stakes over 1200m again at Rosehill, an
important prep for the $4 million Golden Slipper, the world’s richest
two-year-old race at the same venue and distance two weeks later. Pierro dug
deep to take both contests, beating favoured Samaready, the leading
Victoria-based two-year-old, in the Golden Slipper. Wheeling back off a week’s
rest, Pierro toyed with the fresher All Too Hard, the previously unbeaten half-brother
to Black Caviar, in the Sires Produce.
Pierro wins the Golden Slipper
In short, Pierro’s campaign has been defined by fierce
contests off short periods of rest. While this may seem remarkable to foreign
audiences, in Australia it is the norm in premier racing: the country’s leading
group one performers will routinely race once every week or two weeks during
the country’s top spring and autumn carnivals. In America, we yearn for the
times when horses competed more than once a month, with the best going
head-to-head race after race. In Australia, this is still happening, usually
every Saturday in Sydney or Melbourne.
This realization would lead one to think that Australian
horses are tougher than others. Maybe this is true. I personally believe it’s
the way they’re managed that leads to their resilience. During a four-month
stint in Australia last fall (their spring), I was very fortunate to spend a
month working in the stables of one of the perennial leading trainers in
Melbourne, Victoria. Aside from the lack of race day medication (which everyone
already knows about) in Australia, there were a few things that stood out to me
in this particular yard: first of all, no horses wore stable bandages unless
they had a significant problem (and in my time there, none did).
In addition to their morning exercise, every horse was taken
out in the afternoon to walk and swim
(swimming is a big part of the Australian
training climate in general). I believe this contributed greatly to mental
soundness as well as physical soundness. There was not one horse of about 40 in
the yard that I could not lead without a bit or nose chain, or leave standing
quietly in cross ties during grooming. This included colts, geldings and
fillies of all ages. In addition, there was not one horse in the yard that
would lay back its ears or bite when a human passed the stall.
The final major contributing factor to the constitution of
the Australian race horse is, I believe, their spelling regime. “Spelling”
refers to the routine of putting the horses out to paddock for up to a few
weeks as a break from training. So while the horses are raced hard, they are
also spelled frequently. Depending on the mindset of the horse, it may be every
few starts, or every few months. Generally, when a horse seems to be falling
off form or developing a sour attitude, the trainer will send it out for a
spell. This means up to a few weeks in a paddock on a farm, just “being a horse”.
It is important to note that, unlike in Europe where horses
train on vast countryside gallops on a program that values stamina over speed,
the Australian training program is more similar to America than anywhere else.
Like in America, Australian’s train at racetracks in big cities, and they value
fast times and precocity in their racehorses. Although Australia seems a world
away, their training and racing environment are actually quite similar to those
in America.
In addition to this time at the racetrack, I also spent a
few weeks working on Darley's Woodlands Farm, where Pierro was born. In Australia, mares are
foaled outside (their tepid climate gives them that luxury), and if both are
healthy, it is possible that the foal will never see a stable until it is a
weanling or yearling. While this can have both positive and negative
implications, the upside is that all that time spent outside in its natural
environment must be healthy for the foal.
When he lines up for the Champagne on Saturday, Pierro will
attempt to become the sixth horse to win the Triple Crown. He has history on
his side. It was last won by the Waterhouse-trained Dance Hero in 2004, and
that conditioner nearly won it again in 2008 with Sebring before a narrow loss
in the Champagne. The other winners are Baguette (1970), Luskin Star (1977),
Tierce (1991), and Burst (1992).
For me, the best thing about Pierro is that there may be no
limit to how good he is. It is important to note that the dark bay has already
outrun his pedigree. As previously stated he is by Lonhro, a multiple G1 winner
at up to 2000 metres at 3,4,5, and 6, whose progeny usually don’t get going
until their later years. Pierro is out of a mare by Daylami, a stallion who
performed well as a two-year-old but excelled later in life at longer
distances, and typically sires horses in that mould. It would seem that Pierro
was never meant to win, let alone become a champion, over sprint distances at
two. If he follows his pedigree pattern and become better with age and
distance, who knows how good he could be.
Lonhro's late run earns him a legendary renewal of
the Australia Cup in 2004.
Pierro’s Champagne Stakes is one of four G1 races scheduled
for Saturday at the Royal Randwick meeting. The feature race is the 3200m
Sydney Cup. Trainer Chris Waller saddles three, including the favoured Permit
and last year’s winner, Stand to Gain. Waterhouse will saddle the mare Older
Than Time, a stalwart route horse on the Sydney and Melbourne circuits.
The most intriguing race on the card to me is the 2000m
Queen Elizabeth Stakes, where top mares More Joyous and Secret Admirer take on
Melbourne Cup winner Americain and other top older horses Manighar, Jimmy Choux,
and Rangirangdoo. More Joyous has won all three starts this year since March
24, and Manighar is four for five this year, including two wins over Americain.
In the G1 All Aged Stakes, star three-year-old filly Atlantic Jewel will take
on older males over 1400m.
Add Black Caviar going for her 20th consecutive
win across the country in Adelaide in the G1 Sportingbet Classic at
Morphetteville, and you have quite the day’s racing in the land down under. But
Australian racing breathes excitement, so what more could you expect?
**
This weekend will be an exciting one for international
racing, with additional group ones taking place in Hong Kong, South Africa, and
France. In Hong Kong on Sunday, local favourites including California Memory,
Irian, Pure Champion, Fay Fay, and Sweet Orange will line up against
international contenders like Ireland’s Treasure Beach, France’s Chinchon, and
the Mike de Kock trained Viscount Nelson. Across the globe in South Africa,
superstar sprinters will take centre stage on a card of four G1 races at Turffontein,
highlighted by What a Winter, Val de Ra, and JJ the Jet Plane in the
Computerform Sprint. In France, last out Dubai Sheema Classic winner Cirrus des
Aigles highlights the G1 Prix Ganay at Longchamp. Those looking to take down
his colours could include So You Think, Wigmore Hall, and Reliable Man.
-- Kelsey Riley is a second year trainee on the Darley Flying Start program. She will join the TDN staff in July.
No comments:
Post a Comment