ROB’S SHOUT - DECISIONS, DECISIONS, DECISIONS!

By Robert Heathcote | Thursday, April 28, 2011

Robert Heathcote is the leading racehorse trainer in Brisbane. 'Rob's Shout' - the personal blog of the premiership winning trainer will appear every Thursday on HRO.

As trainers we have to make decisions on a daily basis that can often determine success or failure on the race track.

These decisions can be quite insignificant in the eyes of the public in general, but they can have serious consequences in the outcome of races.

I had several successes on the race track over the Easter weekend and if not for a decision that could easily have been made the other way, it may well have been a different result.

I refer to the two excellent wins of Funtantes on Easter Saturday and Excellantes on Easter Monday. They are in fact half brother and sister out of the excellent mare, Cantantes, who is doing an amazing job at stud.

It's fair to say also that both of the respective decisions regarding these runners did cause me a little stress leading up to the respective races but hey, that's why we get paid the big bucks. Eh? If only that were true!

To explain what I am referring to in more detail … Funtantes had done an excellent job as a two-year-old winning multiple races which culminated in her success in the Group 2 Champagne Stakes.

She then got taken on in the Sires, when she looked the winner so we decided to give her a spell.

We got her right and took her down to Sydney for some feature Spring races and she was desperately unlucky not to have won a Listed race at Rosehill which still gives me an uneasy feeling to this day!

Without going into too much detail, there was interference over the last furlong which the connections were not made aware of by the jockey and the stewards later asked me why we didn't protest as we would have had a good case

That one hurt!

I would like to point out that it is important to understand that when horses win feature races, such as a Group 2 race, they then get penalized significantly in the handicaps and the set weights and penalties races which consequently make it much harder to win again.

It was after this Sydney campaign where Funtantes had a few problems health-wise. She contracted a virus and subsequently she didn't then race for a considerable period.

It took quite a while for her to regain her confidence and again she was desperately unlucky in several races at her last campaign over the November and December period last year.

In one of those races, Jimmy (Byrne) made a self confessed error of judgement which cost her a $100k race!

Anyway, she has always put in and given her all and with the bad run of luck she had I decided to try and freshen her up, even spell her to a degree and she was given a month in the paddock doing nothing.

It's important to realise here that she had only been back in work for five full weeks until she ran and won the Juanmo Listed Stakes race on Saturday.

I had only given her a couple of gallops, happy to try something new with her. The bloody rains came, then they gave us 57.5 kilos again which is a legacy of her Group 2 win and then we came up with a wide gate!

To be honest, I was just about to scratch her and even some of her faithful owners had booked weekends away on Straddie Island. Without Bruce H and Wayne P there, well, it just wouldn't have been a proper race day!

I decided to go with my gut instinct and run her and now the rest is history.

It irks me just a touch, nah, that's too kind a word, pisses me off actually when some self confessed experts only refer to the fact that she has been out of the winners stall for twenty-two months.

What are they saying … it was a fluke to win the LISTED RACE or the trainer had stuffed up these past twenty-two months? Did they bother to look up the fact that for at least ten of those months she had been out in the paddock!

The continual diatribe of rubbish that streams from one particular website is downright embarrassing for the racing industry. Still, having an opinion, however, bitter and twisted it is, is every individual’s right I guess!

Quite simply there are circumstances that explain many occurrences in racing and with horses, but some self confessed experts are not clever enough to understand so many of the intricate aspects of the racing industry. I'd love to see some big mouths out there take out a trainers or a jockeys licence and have a go at it!

I made a call to run this mare in this Listed $100,000 race and I got it right!

Mind you, it’s not always like that, but on this occasion there were some jubilant connections and we now have a more valuable mare!

We were certainly overjoyed with the result.

Funtantes may well find it tough to go on with the job this winter carnival, but I have learned something about her, she loves racing a touch on the fresh side!

The experiment worked to a degree.

So as far as I am concerned, the twenty-two months was worth the wait and I have some happy owners and plenty of empty champagne bottles to prove that fact!

The other call I had to make on the Easter Monday was concerning Excellantes.

Both Mel, his regular track rider and I thought he would need blinkers to make him focus and concentrate as he has a habit of 'daydreaming' when he feels he has done enough!

He had won his previous start, which was a $75,000 race, and the question was … so do we tinker with his gear after a win?

I elected not to, and, after we drew the car park again, I did think I had made the right call again.

We now know the result, he pinged and sat outside the leader and then he surged to the lead with 250 to go.

It was all over until he decided to switch off again. Devinardi was coming strong and late, but would the line come in time for us?

Phew. It did by the barest of margins, a nose, but there will still be a winner's cheque coming in the mail. An inch or five lengths … the winning margin doesn’t matter!

Mind you, I was just about kicking myself for not going with the blinkers, but he will certainly be wearing them for his next run.

I wished I had gone for the blinkers now and I was lucky to get away with it.

My main reason for not going with the blinkers for this run, knowing in my heart that he would become a blinker horse, was that he did win his previous start, he is a young horse and still learning his craft, he is getting stronger and fitter with each run and Damian (Browne) was happy for him to run without them for this race.

Yes, Damian's first comments to me upon the return to scale were, 'Put them bloody blinkers on next start!’

The irony now of course is that Damian won't be on him as he will partner Ready To Rip who does look like an up an coming good horse!

Larry (Cassidy) will be on Excellantes and yes, the blinkers will be on for their clash in the Gold Coast Guineas. (Good luck Brownie, he looks a goodun … but Damain did say it was a close call!)

The Easter weekend worked out really well in these two cases, but decisions don’t always lead to a happy ending.

I have often said that making the right call prior to a race on how to ride a particular horse can be the difference between winning and losing. The race tempo is what it is all about. Do we go forward or go back? Tough calls to make at times!

The benefit of hindsight is a wonderful thing, but we often have to make those tough calls without this benefit.

There are experts out there who love to criticise and evaluate us in this industry who simply do not understand what an 'inexact science racing can often be!

Consistency is something which I always strive to achieve. I am content that I have reached a consistent level with in my profession, but I can say that strike rates mean bugger all to me. I run my horses where my owners are happy to race. That's another blog in itself maybe down the track?

We have basically kicked off our winter carnival now and whilst the rewards can be higher and the disappointments greater, the daily decision making process is basically no different to any other time of the year.

Our success is often gauged on whether we get the decisions right or wrong!

Of course any trainer has to have the quality horses to be able to do well and I am just lucky enough to have some nice horses at present.

I don't always get the decisions right, but one thing I learned very early in my career as a horse trainer. If I made a stuff up or a mistake, try not to do it again!

I have Buffering and Woorim in the Group 2 Victory Stakes on Saturday. Yes, two of my best stable horses, but try winning a one of these races.

Wow, only a small field but full of class with Azzaland’s imposing record, Atomic Force’s recent group 1 Galaxy win and Zero Rock, well she is simply the best mare up here!

I have had setbacks with Buffering and the rain will not help Woorim but we will be there on Saturday having a decent crack at it!

What's that I hear outside? Yeah more bloody rain … just about knocks me out for Saturday!

I will leave you with this one, horses are often like computers, they won't always do what we want them to do, but they will always do what we have programmed them to do!

Cheers for now.
Robert

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