LARRY’S VIEW - WELCOME TO AUSTRALIA’S GREATEST WEEK IN RACING

By Larry Cassidy | Friday, October 28, 2011

Larry Cassidy currently has forty-two Group 1 successes behind his name. He is a multiple Premiership winning jockey having taken out three titles in Sydney and one in Brisbane. Larry’s View, the personal blog of this top class rider will appear on horseracingonly.com.au every Friday, workload permitting.

It’s that time of year when even those with little interest in racing take time out to watch a horse race in Melbourne.

Melbourne Cup 2011 is almost upon us and picking the winner is the task at hand. From laymen to experts, everybody has an opinion and a prediction … but what type of horse and what kind of ride is needed to become a Cup winner?

Ideally, you need a horse that can definitely get itself into a position close to the fence in the first part of the race. In other words it would be good if the horse had a little bit of gate-speed, but it must then be able to come back underneath you.

After that I guess the most important thing … after the first 200-300m … is to get into a rhythm until about the 1200m mark. The horse needs to relax and do no work.

You don’t want a horse that gets uptight because you need to relax in order to run a strong two miles.

Most of the time the race is run at a genuine tempo. From the 1200m mark, when the track starts turning, you must save ground and have cover, then start tracking into the race from the 800m mark.

You do not want to produce your sprint until the famous Flemington Clock Tower. Then, crickey, if you can show a turn of foot … like a 100m to 150m sprint … you are going to be very hard to catch if you run out the journey strong.

Apart from what happens in the running itself, the horse has to be able to handle the whole day mentally.

A lot of people don’t think about the mental part of the horse’s makeup. It is hugely important because it is a very hyped-up day. Especially when they are going out … when they are leaving the enclosure … it is very noisy.

You are extremely close to the crowd. They are hanging over the fence. There are things getting chucked up in the air, so you really need a horse that can handle that. That’s a mental thing. It’s got nothing to do with his ability to run.

Some horses can go to pieces on the day. If it goes to pieces before you go out, you’ve just wasted two, three, four to five lengths.

So their mental toughness has to be there as well.

All of the above applies and is there for the rider to take into account.

For his part, the jockey basically has two options early depending on where you are drawn. You either have to be quite positive out of the gates and say right, I’m going to try and grab that spot I mentioned earlier.

Either that, or you go the other way. Relax out of the gates … let the others go and come back behind them and get a spot back close to the fence.

You do not want to be three deep. Even three deep with cover … you don’t want to be three deep! Some will be. Some have to be, of course. You just don’t want to be one of them.

So, you have to have that in mind. Getting the horse to relax then is paramount and that is just as important for the rider. You’ve got to be in the moment.

A quote from Glen Boss … he said he was just in the zone, and that’s where you have to try to be.

What you have to be careful of is the temptation to go too early. You might have a lap full of horse and be four lengths off them and you move forward and hit the front 100m before that clock-tower.

You look up and it’s still 300m to go and you think … oh my God. It’s a long 300m if you go too soon at Flemington and in a race like that they are going to wear you down.

So yeah, there is a lot that has to go right with both horse and rider before you can come back a winner in the Cup.

While Tuesday might have the race that stops a nation, Derby Day is an absolutely magic day.

When I won on Arena in the Derby in 1998 it was one of the highlights of my career. It is just such a huge occasion and to win the main race of the day was a great feeling. The crowd was just going berserk.

Someone will get to enjoy that feeling again tomorrow … and then it’s on to the Cup and the Oaks.

It’s a time for quality horses, big prize-money, huge crowds … welcome to Australia’s greatest week in racing.

Till next week,
Larry

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