LARRY’S VIEW - APPLYING PRESSURE TO BLACK CAVIAR IS EASIER SAID THAN DONE
By Larry Cassidy | Friday, February 17, 2012
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.
There has been a bit of conversation this week about whether Black Caviar has been allowed too easy a run by opposition jockeys in recent contests.
The fact is that as a professional jockey you quickly learn that you don’t want to go out and ride against any specific horse. Generally if you are trying too hard to beat a specific horse your focus is not really on where it should be … and that is looking after the best interests of your own mount and doing what is best for it.
The best way to beat a superior horse in a race is to ride your horse in a manner that will bring out the best of its ability. Then if things go your way, you might have a chance.
If you go and do something out of the ordinary because of what another horse is capable of, you will only jeopardize the chances of your horse … and then you can’t win anyway.
A lot of jockeys have made the blue in the past of going out to ride against a specific horse … I’ve done the same as well … but you soon realize it’s not really the way to do it.
Not that there would be a way to ride against Black Caviar anyway if you wanted to go that route.
The other day when she was one out, one back … some people asked why didn’t the jockey behind come around and try to box her in.
That wouldn’t have happened because Luke would then have simply come out three deep. He would have pushed up if he needed to do so.
He was just cantering on her and Luke would happily have said, well I’ll just sit three deep from the 600 and suddenly that other horse would have been four deep and that jockey would have looked like an idiot.
Either that or she could have just dropped back slightly and come around heels herself. In either example it would just take a couple of strides and she would have been back in charge, so, as I have already pointed out, it is plain foolishness to make your move according to what she is doing.
She is a horse that has gears and Luke places her in those gears at the right time.
She puts herself in a position where she doesn’t get into trouble anyway. So I think she is hard to ride against unless you drastically went out and targeted her and rode against her.
I think if someone did that it would stand out and you could be in trouble if you did something stupid like that.
So, from my perspective, comments about rival jockeys not putting more pressure on the champion seem to be a bit harsh.
Certainly it is easier said than done, particularly if you are not the one who has to try and do it!
Having said that, things do stay interesting. Tomorrow is a different race to last week and her win before that.
I think her last two races were sub-standard fields, but you can only beat what you are up against.
Tomorrow there is a lot of speed in the race. She’s coming back from 1400m, so there are a few things in the mix.
I still think she is unbeatable anyway, but it is definitely a different test to her recent outings.
You can certainly understand the motivation for the change of plan in running her in the Lightning tomorrow.
It wasn’t really that much of a surprise move. The Lightning is the first leg of the Global Sprint Challenge* and the financial rewards and bonuses as you move further into that race series are huge … and, of course another home win will leave her just one victory away from that magical twenty unbeaten wins in Australia.
Overseas is obviously going to be her next major mission.
Peter is not going to take her anywhere if there is any sort of risk concerning her well-being, but if she is well enough, bloody oath … for sure, she can head for Dubai if they want and then Royal Ascot.
The world is waiting for her.
Till next week,
Larry
*Apart from the substantial individual race prize-money, runners in the 2012 Global Sprint Challenge will be chasing a US $1 million bonus.
To claim the bonus a horse must win a minimum of three Group 1 races across three different countries during the 2012 Global Sprint Challenge.
This is a significant change to the previous format, which required the horse to win in three countries outside its home jurisdiction.
The bonus will be split, 75% (US$750,000) to the horse’s owners and 25% (US$250,000) to the horse’s trainer. In the event of more than one bonus qualifier, the US $1 million pool will be divided equally amongst the winners.
Tomorrow’s Coolmore Lightning Stakes, the first of the two Australian Challenge legs, will kick off the series, which then moves on to Asia for Japan’s first leg, the Takamatsunomiya Kinen on turf at the newly renovated Chukyo Racecourse and then to the new Dubai leg, the Dubai Golden Shaheen on the final day of the Dubai World Cup Carnival.
Singapore’s KrisFlyer International Sprint in May follows before the series focus shifts to the UK's three legs … the King’s Stand, the recently renamed Diamond Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot and the Darley July Cup at Newmarket.
The Challenge then returns to Japan for the Sprinters Stakes at the end of September, followed by the Patinack Farm Classic in Australia in November, and its culmination, the Hong Kong Sprint in December.
Pick three. Any three. Get it right and bank US $1 million.
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