LARRY'S VIEW - A GOOD, EVEN RACE-TEMPO IS DESIRABLE BUT IT IS NOT ALWAYS ACHIEVABLE

By Larry Cassidy | Friday, October 12, 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.

It’s been in the news again lately … I guess it is a recurring theme.

I’m talking about the pace … or lack of it … at which some races are run. Having received a number of queries about all things tempo related, I’m happy to offer my general opinion on the matter once again.

Obviously if the race is run at a dawdling speed, no matter what the distance is, it’s very hard for the back-markers to make up ground because the majority of the field will just run home so fast in front of them. Similarly, if they go too hard up front, it is difficult for those front-runners to keep going.

Both are obvious points, but finding the happy medium between those two extremes is not always as easy as it seems.

You do find some races where you look at the form and there is just dead-set no speed in the race. You might be on a horse that normally races fifth or sixth and now you might have to take up the running, which I would be happy to do … but, having said that, you can only do it at a tempo that suits your horse. If you go at a good even tempo early on and that is too fast for the type of horse you are on, it defeats the object of the exercise.

So you could in fact be doing the right thing by your horse, and the public still might not accept the tempo that comes out of that sort of race.

If there is a race that looks like it’s got moderate speed and I could implement a text-book type ride, this is what I’d try to do.

I like to jump and kick my horse along to lead … and lead by a couple of lengths early at a reasonably good tempo. As I mentioned in a previous blog, that then enables the other horses to drop in a take a sit … and then you can slow the tempo.

By then the others have already got their positions and usually they won’t take you on at that stage … provided you don’t go too slow. Going too slow can sometimes make jockeys make a mid-race move, which can bring you undone if you are the leader.

Some riders don’t like taking up the running in those circumstances. I don’t mind doing that. If you can judge the pace right, and are confident enough doing that, you are going to win a lot of races.

That’s my textbook theory but, as we all know, what happens in theory and what can effectively be put into practice are sometimes poles apart.

Jockeys have also got to be mindful of any riding instructions they might have received. Ideally it will come down to a matter of, very importantly, knowing what your horse can do, taking the instructions on board and then applying all of that to what transpires speed-wise in the race … and working it out from there.

But, even if you want to take drastic action on occasions, that might be easier said than done. You don’t want to be in this position but if the pace is slowed and you find yourself back locked away on the fence and your horse is almost clipping heels and pulling hard … that is a very awkward place to be, particularly if they compact which they will usually be off a slow pace, and you will certainly be looking for a place to get out.

You don’t want to be climbing over their backs and nearly bringing yourself down. Sometimes you might yell at another jockey to move out of the way because you want to come out, but sometimes he can’t move either and you are stuck there. You can try to force your way out, but that move might also adversely affect your mount.

The distance of the race is important in terms of how much time you have to implement a race-plan. Nearly all of the above scenarios will severely test a rider’s patience.

So what I’m saying is, with the individual characteristics, racing patterns and abilities of each different horse and with the various viewpoints and game-plans of the different jockeys involved, arriving at the solid, even tempo that most race-goers claim they would like to see in every race is more complicated a task than might first appear to be the case.

I certainly don’t condone any race that is run at a blatantly false pace and, on face-value certainly, I can fully understand why punters might believe that too many races are run too slowly.

I just don’t subscribe to the fact that jockeys are always the ones to blame for that.

As I have detailed, there are circumstances out there that make things far more difficult for a jockey than when you are riding from the grandstand.

Till next week,
Larry.

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