FROM MY PERSPECTIVE - BECAUSE OF THE VARIABLES IN PLAY TRACK RATINGS CAN SELDOM BE SET IN STONE

By Michael Cahill | Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Five-time Group 1 winning jockey Michael Cahill is the latest addition to the HRO blogging stable. Apart from Australia, Michael has ridden in the UK, Hong Kong, Singapore, Macau, Malaysia, South Korea and Mauritius. He brings thirty-three years of race riding experience to the game and with this greater all-around experience Michael is superbly qualified to give insightful commentary on the racing scene. Michael’s personal blog, ‘From my perspective’ will appear every Wednesday on HRO.

With Boys On Tour stopping the clock in a track record time on a surface rated a Dead 5 at Doomben on Saturday there was always going to be some speculation, as there often is, about the accuracy of the track rating.

I honestly think that track was ‘dead’, even though Boys On Tour ran that time.

He is a horse that excels on those rain affected surfaces so it is feasible to him to run a track record in those conditions, so I think they were pretty accurate with their track assessment.

If anything, this time since I’ve been back riding in Queensland they might, for the most part, be a bit cautious with their track assessments whereas, in days gone by, they probably were a bit optimistic with them.

I can understand that there might have be a backlash by punters if the assessment approach was ever over-optimistic, or indeed over-cautious, because both compromise the accuracy of any form analysis, but the truth is that quite often you will never know the true nature of the track until it is raced on … that is why you can get many upgrades and downgrades as the situation demands so that you can, hopefully, finally settle on a true rating as more evidence becomes available.

I acknowledge that is must be frustrating for punters when a track is reassessed retrospectively but the easy answer is it is not an exact science and, as I said at the start, I think they got the rating right on Saturday, even if a track record was broken …

… and I think they get it right most of the time, which is all you can reasonably expect given the variables of changing weather patterns over the five hour period that it takes to conduct a race meeting and the variance in wear and tear the track is subjected to given the different amount of runners contesting the different races throughout the day.

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Doomben is generally known as a better wet weather track than Eagle Farm but how good did Eagle Farm play last Wednesday.

There had to be enormous concern for the meeting after the several days of heavy rainfall that preceded it.

I rode track-work that morning. I didn’t walk it the track, but I thought it looked particularly good.

It turned out to brilliant on the day … even Ipswich on Friday was good … so our tracks, which have received some criticism along the way, have come through this latest weather test really well.

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Apprentice Tegan Harrison rode a treble at Ipswich on Friday and followed up with a double at Doomben on Saturday to move into second place behind me in the Brisbane Jockeys’ Premiership.

Much has been said about the quality of different groups of apprentices and how it is a different world now for an apprentice compared to the old days but, at the end of the day, it is still all about the racing.

They might have been a stricter and more disciplined environment back then, but I think the apprentices learn quicker these days.

There is just so much racing experience available to them. There is also all the television footage available they can watch and study the likes of Bowman and Williams.

As a senior rider, occasionally a young rider will ask for my advice and I’m always happy to give it as far as it can assist them. Shane Scriven is in a jockey’s mentor role now. His presence and availability is a big asset to the riders.

The one thing that stays the same in any era is that three main points that will always apply as essential ingredients in any search for long-term success in the saddle.

For anyone to really succeed as a jockey, they’ve got to have the dedication, the desire and they’ve got to have the ability. It is very important that they have that desire to improve and to keep getting better.

Tegan is showing that at the moment and she is getting the reward for her hard work.

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I think the current group of apprentices in Brisbane are a good bunch.

As you can appreciate I’ve seen plenty of boom apprentices come and go in my time, but these groups of kids riding in Brisbane now are probably as good a group as I’ve seen.

The female riders are now really starting to stake their claim as the face of racing changes.

There are more female riders now. Some of them are riding particularly well. They have had the likes of Tegan (Harrison), Maija Vance and Rosie Myers, before she went back to New Zealand, showing the way.

The more success you get the more your confidence builds as a rider … and confidence is a huge factor in any successful jockey’s makeup. You can literally see it build in these young riders as they progress.

You never stop needing the dedication, the desire and the talent that I mentioned earlier but, once you have done the ground-work and reached a certain level, there are two other things a jockey needs to stay in the top half of the game … fast horses and confidence.

One without the other doesn’t quite seem to do the trick.

Till next week.

Michael

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