MY CALL - THERE IS MORE TO ON-PACER'S SUCCESS THAN THE OLD, TIRED AND LAZY 'TRACK BIAS' ARGUMENT

By David Fowler | Tuesday, August 27, 2013

David Fowler is the principal thoroughbred caller for Radio TAB. David, who is a keen form student and punter, has enjoyed a lifetime involvement in the racing media. His personal blog, ‘My Call’, appears exclusively on HRO.

Was the Eagle Farm track biased last Saturday?

Several winners raced in or near the lead which some automatically equated to the track being biased.

Some were measured in their tones, others were frantic.

A simple, and convenient, thought process yet many of those people who draw those sort of immediate conclusions rarely back winners over 10/1.

There is no argument with a firming good 2 surface and the rail true, on pacers dominated. The conditions on hand usually present these scenarios.

But the naysayers will have it that the track was so biased that it was impossible to run on and be competitive.

So wrong!

Again, it's a lazy argument when only winners are used in the analysis on how a track played.

To begin with Bribie and Chipp’N Away were winners who ran on and several placegetters made up ground.

But why can't the "bias freaks" readily concede it is pace-related issues that often determine the result and not a perceived track inconsistency.

Teronado didn't win on Saturday but got awfully close. It wasn't a biased track that beat him but the fact that they ran the first 600m of a 1200m race in 36.6 seconds!

If there are in-form runners on the speed, I don't care how good you are, it's mathematically impossible to win being a cap catcher with those figures posted.

Similarly there was plenty of noise about Wish Upon A Star winning at $21 bucks (which this blogger did tip in the top four on RadioTAB).

But when you run your first 800m of 1400m in 48.2, even with limited ability you are going to be competitive.

Yes, the nature of the track played a hand but so did the tempo of the race in this case.

Listen Son is a hard tracker who excels at the Eagle Farm 1200m. He drew the rails and ran his first 600m in 35 seconds so he is going to prove might hard to beat.

Yet Funtantes and Startmesup came from midfield and worse and ran him to a narrow margin.

Rash conclusions are exactly that. Sit back, smell the roses, and realise there was more than one reason that on-pacers won the lion's share of races on Saturday.

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Just for the record, I couldn't have entertained Borehole, Maling and Chipp’N Away as winning prospects on the weekend.

Rough place hopes, perhaps, but, for me, it was hard to rate them higher.

But the starting market is the opinion of a handful. Who is to say they are right all the time.

If you've got the time and effort, preparing your own market is a very handy tool to have in your punting armoury.

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Horses don't turn up at the races by themselves.

They have owners, trainers, strappers and jockeys and it never ceases to amaze me the pride that is placed in a thoroughbred by all of the above.

It's all the more evident when tragedy strikes as it did when Latin News broke down badly at the home turn on Saturday.

I barely know Bryan Dias and don't know Rikki Jamieson who rode Latin News but their grief was clearly evident as was one of the owners who was on the scene when the seven-year-old was humanely put down.

We whinge about backing losers but what I witnessed on Saturday reminds me it's not all about the punt all of the time.

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They say Justin Wood is just as good a thing as the Coalition beating Labor in the Federal Election in his charity bout with Ryan Wiggins.

Not sure about that but their stoush will be on around 7pm at the Eatons Hill Hotel on Southpine Road this Thursday.

Rob Heathcote (Wiggins) and Tony Gollan (Wood) are acting as "the corner men".

Should be a good night.

Until next week.

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