THE SUNSHINE COAST NEWSPAPER COLUMN - NOBODY WANTS THE FINAL CHAPTER TO SPOIL THE WHOLE BOOK

By Graham Potter | Sunday, October 13, 2013

Graham Potter writes a weekly column for the Sunshine Coast daily. Due to demand from those having trouble accessing the paper these columns are now also published on HRO courtesy of the Sunshine Coast daily

Hay List was a champion racehorse in his own right … and I’m deliberately using the past tense.

In his hey-day both his outright ability as a competitive thoroughbred and his fortitude in overcoming a series of serious health setbacks marked Hay List as something special.

Hay List’s only misfortune, result-wise, was that he largely campaigned in the same era as the unstoppable Black Caviar but those courageous defeats at the hands of the super-mare only enhanced Hay List’s credibility as the ‘real deal’ and he carried that recognition with genuine pride.

The simple truth is that Hay List had an outstanding career in his own right as confirmed by his career statistics which shows fifteen wins and six places from twenty-eight starts with just over $2.5 million banked in prize-money.

That is a record of a very good racehorse.

That is how he should be remembered.

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A downside has emerged in recent times though which is threatening the ‘feel good’ nature of the Hay List story as his ‘retirement debate’ becomes a bit messy.

Sent out for his eighth preparation at the start September Hay List’s form has gone backwards in three starts. As an eight-year-old, quite understandably, his prowess has dimmed and with it his capacity to engage in intense battle had also been roundly diminished.

After Hay List’s nine length defeat last Saturday the calls for his retirement, which have been echoing for some time, became louder and louder as more people joined the chorus.

Some comments remained logical. Some were not so polite, but they all had the same message.

They all promoted the call for Hay List’s retirement.

Of course it remains the owners’ prerogative to decide Hay List’s future but the fact that Hay List’s trainer has stated that if the horse were to continue racing it would not be under his care because he would never forgive himself if anything happened to it should be the conclusive, closing argument on the subject from the man who knows the horse better than anyone else.

Nobody wants the final chapter to spoil the whole book.

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Interesting sideline to last week’s column where I suggested that jockeys asking to be let off their commitment for a ride they had accepted (as in the high profile Damian Oliver case recently) arguably gave the connections involved little choice in the matter.

Well Anthony Cummings blew that one out of the water.

The situation revolved around Hay List’s run last week when it was announced, belatedly, that Chris O’Brien, who had done a lot of work with the horse throughout his career, would replace Hay List’s regular rider Glyn Schofield.

O'Brien sought and received clearance for four of his five rides for which he had been engaged, but Cummings stood firm and held O’Brien to his commitment to ride one of his horses in a 1400m maiden at Newcastle so O’Brien did not get to the Group 1 at Randwick.

So score one for the connections although, with all due respect to O’Brien, I still doubt there would have been the same result if a top tier rider was involved.

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