BROWNIES'S BLOG: ABOUT TRACK CONCERNS, JOCKEY ALTERCATIONS AND A GOOD OLD NZ BRED STAR

By Damian Browne | Friday, April 24, 2020

I’ve been asked the question … should we be apprehensive at all about how the Eagle Farm track will come back given the fact that its return to action has been delayed?

Racing has not taken place at Eagle Farm for the past month and, at the last check of the program, it will be another month before the track comes back into play on May 23 when it will host two Group 2 events (the Victory Stakes and the Champagne Classic) and one Group 3 contest (the Gunsynd Classic).

Giving its history over recent years, it is always a worry when you hear about the track being given ‘more time off’. Past evidence, particularly with Eagle Farm, would suggest that doesn’t necessarily bode well but equally that doesn’t necessarily mean it will be the case this time around.

In the last couple of race-meetings they did have at Eagle Farm it did look to have a lot more kick-back than there should have been around the top corner and I also thought the colour of the grass had gone a bit funny. I don’t know if that was a sign that they were having problems or not.

It is difficult and probably unwise to speculate because the bottom line is that nobody will know how good the track is until it gets back to racing for a couple of months.

But yes, I guess it is like trainers when they say they have suffered a little bit of a ‘hiccup’ with a horse going into a race you worry that there is something not quite right there and it is the same when track managers are given more time with the track and the schedule is changed to accommodate that. It is not what you really want to hear.
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The conversation on the quality of racetracks in general is a different one now to what it was in the old days.

Whether they are just starting to ‘baby’ the tracks a bit more, I don’t know.

Nowadays, people are always talking about track-bias and always looking for something that is wrong with the track or worrying about if they race on a heavy track today, the track will be stuffed next week and so on … whereas before people just kept on keeping on, just doing their job and dealing with the circumstances without making a meal of it.

I know it is different times with different workloads for the tracks and you can understand every club will always be wanting to provide the best racing surface it can.

That is in their hands and we, on the outside, just have to hope for the best and take it as it comes.
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The altercation between two jockeys at Doomben on Wednesday was as unfortunate as it was unnecessary.

Being a jockey, you are always riding on a fine line in races. You are often pushing the boundaries as far as you can in taking those small gaps and making split second decisions. That’s the nature of the job as long as you don’t step over the line … and I guess that’s how it is in life as well.

We’d even have a bit of a push or shove or there would be a few words said between jockeys on occasions after a race but, again, you can go to that line but you can’t cross it, as in any physical confrontation, under any circumstances. That is taking it a step too far.

Most race-days something is said between jockeys. They might try and get in the others face and make out they are real tough … even though there is only four feet nothing of most of us.

It is a bit of letting off steam, but no more than that. It happens all the time without incident.

They all know the parameters so, if anyone does step over the line, they have to accept the consequences.
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On a more friendly note, for those who want to watch a champion racehorse in action the Hong Kong champion Beauty Generation will be trying to claim his third Group 1, Champions Mile at Sha Tin on Sunday.

The big days in Hong Kong racing are always great to watch anyway but this could be something special.

Beauty Generation is trained by John Moore whose magnificent training career in Hong Kong will finish at the end of their season because of the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s rules dictating a specific retirement age.

I don’t quite understand that to be honest. It’s been a bit of a weird rule. John has been one of the greatest trainers in Hong Kong and you would think they would try to keep him.

Everybody’s different. Some people are eighty going on forty and some people are forty going on eighty so arguably working with exact physical age criteria in this regard is maybe not the best idea.

Hong Kong’s loss could be Australia’s gain though if John was to relocate here. If he does it would be great for the particular jurisdiction he chooses to come to and very good for Australian racing in general.

Incidentally, Beauty Generation is New Zealand bred … and, as we all know, a lot of good things come out of New Zealand!

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