BROWNIE'S BLOG: WINXS STAKES OUTCOME COULD HELP PUT THE STRADBROKE FORM IN PERSPECTIVE

By Damian Browne | Friday, August 21, 2020

With the borders being shut major race-clubs would be entitled to be worried as to what sort of quality field they would be able to assemble for their big feature races … but they certainly have managed to assemble a pretty good field for the first Group 1 of the season, the Winx Stakes at Royal Randwick on Saturday.

The club must be very happy and excited about it. I read that are no less than nine Group I winners in the line-up which includes the likes of Verry Elleegant, Dreamforce, The Bostonian, Avilius, Fierce Impact, Kolding, Melody Belle, Con Te Partiro, Flit and Master Of Wine so it is going to be a mouth-watering contest.

Of particular interest to me is Steve Tregea’s runner NIccanova. How Niccanova goes in the Winx Stakes may give us some sort of line on the form of the Stradbroke this year because Niccanova ran well in that. As to where he matches up with those Group 1 winners down there will go some way to helping us put the Stradbroke form into perspective.

Tregea has always been a pretty good horseman and judge of where his horses can be competitive and Niccanova has shown a ton of ability. They face a very big task, but I certainly don’t think he will be taking him down there just to have a look around.

So, that is a very interesting aspect of the race for me.

Hopefully, he runs well.
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Of course, Regan Bayliss, who rides Niccanova also has a strong Queensland family connection.

Bayliss is only recently back from Hong Kong. It is interesting that he has chosen to base himself Sydney now because he was going well in Melbourne prior to going to Hong Kong,

All the jockeys who have come back from Hong Kong quickly realise that, particularly in Sydney and Melbourne, that you can’t just walk back in.
Nash Rawiller, Timmy Clark and those boys … even Tommy Berry … had to work hard and put in all the hard yards when they came home to be able get the opportunities again … and then they had to make the most of those opportunities.

That’s the thing about this game. As soon as you are away for a little bit, someone else is there to take your place so you can count on the fact that Bayliss will be on a bit of a mission at the moment.

He has got a leg-up because I see he will be riding for Anthony Cummings … but he will know, as much as anybody, that there is a lot of hard work ahead.

An early big race win would be invaluable to his career at this time.

Good luck to him.
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I didn’t really want to go here again … this old chestnut of the whip rule and the debate it seemingly raises week after week.

You can only tell authorities in so many ways that the rule doesn’t work and, if they not going to listen to the participants and punters, then there comes a point when there is no use knocking your head against a brick wall.

We all know the story that you can’t quantify any margin gained by excessive use of the whip because some horses respond the whip strikes and others resent it. There is no certainty in it.

Well, I can tell you one thing that is certain … and that is there is nothing worse than losing to someone has broken the rules and, as long as jockeys can do that and keep the race, you are going to have some very unhappy people in the beaten brigade.

In fact, the way things work now, if you were a punter and you were doing your form and you came up with two horses and you weren’t sure which way to go because you liked them both and you thought it would be a close race between them … you would probably go with the one that has got a jockey on who you think is prepared to break the whip rule to win rather than the one who probably won’t.

Who would have thought that excessive use of the whip could become a form factor.

Sound crazy.

Maybe, but not any more than the whip rule as it is currently applied!

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