MANAGING THE QUIET TIMES - A FACTOR MOST STABLES HAVE TO DEAL WITH ON OCCASIONS

By Graham Potter | Saturday, October 30, 2021

Small to medium sized racing stables have to manage the respective programs of their individual horses with a great deal of care and focus. Of course, that general principle applies across the board to all trainers but, unlike the large, high-profile stables who have an abundance of runners to cover a multitude of options, trainers in the category mentioned above have a more critical need to do all they can to ensure that all is well with their horses … whether they are in the paddock, or just coming into training or in full work … as they don’t have the safety business buffer of those big stables.

Their quiet times … and there will always be some quiet times … just puts that much more emphasis on having patience to see out a period of relative race inactivity, while keeping all of the backroom work rolling along smoothly.

Melissa Taylor stable has gone through just such a period in October, only sending out three individual runners for four starts.

The Kewess was the runner who raced twice during this period with his best finish being an unlucky third place in a Three-Year-Old Quality Handicap over 1200m at Doomben on October 2. Read that story here:

PROTEST DISMISSED - BUT NOBODY CAN FAULT THE COMPETITIVE SPIRIT OF THE KEWESS

The other two runners to compete in October were both two-year-olds.

Guru Class, who had won a barrier trail at the Sunshine Coast on September 21, made her race debut on the same day that The Kewess finished third (October 2) in a Two-Year-Old Plate over 1050m while Ongoing Interest had her first outing a week later on October 9 in a Two-Year-Old Fillies Plate over 1000m at Eagle Farm.

Both Guru Class and Ongoing Interest finished unplaced but, as always, two-year-olds are a work in progress and those runs are still a positive as they can be marked up as part of their education. Some need a lot more time to develop than others.

While it has been a quiet October, the fact that over the last four months, the Melissa Taylor stable has sent out four different winners, claiming five victories between them, puts the stable’s effort in its proper, positive perspective.

Kudu won two of those races, The Kewess, Mob Buster and Vienna Empress won one race each with The Kewess also recording a second and two third placed finish during this time, while Kudu also chimed in with a two runner-up finishes and Mob Buster added a second and a third place onto the scoreboard … that’s eleven first three finishes in twelve starts between them over this period of time.

Those results speak to the expertise of the stable in getting the best out of their horses.

Reinforcing that standing is the fact that The Kewess is a two-time winner from eight starts (at a 25 percent strike-rate). Kudu is a three-time winner from twelve starts (at a 25 percent strike-rate) … and Mob Buster edges both of those runners out in the strike-rate stakes … as a three-time winner from eleven starts coming in at a 27.27 percent strike rate.

Again, a very healthy stable statistic.

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