Peter Moody didn’t miss with his comments on Wednesday, and I couldn’t have agreed more with him on a couple of points.
I have no doubt he could walk away. Who wants to get up at 2:30am or 3am every morning to be on track when it seems like everyone is against you?
Here’s the thing: What he put on his horse Lady Tatia’s legs didn’t do anything for it. He might as well have thrown a cup of water on the horse.
A clay poultice is really just looking after the horse. I don’t use the product except on my two-year olds when I feel they might be getting a bit shin sore. Aside from that, I’ll scratch a horse if I don’t feel like they’re right and might need treatment.
But the issue is now at a head and my problem is a lack of common sense.
It’s getting to the stage where the word treatment needs a clearer definition. How far do you go with it? Is feeding or giving water to the horse treatment? It’s certainly performance enhancing in the sense that all things need food and water!
In most cases, it’s the welfare of the horse that trainers are taking into account.
Common sense just isn’t there with the treatment issue. Certainly, anything like a needle on raceday looks like it’s over and above the limit and I agree with that.
But the culture of racing is to clamp down everywhere, and that’s fine. But what is treatment? It needs to be clearly defined by people with common sense – two words I keep coming back to. Not do gooders, not those who don’t understand that the welfare of the horse should always come first.
I hope we see some positive changes across the board before things get ridiculous.
Wicked Intent
The little colt did us proud first-up last week at Doomben. I thought he ran well considering the 60kgs he was lugging – and they made him carry the weight in the run. The two that beat him were carrying 8kg and 6kg less respectively and that told over the trip.
He travelled well and for a fleeting moment off the bend I thought he might’ve been able to close the gap. But it wasn’t to be.
He’s pulled up well after the run and has really come on since the run. I couldn’t be happier with him.
The owners are keen to keep going and we’ll be setting him for the Roman Consul Stakes (1200m) at Randwick on October 3.
Should everything to come together from there, we will look at the Group 1 Coolmore Stud Stakes (1200m) at Flemington, although that’s no certainty just yet. But he deserves a test at the big time.
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