Part 2: A Day In The Life - Race Selection
By Steph Whiteside
Race selection can be a tricky business. So many things go into the placement of a horse including trial or jump out performance, distance, surface, track and grading. Trainers and Racing Managers want to give their horses every opportunity to win, so planning a campaign and most importantly, executing it is always top of mind.
You may have heard of handicapping or benchmarking. Handicapping regulates and equalises the playing field for all horses and is controlled by a ratings or benchmarking system across each jurisdiction. These systems gauge what weight a horse may carry, and also assign a numerical value to them based on past performances which then dictates what grade of race they may be eligible to contest, for example, BM58 or BM70.
Tracks and track ratings also play a part in where to take a horse. Tracks can be tight turning or roomy which suit different types of horses. The weather gods can also be very kind or very cruel! Tracks are rated by numbers such as a fast 2 which is more or less rock hard, to a good 4, soft 6 and heavy 10. There are also polytracks to consider as well which are synthetic surfaces which tend to be used across the winter months.
Manny Gelagotis from our partners Peter Gelagotis Racing is both Assistant Trainer and Racing Manager so always has a finger on the pulse in guiding each horse’s campaign and essentially, career. One question that gets asked a lot is around how to get a horse started. Manny takes us through how they get their horses going on their racing journeys.
“When they’re young, 2 - 3 years old, based on their track work, trials and jump outs, and naturally feedback from all parties involved - in particular track riders and using our naked eye - generally most horses in Australia will kick off at a sprint journey (1000m-1100m), but one thing to also consider is the pedigree of the horse.”
“The majority of young horses however do kick off over that sprint trip, and we gain a profile and assess their speed and ability to be able to follow through depending on the quality of their runs and their maturity. You naturally try and connect that up to determine if they are firstly ready to go to a race, and if so, where best to place them to get that experience.”
The Gelagotis stable has had some absolute stars over the years, with Levendi, who has recently gone to stud, being one. “When Levendi first came to stable, he had 2 - 3 jump outs and was adapting and coping really well, eating up, great leg and bone structure and was sound. With a horse of that pedigree and profile, we
strongly considered turning him out but he was going so well and all signs were positive at the stable so we decided to give him a race start and subsequently, he went really well but you could sense he was more towards the end of a prep then the start. We often have to ask the question and reasons why we should give them a race start and with Levendi, the yes’s outweighed the no’s so we took a punt and ran him and he won. We did turn him out afterwards.”
“Straight away when you get those better type of horses, 2 or 3 year old feature types, we’ll go away and say well, we’ve got something here,
and set our barometer to where we think they may go, then consider a spell and roughly how long it takes to get back into full fitness (10 – 12 weeks) and coordinate backwards from there - all going to plan!”
When it came time for Levendi to come back into work and resume his campaign, Team Gelagotis had profiled him as a horse with above average ability. “It’s a bit trickier when you’re talking about carnival horses as you can sit back and earmark potential races. Levendi came back and targeted those 3 year old features because we believed he was a horse of substance based on his performance first up.”
“We earmarked the Caulfield Guineas and worked backwards from that to determine the best lead up races starting with a 3YO BM64 at Mornington over 1200m midweek. It wasn’t the ideal track, but it was the ideal race so we were hoping he would adapt as we wanted to keep him in his own age group and right grade and it was a city class meeting and next step forward, so he went from country maiden to city class.”
“With the Caulfield Guineas campaign, once Levendi had competed at that level and showed he could match it, you move forward with the options that open up based on performance and you juggle things around. Stables that aren’t scared to travel mean you can always look at Australian racing calendar and choose from there. It doesn’t bother us where the races are, it’s about placing the horse in right grade and if they’re good enough, they will travel.”
We often see a horse that suits one track over another ie: a 1200m over the long Flemington straight versus the tight turning Moonee Valley. Team Gelagotis train out of their Moe base but give us an insight to some of the local tracks. “On-speed horses, you can take them to the tight tracks. We train at Moe so when our horses race there, they have home ground advantage as they train there daily.”
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“It’s horses for courses, but in Victoria, we’re fortunate to have plenty of spacious big tracks like Geelong, Bendigo and Sale. These are better for horses that like a bit of room. We’re also fortunate in that we have many race meetings to choose from, from day to night meets, weekends and weekdays.”
Whilst the Gelagotis stable is extremely successful, they are also measured in the amount of horses they keep. This alone helps them set, track and execute each horses campaign to give them the best chance to show what they can do with considered placement.
“The selection process makes it easier for stables with say, 20 - 40 horses in work, as you can really focus on managing that number. We try to avoid meeting stablemates in races so for us, that’s a good number to ensure there isn’t any clashing.”
“Tracks are critical, and when you go to town, you’ve got city tracks like Sandown and Flemington that are quite similar, big and spacious, then you have Moonee Valley which is a real speciality track, and Caulfield which sits somewhere in between. All race tracks have issues and challenges for
horses – and even if you select the perfect race and track, then you’re faced with things out of your control in race tempo, speed and surface. It doesn’t matter where you go, those variables are there are probably greater now than they used to be.”
So as you can see, it’s not just about picking any old race and hoping for the best. Horses are carefully placed based on ability, breeding, trackwork and jump out or race form, and even then, some things are always out of a trainer and horse’s control. It’s safe to say though that stables like Team Gelagotis have got a tried and tested system in place to ensure their horses are profiled and given every opportunity to showcase their ability.
Thankyou to Peter Gelagotis Racing and Manny Gelagotis for their insights.
