‘Chautauqua deserves to take his place in The Everest’

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The whole saga of Chautauqua’s racing embargo, in place until he trials to the satisfaction of stewards, borders on farce. Comic and dramatic from the start.

Frankly it doesn’t make sense given that he’s never significantly transgressed on raceday. He’s been slow to begin on occasions but been no barrier rogue.

Yes, of course, he was scratched at the barriers from last year’s Manikato Stakes. Why? Because, according to that night’s stewards report, “after getting its leg up in its starting stall, (he) underwent a veterinary examination behind the barriers and was subsequently a late withdrawal on veterinary advice at 9.33pm when found to be lame in the near hind leg.”

Hardly a damning indictment on his barrier manners. The vet ruled him lame. He was not ordered to trial, as far as I am aware, after that incident. It was certainly not mentioned in that stewards report.

Either side of that night, he runs fourth in two Group 1 sprints – last year’s Everest and in the Darley Classic. He misses the start just one length in the Sydney race and begins satisfactorily at Flemington.

These are not the performances of a horse who has gone sour or feeling sore or lost interest in racing.

Chautauqua then has a break and trials satisfactorily on February 15. Then the saga begins when he refuses to jump in successive trials at Randwick on February 27. In hindsight, that can’t have been a good decision to send him around again when obviously something was ‘in his head’. RISA lists his embargo as current from the date.

He’s since repeated the dose four times although he did, in fact, eventually leave the gates in his most recent trial on August 7.

Why is he doing this? Nobody could possibly know. But I suspect that the most likely explanation is some combination of ‘taking the you know what’ and a lack of adrenaline. No noise, no people – perhaps he knows it’s not fair dinkum – it’s trial day, not raceday. I reiterate he’s not been a raceday rogue.

Maybe he’s lost interest but they said the same about Pakistan Star last year and yet with perseverance and official tolerance, he’s returned to the top of his race winning game. Pakistan Star might have been lost to racing but for reasonable decision making.

So what are the arguments against him being reinstated and potentially running in the Everest if one of the remaining slot holders wanted to choose him….or running in any other suitable race.

1. The punter must be protected. Rebuttal – punters can never be infallibly protected and, most of the time, industry officials pay no more than lip service to same.

Punters are not protected by contraventions of the whip rule; the bizarre application of the denied a fair start rule; by successful protests third against first (remember Choisir); subjective protest decisions; substitutes or when jockeys weigh in light.

2. He’d be denying another horse a start in the race. That’s irrelevant in the case of the Everest and likely to be largely irrelevant in the type of race he’d contest.
3. You can’t tinker with the rules. Well, I can give you any number of examples of that; not to mention clubs using their discretion to determine the make up of feature race fields.

It was not that long ago, 2011, that Melbourne stewards took the extraordinary step of reallocating the starting gate of noted barrier rogue Here De Angels to protect champion Black Caviar from potential harm at Moonee Valley.

Here De Angels drew the outside of the five-horse field in the Schweppes Stakes but was moved to barrier six with an empty gate between him and Black Caviar in barrier four.

What about that famous Missile Stakes flag start in 1984. Everyone had bet, of course, on the basis of a normal barrier start but the late call was made to begin them with a flag because of the conditions. The 100/1 chance Plus Vite got the money. One horse Zany Zephyr had an attendant standing in front of him when the race began!!

So, let’s say Chautauqua takes his place in the Everest field and doesn’t jump? There’s no risk, other than financial, to any other horse or human.

He – or any other horse – might begin and then fall over or wrench a joint or suffer severe interference or pull a shoe or fail to handle the conditions.

Goodness me, I wonder if that’s why they call it the ‘punt’?  You pay your money and take your chances. That’s why most of us eventually learn to walk, rather than run, to the tote window. What’s meant to be is meant to be.

I’m sure there’d be no shortage of bookmakers wanting to offer a ‘he jumps or doesn’t jump’ market, thereby providing your potential insurance.

Come Everest day, If I were a slot-holder, I’d rather have Chautauqua as my reserve runner than take the punt on a reserve runner from the consolation field or, worse still, cop the last place prize-money if no reserve was available (which is part of the terms and conditions).

Is it possible that he could be reinstated at the discretion of Racing New South Wales or the Australian Turf Club (a slot holder) or the stewards?

I’m not sure but I do know that the stewards have discretion in certain areas including determining, these days, whether 12 year-old horses are suitable to race.

I’d just want to be careful we don’t start banning every quirky horse who appears on the scene.

The sport might never have seen such historic moments as Manfred comfortably winning the 1925 AJC Derby after he ran sideways across the track when the barrier rose and gave his rivals an estimated 100 metres start.

“The huge crowd was dumbfounded, especially those who had laid odds on the colt, and few thought it possible that he would be equal to making up such leeway and win as he did. Manfred gave a wonderful display of galloping, and assisted by the fact that the race was on the slow side in the early stages, the first five furlongs taking 1.6.9 and the first six furlongs 1.18.4, Manfred caught the field at the end of the first half mile,” it was reported at the time.

I fancy 2018 racegoers might be similarly delighted to see Chautauqua reproduce any one of his three previous last-to-first Randwick 1200 metres wins, given the opportunity on October 13 or any other time.

Give him another race, I say. Ban him if he doesn’t jump then!