What’s happened to Australian-bred staying thoroughbreds?

HorseBetting.com.auHorseBetting editor Daryl Curnow takes a look at the week in racing and gives his take on the big issues from both sides of the track.

SENIOR jockey Greg Ryan has been suspended for seven weeks after stewards deemed he failed to give his mount every chance of winning.

The ride was aboard Mr Chow at Scone on October 23 and it doesn’t appear that Ryan has a leg to stand on.

The veteran rider appeared to give his mount no chance of winning aboard the $6 chance, which punters just so happened to back in from $9.

Ryan was charged on the rule which states, “The rider of every horse shall take all reasonable and permissible measures throughout the race to ensure that his horse is given full opportunity to win or to obtain the best possible place in the field.”

Ryan seemingly put Mr Chow into the worst possible situation presented to him, which left punters who took the $6 at Sportsbet fuming. Disgruntled punters showed their disgust of the ride following the race and due to Ryan’s prior record of this nature, he will be sitting on the sidelines until after Christmas.

Crownbet.com.au

Ryan is expected to fulfill his mall Santa duties in the coming months where he will be giving out Sportsbet betting vouchers to all.

Punters can use those vouchers to back Mr Chow which lines up in the opening race at Newcastle this Sunday, where punters will be hoping for a justice.

Australian stayers put on the endangered list

The Australian Animal Protection Group has officially put Australian-bred stayers on the endangered list and it’s a problem we should all be concerned about.

With the growing rate of European poachers, Australian-bred stayers have become a rare sighting at race tracks throughout the Melbourne spring carnival and it’s a problem that threatens to change racing in Australia for good.

The European raiders have come to our shores and dominated the carnival. They have made a joke of our local staying crop with trainers sending over their third-rate horses to clean up our biggest races, and we’re sick of it!

Just look at the Sandown Cup and Zipping Classic on Saturday. The markets are dominated by imported runners and even New Zealand-bred Who Shot Thebarman, which hasn’t won in almost a year, is favoured to take out the Sandown feature.

WilliamHill.com.au

We get why no prospective owner wants to invest in a stayer. The Golden Slipper is a “get rich quick” enticement which attracts owners from all walks of life, but if you want to see your prized horse run for years to come, you have picked the wrong strategy.

The Slipper is a stallion-making race, but for the horses which can’t go to stud, what happens? Just ask Phelan Ready, a 10-year-old gelding which won the 2009 Golden Slipper before embarking on a less-than-stellar career.

Unbelievably, it took Phelan Ready almost five years to win another race following the Golden Slipper, which is a feat that deserves some sort of medal.

The point is that most sprinting two-year-olds don’t return their owners a profit, but prospective stayers have a longevity in the racing game and it’s not as if Australia doesn’t have strong breeding lines.

There are plenty of opportunities to invest in a stayer, so lets see them off the endangered animals list and into the Melbourne Cup.

Dirt vs. grass

We’ve always been taught to be nice to the kids with no grass in their backyards, but when it comes to racing, that ‘kid’ is American racing and we’ve lost patience.

The Breeders’ Cup Carnival was on last weekend at Santa Anita and according to the Longines Worlds Best Racehorse rankings, we were able to watch the two best horses in the world in action.

Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Arrogate has taken over from California Chrome as the world’s best racehorse, but we’re not sure how that has happened.

Both horses race on dirt, which is considered the ugly cousin of horse racing, and somehow two-time Cox Plate champion Winx is only third on the list.

Sportsbet.com.au

Seeing as Winx defeated subsequent Breeders’ Cup winner Highland Reel with ease in the 2015 Cox Plate, the rankings seem a little bias towards the American runners.

We respect the form of California Chrome because it has taken on some of the world’s best horses on dirt, but we think the rankings might have something to do with Longines.

Longines is the primary sponsor for the Breeders’ Cup and what sponsor wouldn’t want their talent at the top of the tree? It brings more attention to the carnival and it expands brand awareness, but we’re not buying it.

There is no way a three-year-old colt with six races under its belt can be named the best horse in the world. That is a joke and we expect the winners of the Longines Hong Kong International Day to shoot up in the rankings as well.

Fear not Winx fans – the champion mare is No.1 in our books.

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