Smullen: Enable, Good for the Game

[Wandering Eyes]

It was great to see Enable (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}) come back and make such a great start to her season at Sandown and it’s been a while since I saw such scenes where people were running to catch a glimpse of her in the winners’ enclosure with people five and six deep around the paddock. She is a great champion and just has that wow factor and the ‘Frankie’ association then brings it to another level.

I spoke to Frankie on Saturday night and he said she’s very good for racing and you couldn’t argue with that. Frankie is one of the faces of racing and for him to be paired up with such a brilliant racehorse can only be good for the game. He’s made for a horse like Enable and you can see the fondness he has for her.

I can’t not mention John Gosden and it was a fantastic training performance to bring her back as good as ever. Some people doubted her ability to successfully drop back to 10 furlongs, but Frankie said she could have put the race to bed at the three-furlong marker, but he wanted to wait until two from home before pressing the button. She had proper racehorses flat to the boards behind her at that stage. In my opinion, she could be effective over even shorter if they wanted, though that will never happen.

That’s what sets those very good horses apart, they possess so much pace and she has speed to burn as well as the stamina to get a mile and a half. She is just an exceptionally good racehorse.

Too Darn Hot Fulfills Juvenile Promise

Too Darn Hot (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) then showed what he was capable of in Deauville on Sunday in the G1 Prix Jean Prat. When I saw Too Darn Hot at The Curragh before he ran in the Irish 2000 Guineas, I must admit I thought he looked more like a sprinter/miler type than a middle distance horse. To me he looks fast and he’s a compact horse in the mold of a sprinter and he showed that on Sunday.

I think John Gosden was quite self-critical over trying to stretch him out in trip, but his pedigree would suggest he would get a mile and a half and that is probably what led connections astray with that experiment. If he keeps progressing, he could still end up being the leading 3-year-old this year. Now that they have found his trip, there are plenty of exciting opportunities for him between now and the end of the year.

Falcon Eight Climbing the Stayers’ Ranks

I was delighted to see Falcon Eight (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) win the Listed Coral Marathon at Sandown for Dermot Weld and Moyglare Stud. I’ve ridden him in a few bits of work recently, so it was good to see him go and win. I’m pleased for Moyglare to have another good stayer on their hands. Hopefully he can progress from that to something like an Irish St Leger. One day he can definitely be an Ascot Gold Cup horse, as he will go that extreme distance of two and a half miles.

He’s been a bit of a slow burner–Saturday was only the fifth start of his life–and he’s obviously got a brilliant pedigree. He seems to be getting it together now and he can give connections a lot of fun in all those big staying races. It’s funny though, as if you asked me about him two years ago I wouldn’t have been quite as enthusiastic about him.

I rode him quite a few times as a 2-year-old before I got sick and I honestly thought he was very average. I even told Dermot and Eva Bucher-Haefner that in my opinion he was no good and I don’t think I was that bad a judge in the mornings. He was a very idle, lazy worker and he gave me no feel at all and he even runs like that today. But it just shows you that horses can be very deceiving and Dermot has had great patience with him.

Dermot excels with horses like this, he gave him all the time he needed to come to himself and now he is being rewarded. If you had put my neck on the line two years ago, I would have said he was of very average ability but saying that, I’d much prefer one that shows you nothing in the morning but shows up at the races in the afternoon. I’ve ridden plenty of morning wonders who then let you down on the track and I’d much prefer those lazier types who keep their best for a race.

Stall Handlers and Stalls Practice Crucial

Another topic that I am keen to focus on is the great work done by stalls handlers and how important stalls practice is in the preparation of a horse. Whether it’s a sprint or a long distance race, the start is crucial and while you may not necessarily win a race at the start, you can certainly lose a race at the start.

I really want to highlight the importance of the stall handler’s job and I don’t think they get the recognition for the work they do. It’s not just about loading the horses as quickly as possible, but it’s about being ready to act if a horse gets upset in the stalls. It’s a very enclosed environment and in mid-summer when it’s quite warm horses can get claustrophobic and agitated, especially in big runner handicaps when they can be stood in the stalls for a long time.

That’s when you need stalls handlers to be at their best, they get to know a lot of the horses and they become aware of their quirks and when things do go wrong and a horse gets upset you are totally dependent on the stalls team to react and try to calm that horse down. I’ve been in situations like that before and it can be scary.

I also think in Ireland there should be more stall handlers employed, especially on the days with bigger fields. When you look at the likes of America, Australia or Hong Kong they seem to have more personnel down at the start and I think that is something that the authorities here could look at. There is great work being done in Ireland, but I do think we could have more manpower down at the start.

On a related topic, I think a lot of trainers in this part of the world don’t do enough stalls practice with horses. I’ve ridden horses that have been quite unruly at the start and a lot of that is down to a lack of match practice. Again, in other jurisdictions, stalls work is part of the training regime and they regularly just go and stand in the starting gates for periods of time. I do think trainers over here could do even more stalls work than they currently do. It can only be for their own benefit as well, as it comes back to my previous point on how important it is to break smartly from the stalls.

In years gone past, I’ve often come back in to a trainer who was annoyed his horse didn’t get a clean break, something that may have cost the horse the race. Nine times out of 10 that is the horse’s fault not the jockey’s, and is something that could have been avoided with more schooling at home.

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