Total removal of 2yo racing for the benefit of the industry

[mightymo]

The fascination that improvement is linear and the same horses who dominate at two should dominate at open level is bizarre. In what other avenue of life is improvement linear, where others can't progress faster or slower, or one can plateau? Why is racing any different?

Spot on Brendan. I used to play and still follow tennis very closely.

Go back over the last 20 years and tell me which junior champions became grand slam champions - the record is horrible. Does that mean they shouldnt start playing tennis till they are 18. If that was the case would they become world no 1's? Jason Stoltenberg, Todd Woodbridge, Mark Kratzmann, Todd Reid were all junior grand slam champions yet none of them won a senior grand slam. There were many of their opponents in junior days who couldnt get near them, yet went on to win senior grand slams and become world no 1's.

[mightymo]

I started the current racing season with 6 two year olds. Out of these only 1 has raced as he was the only one who showed he was ready to race as a 2yo. Ironically he is the youngest of the 6, born around Xmas time.

Only time will tell, but Im very confident he will turn out to be the best of the 6 and still be racing years from now despite having raced at 2.

[aussiebreno]

Spot on Brendan. I used to play and still follow tennis very closely.

Go back over the last 20 years and tell me which junior champions became grand slam champions - the record is horrible. Does that mean they shouldnt start playing tennis till they are 18. If that was the case would they become world no 1's? Jason Stoltenberg, Todd Woodbridge, Mark Kratzmann, Todd Reid were all junior grand slam champions yet none of them won a senior grand slam. There were many of their opponents in junior days who couldnt get near them, yet went on to win senior grand slams and become world no 1's.

Too right Mightymo.
The kids in the Under 15 state sides of sports barely resemble the Under 18 version let alone open age.
The kids getting straight A's in year 6 aren't necessarily the kids getting the big results in Year 12.
The trainee/apprentice who picks it up quicker isn't necessarily the one who becomes boss.
Most of us would have started talking at one or two. Most of can put a sentence together by four. Einstein couldn't talk until he was four. He couldn't put a sentence together until he was nine. Does that mean the rest of us peaked too early?
A maple tree only takes 10 years to grow to 20m. A Southern Magnolia may take up to 50 years to grow...but it reaches 30m. Those rosh bushes my mother planted, one shot up quickly and looked a winner but died shortly after. The other one wasn't much to start with but 5 years later looks a million bucks.

By all means hold your own (your own = people in general not targeted at anyone) 2yos back if that is what you think is best but don't go sprouting crap to others.

[Triple V]

The best 2 male two year olds in Excel Strides year were Royal Verdict and Sushi Sushi. I wonder if we will see them race as well as they were. I don't think there is anything to do with the breeding of these horses that make them incapable of racing regularly as older horses.

If you race at the highest level as a 2yo, you are extremely likely to have issues later on. Yes we can find the odd exception with Excel Stride.

You only need to look at the top 20 stake earners over the last 10 years to be staggered at the lack of racing that good 2yo's can sustain at an age beyond 5.

[VVV] Show me a rule, I'll show you an example to dispute it.
Pelicanrama raced 24 times at 2yrs & she travelled so much that season she made the Leyland Brothers look like a pair of stay at homes.
She then had about 4 weeks off from around end of August that year, she came back in November at 3yrs & she did almost the same, went everywhere, raced everyone. I think she had 23 starts at 3yrs. She was then on sold to the US where she had a further 102 race starts. 149 starts lifetime.

[Triple V]

The fascination that improvement is linear and the same horses who dominate at two should dominate at open level is bizarre. In what other avenue of life is improvement linear, where others can't progress faster or slower, or one can plateau? Why is racing any different?

[VVV] Testify Brother Breno. Amen.

[broncobrad]

If you blokes are wondering where the orchestrator of this thread has been, I would suggest you check out the result of Tamworth race 3 this afternoon...you mightn't be hearing from him for a while lol

[Bandito]

Holy crap - when did we last see a 175/1 winner ???

It is obvious - we should not race them until they are 7yo's !!!

[Mitch]

If you blokes are wondering where the orchestrator of this thread has been, I would suggest you check out the result of Tamworth race 3 this afternoon...you mightn't be hearing from him for a while lol

Congrats to Dan, any winner is a thrill but at $176 that is awesome!

[Bandito]

$176 is awesome if he had something on it. $10 would have doubled his prize money - much more and it would not have been $176

[Triple V]

Congrats Dan. A result's a result's a result...price be damned.
I can clearly remember that mare's damsire racing, Typhoon Lobell.
He was by a son of Nero named Lucius Lobell. Years later his (Lucius Lobell's) maternal line produced no less than Somebeachsomewhere. Typhoon Lobell was very smart, a bit ironic in terms of this thread title in that he was a very good 2yo. A bloke by the name of Adams used to drive him. End Trivia.