hI jamie
I read with great interest your little differance of opinion with Old Danno.
Now Iv'e always been of the opinion that if you get them up and running as 2yr olds than you shouldn't expect to be still sending them around as older horses ,so I was a little surprised when you jumped on Old Danno when he suggested the same. Well my 53yr old eyes sure popped when I read your statements about the so callled survey or statistics on standerdbreds saying we were both wrong and I was sure looking forward to reading this report .Well I waited a couple of day's and when you didn't produce it I thought I'll have a go at a little survey of my own.
So I went back to 2003 to look at 2yr olds that would now be 10yr olds,and what better race to look at than the Bathurst Gold Crown and Tiara heats.
I wanted to see what age these babies raced too, after being set for this series, the results are as follows
There were 78 2yr olds drawn to race in 8 races. The age they last raced .
2yr 3yr 4yr 5yr 6yr 7yr 8yr 9yr 10yr
12 18 14 10 3 10 4 3 4
15% 23% 18% 12% 4% 12% 5% 4% 5%
Now if my maths are right and I'm sure they are, that is a staggering 68% that DID NOT RACE PAST 5YR OLD. and only 14% that raced after turning 7yr.
After looking at these figures I was already thinking you had been on the turps or smoking funny ciggarets when you made the claim about it being the complete opposite to what Danno and myself had always believed, But I thought well why not have a look at the present day horses to compare the ones that raced at 2yr and the others that delayed there careers till they turned at least 3yr.
So I grabbed this weeks Trotguide and went through every horse drawn to race at Menangle on Miracle Mile night that was 6yrs and older, excluding the Yankee horses as I couldn't find their U.S.A form and seperated those that raced at 2yr to those that waited till they turned 3yr or older, the results are as follows.
6yr 7yr 8yr 9yr 10yr 11yr
1 only
2yr - 3yr/ovr 2yr - 3yr/ovr 2yr -3yr/ovr 2yr-3yr/ovr 2yr-3yr/ovr 3yr/over
10 13 5 14 4 4 1 7 0 2 1
Now Jamie you don't have to be a rocket scientist to see there is a pattern here.
Even at 6yr there is a higher % of horses who did not race at 2yr than those that did,but take a gander at 7yr when horses should be at their peak. I'll concede that it is even at 8yr but from then on it is 10 to 1 in favour of those that started racing later in life.
I don't know who wrote or commisioned your mystery statistics but as Old Danno suspects it was probably someone with a vested interest i.e Breeding Industry or someone similar.
There is an old saying you can't have your cake and eat it too, and the same aplies to these horses if you go for them early don't winge if their not going around later on.
So Jamie just inclosing I'll give you a little tip, DON'T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU READ ask someone with a little more knowledge than yourself SOMEONE LIKE OLD DANNO.