At Kenilworth on Saturday Justin Snaith successfully defied Cape Town convention that loose horses are automatically scratched – and more trainers seem likely to follow his example in future, particularly when they realise that they are not going to be condemned for anything from cruelty to incompetence.
Justin Snaith – saved a winner!
Michael Clower writes that when Ladder Man unseated Richard Fourie as he was being loaded into the pens for the mile maiden the favourite galloped loose back to the parade ring. Snaith rushed off to meet both the horse and the course vet who he knew would be waiting with her metaphorical red pen poised.
He said: “We had already told the public that this was one we thought had a big chance and I didn’t want to take a fresh horse home – owners pay a lot of money to keep them. The course vet said she was happy with him and that he would be checked again at the start.”
Ladder Man was trotted back riderless by a groom, passed the second inspection, loaded without problem and duly won the race to initiate a treble for Snaith and Fourie who ended a most satisfactory day on the 50-winner mark.
There were suggestions that the resultant 15-minute delay could see the trainer in hot water in the boardroom but acting senior stipe Nick Shearer implied that there was never any question of this while Snaith pointed out: “The horse was favourite and so, even if he had been scratched, there would had to have been a delay to allow punters to adjust their bets.”
Shearer added: “It is the course vet’s call whether a loose horse runs, the only exception being when the vet passes the horse fit but the trainer then says he (or she) does not want the horse to run.”
There have even been cases of fancied horses in Group 1 races, even classics, being scratched after getting loose and galloping back. However there is a school of thought, perhaps more prevalent outside South African than in it, that horses (like some human athletes) can benefit from a sharper warm-up than they get from the normal canter down to the start.
- www.goldcircle.co.za
