Sorry for cherry-picking your rant, but as I understand it the loading procedure in this country is supposed to be odds/evens first then evens/odds second. As you say, the problem horses generally tend to screw this up. We allow trainers to request that their charge is entered last (or late) because some do play up in the stalls – this seems nonsensical since it is giving them an advantage as a result of their failure as a trainer. I think the reason that the authorities generally allow all this messing around is because of the sports’ dependence on the Levy from betting turnover. If they just withdrew every horse that refused to walk meekly in the stalls there would be Rule 4 deductions on just about every race and punters would spend half the day arguing with the bookies about whether they were getting paid out correctly. A rule was introduced several years ago that horses that are withdrawn because they refuse to enter the stalls automatically have to pass a stalls test before they are allowed to race again. Quite why every racehorse is not made to pass a stalls test before it is allowed to make its debut if unclear. Perhaps it would be an administrative nightmare but there is surely more to training a racehorse than just putting a midget on its back and making it run fast. At the big training centres, there are ‘mock’ starting stalls on the gallops. You would think that the big yards would have their own.
Cadillac's bubble seemed burst there. The Harrington colt missed some other intended engagements and I was a bit dubious about his position at 14/1 for next year's 2000 Guineas. I watched him trot up on debut and could have backed him at 33/1 for the Guineas at the time but didn't do so because Harrington doesn't seem as successful with the colts as the fillies and she doesn't seem overly worried about prioritising Newmarket and takes them elsewhere. On much softer ground today, Cadillac was 4/5 Fav for a weak looking Group 2 Futurity but he could only finish 2nd, splitting 28/1 winner Mac Swiney and 20/1 3rd Ontario. The commentators were doing a marvellous job of talking the winner up as a Derby colt but he was only 9th in a Group 3 last time and came in rated 92 today. The 3rd horse had scrambled home by a short head at 2/5 Fav in a maiden last time and the form looks stinky to me. No doubt the Handicapper will raise the winner to take into account that he has won a Group 2 race but as Les Dennis would say "Mac Swiney, Derby colt? I'll give you the money myself if he's up there" Cadillac must surely take a walk in the Guineas betting after that. Battleground and Master Of The Seas will not have been wetting their boxes after seeing that race today. Earlier on High Definition got the better of Wordsworth in a battle of two Galileo colts trained by AOB. The winner is 20/1 for the 2000 Guineas after prevailing by three parts of a length from the favourite. I think 20/1 is ridiculously short. It was a mile maiden on very testing ground and a 33/1 shot was only a head behind the first two in 3rd place. High Definition is going to have to prove himself against better and faster horses this year to be a Guineas contender. You would have thought the 1-2 might be more likely to be Derby sorts, who will need time and trip to let the Galileo seed weave its magic. Chindit has been cut for the 2000 Guineas but Master Of The Seas is my main hope for that race with Megallan my dark shot from the Gosden yard. I have had bets on today's Debutante winnner Pretty Gorgeous at 20/1 for the 1000 Guineas and 40/1 for the Oaks as early speculations because she was impressive today and there is a bit of a dearth of talent in the fillies who might stay a mile or more next season so far and it won't be that long until we hit the Moyglare and races of that ilk. So it looks like Cadillac came in "Having an engine" but left suffering a "Flat tyre" Odds on the Harrington will say the horse was looking run down and exhausted and that in the closing stages there was nothing under the bonnet and despite being driven out by the jockey.
