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Since returning to the mounting yard full-time in Victoria, my goal has been to try and evaluate everything that I do with the sole purpose of not needing to do the form again.
Since returning to the mounting yard full-time in Victoria, my goal has been to try and evaluate everything that I do with the sole purpose of not needing to do the form again. Don’t get me wrong, pricing an entire meeting, including dissecting our favoured Punting Form data and/or reviewing a couple of hundred replays a week, has its own merit and can indeed be profitable. But there is something quite disheartening about watching early snipers take down ‘overs’, then waiting until late for the inflated market percentage to reduce, which in all due diligence means wanting a yard tick anyway to take a price that’s within ballpark of what you marked a runner. The game is certainly getting harder to stamp an edge, get set at the right price and still win the race. So why not remove the hard work and stick to what I know I excel at?
But how do you prove an edge in the yard? How do you know what you’re taking note of is profitable, and how do you know which variables are more important than others? While I work at these answers over the coming months (read years) in an evidence based approach, I’ll start by explaining what I’m talking about when evaluating (my goal of) every runner in every race. For simplicity, I have six broader categories, within each involves many smaller components which will each contribute to a final score of every runner. Rather than sending out scores to subscribers, I’m sending out the descriptors of these scores, so they have meaning to the lay-person. These scores are being processed in my own database with the potential to create my own pricing mechanism combining the mounting yard and the price on the exchange prior to the race, but that’s for another time.
The six categories are: fitness, coat, muscle, behaviour, walk and ‘other’. This may increase to include other broader categories longer term, but one thing at a time. The idea of this article is simple: if you have done your own form and want a tick or cross of certain runners, you have an appreciation of whether the runner has paraded well or not.
Fitness is pretty self-explanatory. The majority of horse-flesh I’ve seen in my years has been in WA, where there’s a different baseline of fitness to what you see in Victoria, let alone in the metropolitan arena of Melbourne. Trying to work out what is ‘average’ fitness in Melbourne is taking some adjusting, but it’s improving with every meeting during winter, and will only become more obvious as we build towards the spring carnival. Average fitness is a neutral score, it’s neither positive or negative, but there’s room to improve. ‘Ave+ fitness’, formerly ‘at or near top’, or shorthand for above-average fitness is exactly what is sounds like. There’s still a little to come, which can be rather a case of semantics for some runners that carry a bit of extra size anyway, but it’s a general assessment of where in the prep a horse is. The flip side of this is ‘one away’, which is below average fitness, but I’m always hesitant to say these horses cannot win, especially over a shorter trip. ‘At top’ is my highest appraisal in this category. On the negative side, we have ‘more to come’ and ‘fat’, and these are the runners I would be happy to oppose, as I don’t expect to see many of these parades in metro Melbourne (Perth on the other hand…)
Coat is also rather self-explanatory, and most regular racegoers will be able to have an appreciation of this. ‘Dapples’ and ‘glowing’ coats are terms that are commonplace in the racing media, and they’re pretty obvious signs of a horse’s health. ‘Coat nearly’ is a descriptor I’m finding appropriate for the winter season, with a runner showing signs of some glow or some dapples, but given the cold climate there’s some leeway that can be made. The horse is still in good health. As we get in to the warmer months, I’ll be looking for a horse whose ‘coat has turned’, from a nice shine to a ‘dull’ appearance. I also include physical sweat in this category, and try to give an indication of if the horse was just a little ‘warm late’ (perhaps anticipating the contest), in comparison to a horse that is ‘warm’ throughout the parade, or is ‘melting’ and really going to pieces in the yard. These should be combined with the behavioural report, especially if there’s no prior knowledge of the horse’s normal predisposition to sweating.
Muscle is different to fitness, in that I’m looking at the muscular condition of the animal and trying to work out if a horse has lost the appetite for the contest, or physically lightened suggesting a spell may be required. In Asia they publicise the change in physical weight, which we don’t have the privilege of in Australia. This makes subtle changes in muscle definition more crucial in determining how a runner may perform. ‘Athletic’ and ‘strong’ are my two positive descriptors, with ‘some strength’ the next level down, with all three describing a horse with muscle definition across the major power centres of the animal (hips, shoulders, neck). ‘Not much to come’ is the first sign that the horse may be starting to lighten off. The horse can still win, but I’d expect less of a performance if a horse is deep in the prep as opposed to a first-up runner who clearly has had a mountain of work poured in to it but may not be able to sustain a long preparation. There are exceptions to this. I recall Alligator Blood in Autumn of 2020 as a runner who seemed to be lightening off in the CS Hayes, before improving his condition when winning the Australian Guineas. As a horse loses muscle condition, ‘over the top’ and ‘thin’ are the negative indicators I use to describe a runner who looks to the eye as needing a break.
Any positive or negative physicality factor needs to be cross referenced with the horse’s mental behaviour. If we start with positive factors, they include ‘relaxed’, ‘bright’ and ‘focus’, and I assign them in that order of increasing importance. ‘Relaxed’ is a good indicator that the horse isn’t being disturbed by any external factors; a ‘bright’ runner is relaxed but with more alertness to the parade or is responding to the strapper; ‘focus’ includes these aforementioned traits but includes an extra level of professionalism, a keen nature for the contest. On the negative side, I use ‘naughty’, ‘unfocused’ or simply ‘not here today’, which are graduated in their penalties. ‘Naughty’ can include a number of undesirable behaviours, but generally they aren’t persistent in the parade. If they are, ‘unfocused’ is the term to suggest other things may be on their mind. ‘Not here today’ suggests a serious obstacle to racing well on the day.
Walk is a general term that means many things to many people. I’m from a physio background, so my interpretation is self-taught and involves rhythm and flow of the animal, an even and smooth cadence. In the longer straight of the parade ring at Ascot, I’d like to walk alongside a runner of interest and just hear and observe how each four hooves strike the ground. It’s like a drummer keeping a beat, it shouldn’t have any disruption. ‘Some walk at times’ I use to describe a horse that is capable of walking well on that day, but perhaps the mounting yard is small, or the strapper or another runner is being a pest and preventing the horse from relaxing and ‘strutting their stuff’. ‘Flowing walk’ is exactly what I’m looking for, a relaxed and rhythmic walk throughout the parade. ‘Walks perfectly’ adds in the positive mental attributes, with the horse propelling themselves through their motion. On the negatives, I’ll note negative ‘toey’ behaviours, which include negative mental descriptors; conversely, a horse parading ‘proudly’ and calmly on toe is actually a good indicator. ‘Scratchy’ is a term I’ll use infrequently to describe a walk that seems out of sync. It may indicate stiffness, or muscle tension, or indeed some level of soreness, but some animals just like some people have a naturally stiff action that doesn’t jeopardise their daily life. I’ll use this term if the appearance doesn’t match what I’ve come to expect from that runner. For fans of HK racing, Jenny Chapman is particularly adept at describing this trait in runners she observes in the mounting yard (their coverage is the absolute gold standard of racing media).
‘Other’, or miscellaneous, just includes the variables that don’t fit in to any other category. ‘Negative strappers’ fall in to this category, and before I get inundated with feedback from connections or strappers, I’m not attacking anyone when this is marked. This isn’t necessarily yanking down on the lead rope or reins; quite often it’s silent or unconscious behaviours that cause the horse to increase in their stimulation or anxiety before a race. Some horses are naturally highly strung and difficult to handle; but if a strapper is making a relaxed horse lose focus, I’ll penalise the runner. ‘Well on bit’ is part of the aforementioned ‘focus’, but this includes both before the jockey is legged up and once the jockey is on board too, the horse keeping their professional demeanour. ‘Unruly to gates’ is simply to describe a runner who doesn’t look like they want to head to the gates, or one that is really thrashing about or reacting once the jockey is legged-up, burning energy in fighting their rider. ‘Vet-check at gates’ usually won’t be seen in my messages pre-race (unless they have an incident in the mounting yard itself), but I note any runner that is undergoing a vet-check prior to the race for future reference and post-race analysis.
So there you have it. A mounting yard glossary for those of you who are using the service for the information, not just the accountable betting advice. If you’re joining me and the team on the journey, I hope you learn a thing or two and become a better punter, analyst and racing aficionado in the process. Go well!
- Pete Anthonisz, Melbourne & Perth Mounting Yard Analyst for The Mailbag. Want to know more? Get in touch peter@themailbag.com.au
Mounting Yard Mail (MYM) could be called many things: yard analysis, equine behavioural assessment, horse watching. The principle is simple.
The first thing to understand is that apart from the Highway races (country races held on city tracks) most horses present in very good order, ready to race at the Sydney metros. There really are no bad horses.
I’ve now seen 132 races and 1490 runners, and although that sample is still low in the grand scheme of analysis, I’m already starting to identify a few factors which are good indicators for a horse running well or poorly.
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