Knocking Heads Once More

Given Arrowfield’s good strike rate in the last decade with their stallion selection, the Sydney debut of runners by Charge Forward (Red Ransom (USA)-Sydney’s Dream, by Bletchingly) at Rosehill today has interest.

Not that in any way the result of an early-season 1100m juvenile is going to define a stallion’s career for all time. But Charge Forward was a very superior and precocious colt in probably the strongest year of two-year-old racing in Sydney in a quarter century and we have been accustomed to looking in that direction for our future breed-shapers.

I thought the trial three weeks ago at Randwick of Gaston (2c Charge Forward-Capto, by Octagonal (NZ)) was a real eye-catcher but as he seems friendless in the betting I either looked at the wrong horse or the figures out of the trial were rubbish. Capto is also represented on the Rosehill programme by Rendzina (by Testa Rossa) a mare who in my opinion is better than her record might indicate. Charge Forward is also represented by Engulf (out of Absolute Lure (USA), by Lure) who has also trialled OK, giving him a numerically strong hand in a nine horse field.

Gaston was one of the best types by the stallion offered at the sales, fetching $230,000, bred in partnership by controversial industry figure Phillip Esplin who was also co-breeder of Charge Forward.

There was a price beyond which punters weren’t prepared to go on the first crop Charge Forward yearlings which I put down to the Red Ransom (USA) factor (top price $350,000, average $90,989).

Red Ransom has always been a hit-and-miss sire for front leg conformation; he's not perfect himself and you see it coming through in his descendants. With Bletchingly close up in the pedigree, Charge Forward has a double whammy and I think his prices fairly accurately reflected the degree of conformation neatness in his various yearlings.

But, by and large, the winning post pays little heed to what the textbook says as far as conformation is concerned – if it did we’d never have had the likes of Seachange, Veandercross, Might And Power and a thousand other good ones including a potential champion I once sold, on a one and only bid of $20,000, named Golden King (he’s a story for another day). Legs are wheels, not motors, and it’s the motor that counts most. Ultimately, yearling buyers also take on board the lessons of the winning post though it can be a painful learning curve for a helluva lot of them who are addicted to optimism instead of realism.

I bought one yearling by Charge Forward, a little filly out of Zerlina, a Zeditave mare, after having a crack at one or two at a higher level. Fastnet Rock, Not A Single Doubt, Dane Shadow, Savabeel and Oratorio were amongst the other very fast colts in Charge Forward’s generation and they, too, have first runners this season. It was a season in which the gelded Dance Hero dominated, running records in order to beat his high class rivals, and included fillies like Alinghi and Wager.

The racetrack rivalries of 2003-2004 are set to continue anew.

P.S. here's one for the trivia evening: which horse separated Charge Forward and Dance Hero at the end of the AJC Breeders' Plate of 2003? Answer: Wenceslas Square.