African Pioneer’s breakthrough maiden win at his eighth start last Friday was extremely gratifying, after he’d run well for two seconds and two thirds previously.
As always, there were several aspects to digest from it. It was good for him to win for his late sire Lonhro, just a week or so after he’d passed away, though he was not quite the first progeny of his to win after his death. In that area, he racked up another second.
And it was lovely to see the three-year-old win for his owner, Colin Bird.

Colin is a great racing enthusiast originally from the UK who raced horses with my father, Luca, and it’s been nice to train a few horses bearing his pink and white colours. One was Critical Risk, a son of Pivotal who came out from England to have a few starts here, including a win at Cranbourne under Darren Gauci very early in this stable’s life in May, 2016 – and at good odds too.

Speaking of risk, Colin – a mining executive who splits his time between England, Portugal, Dubai and South Africa – was also out here when African Pioneer went through the sales ring.

The colt was out of an imported British mare, also by Pivotal, named Rosental, who my father had trained to win two Listed races in France. Rosental was bought by Australia’s Cressfield Stud in-foal to Frankel and brought to Australia.

The Frankel filly, Rosefleur, was retired after two plain runs in NSW, and after two years without a foal, Rosental bore African Pioneer.
Colin and I both looked at him at the Inglis Easter sale of 2022 (that’s him as a yearling below). He looked OK, but had a large lump on his knee which worried me a bit. At sales, you’re always weighing up what you can or can’t overlook, and for me that went into the latter category.
However, Colin was happy to assume that risk himself, going to $160,000 to secure him. (Rosental’s subsequent foal, an impressive colt by Dundeel, fetched $375,000 at the Easter sale last month).
African Pioneer showed promise from very early on. It’s taken a few more runs than expected to break his maiden, but let’s hope that now he knows how to do it, and will take confidence from it, this could be the first of many wins.
At his first start, as a late two-year-old at Geelong last June, he caught the eye in scooting up the inside from seventh on the turn to grab second place over 1200m, at a juicy $31.
His times were strong, and we knew there was some ability there, but after that he seemed to struggle a bit to come to grips with racing, with a third place over 1500m on the Ballarat synthetic the highlight of his next four runs.
We also stepped him up in distance, trying him in a 2200m maiden at Seymour, but that didn’t really work, so he went out for a spell for some development and strengthening, including – crucially – a gelding procedure.

That seems to have been the making of him as a competitive racehorse, shown by a first-up third over 1300m at Ararat, a second-up second over 1530m at Geelong, and now his comfortable maiden win back at Ararat over 1600m, by an expanding 1.75 length margin.
It was the right race for him to execute a soft kill to build confidence, and his price of $1.65 reflected that. But still, he had to get the job done, and he did it in fine style.

It’s still early days, but hopefully that bit of time waiting for maturity to kick in has paid off. He’s a stronger animal now, showing the power to storm past his rivals last week, while he’s also more focused on the task at hand, and no doubt the gelding has helped with that.
These are the formative months in the grooming, educating and shaping of a young racehorse where the early work hopefully starts to pay off, the penny drops and things click into place – often in a very reassuring and satisfying way.
And whether the breakthrough comes in town or in the bush, it’s a very nourishing feeling indeed.

We’re not getting carried away of course, but it’s a promising start. We might upgrade his assignments in the near future, perhaps to provincial class at Ballarat or Geelong, and see how he performs there.
Hopefully, now he’s more cognisant of what it’s all about, he’ll step up to meet the challenges as they become tougher in the near future.

Horse sense: Going on with the job

The style of African Pioneer’s win made for some interesting food for thought on the psychology of the racehorse.
Will Gordon had him excellently positioned one-out and one-back, and hooked him out to make his run in the straight at the 300m. By the 200m, he was level with them – and then came that moment in many a race where the breath is held a little.
He was an odds-on favourite in a fairly weak affair, and by rights, you thought, he would charge past and put the race to bed.

But there are always those couple of seconds of uncertainty: Will they indeed run past these other horses as everything suggests they will? Or will they not go past, or perhaps get to the front and then stop and have a look around, leaving the door open for something else to swoop and go past them?

Thankfully, African Pioneer went right on with the job. He was still level for a few strides, but with a reminder with the whip, he came away to win by a length and three-quarters.
This raises the intriguing issue again that what we’re often trying to do in this game is convince horses to go against their nature. Often, punters will be scathing of horses who’ll range up only to seemingly not dig in for the fight to get to the front, condemning them as “pea hearts” who are not to be trusted in a race again.

But we’re dealing with millennia worth of horse evolution here. Horses are herd animals and they often just don’t like drawing clear of the pack. They might well be naturally competitive, enjoy a race against their peers, and will get their head in front. But once there, it’s still natural for them to stick to the herd.
In the wild, the whole idea of drawing away from them, separating yourself from the “strength in numbers” huddle, would be quite a dangerous thing to do.

So this is where training and teaching them to be racehorses – competitive athletes – comes into it; educating them to learn their trade, enjoy winning – and of course learning not only is it quite safe to scoot away from the pack in their modern environment, but they get a lot of pats and good vibes for doing so.

To this end, blinkers will often help. Once a horse gets to the front, they’re not so aware of how far away from the herd they are, so won’t be so tempted to look around to find out where everybody is. Mind you, horses also have very good hearing, and can use it to detect if there are horses close by or not. That’s where a forceful jockey can help.

And if it’s known a horse is disinclined to pull away from the herd, timing your run can be crucial: race with cover, then emerge to get to the front inside the last 50 metres or so – not so early as to allow the horse time to realise he’s all alone, and out of his comfort zone.

Training plays an important role. If you have a horse with this issue, you might put them in trackwork behind two stablemates and get them used to going around them to hit the front. You’ll often see them then pricking their ears and be more interested in what’s going on behind them than in front. Again, some coaxing from their rider educates them to keep going.

This is where you might see young horses be very reluctant to pull away from the herd, but later in life – once they’ve learned what it’s all about – they’ll be happy enough to stride away.
Then you see extreme cases like Pride Of Jenni. She seems extremely happy running alone in front of the herd – in Randwick’s Queen Elizabeth Stakes some 100 metres in front! But now she’s done it a few times, you can see she knows that’s what she’s meant to be doing. She’s also suited to it by having the physical ability to keep going. You see some who try, but can’t keep it up.

African Pioneer is another study. When he was a colt, he wasn’t that keen on drawing away, but now he’s a gelding. Being a gelding is not a natural state of existence anyway, so all bets are off really, and you can usually more easily educate them to behave contrary to their natural instincts. The way he charged to the lead, and then came away, in his maiden win last week appeared to underscore that.

Khoekhoe is another example. Another gelding, he likes being out on his own, and in fact a couple of lengths clear, as can be seen above.
There are other reasons horses might not charge past others. Though, again, they’re often scorned for not trying, I’ll usually look more kindly on the horse.

Often, they physically just can’t do it. They’re striving, but with the way they’re built, the simple mechanics of their limbs and body, they might just be a bit one-paced. They might get to the front of the herd and have no more acceleration to give, whereas rivals will, and those horses might kick back and regain the lead.

Our sample horse might instead have more to give from a stamina perspective, and not from a speed perspective. That’s where you learn an extra 200 metres or so next start might help. A horse will generally always try their absolute utmost. They’re different to humans. We’re naturally geared to conserve energy, or in harsher terms, be lazy. It’s in our DNA from the caveman days to rest and recover and eat, as much as possible, so that when we’re out fighting for our lives in the wild, we’ll have more energy.

That’s how humans have come out on top. Horses aren’t geared like that. They will generally be giving their utmost.
If a horse appears to be not trying, there’s usually a good reason for it. It might actually be down to the physical dimensions of their heart: not pea-sized, but perhaps a little smaller than average, meaning blood and oxygen supply to the muscles isn’t as strong as a rival’s.

And so while a horse may look weak, the actual opposite could be true: he could literally be trying his heart out, and he’s got to where he is only because he’s a real trier. The question then is to find them a race where they might be better suited, the harsh reality being that means a weaker contest.

We’re all different. Some humans can’t stand lying around, are always on the go, and don’t appear naturally inclined to conserve energy.
Some horses like to streak away from the herd. Often they’re alpha males – Might And Power was quite good at it – but sometimes they’re mares, like Pride Of Jenni.
Others prefer to stay in their group, and need a little coaxing and a little training to hit the front; to become a leader. Not a natural born one, but a nurtured one.
All more pieces of the grand, challenging, intriguing and never boring puzzle that is training racehorses.

Matt

While your eyes tell you a win like Manchego’s that day was impressive, there’s nothing like form to prove what you think you’ve seen.
The second horse that day was also a filly by The Autumn Sun – Tony and Calvin McEvoy’s Alectrona. She franked the form next start by running second over the same course and distance, before winning at Bendigo and running a nose second at Sandown, both over 1400m.

The third horse, Team Hawkes’s Fury, was third next start at Sandown to the very talented sprinter Raikoke, then won at Sandown over 1200m. Two days ago he resumed at Canterbury, where he made ground for a strong fourth over 1200m.
And fourth home was Modown, who has since emerged as a stable star for Charlotte Littlefield. He won at Sale at his next, then ran second in Listed class over 1400m at Flemington. This time in, he’s won at Pakenham before running third in the Listed Bendigo Guineas (1400m) and second last Saturday in Caulfield’s Vobis Platinum Guineas (1600m), worth $500,000.

After that maiden win (below), Manchego turned in two disappointing runs over 1400m, prompting the spell he’s had since for more strengthening and development.
Those two starts were of course a bit of a let down, but the form out of his first outing does underline that his effort wasn’t deceptive, and that this strapping son of Toronado really does have ability.

Looking at it, it did look like a strong maiden, and for him to bullock his way out of a pocket and lift himself up to win was impressive.
On the other hand, you could wonder if he was just the best sprinter in the race. Some of those he beat have gone on to excel over longer trips. Then again, Fury has shone over the same 1200m.

So, occasionally, a winning horse can be a bit flattered by how a race is run, and what his rivals are like. It can be hard to read the tea leaves, and often, only hindsight will show the true merit of a win. There’s nothing like form to paint the full picture.
But if we did learn Manchego may be better at 1200m than 1400m, the subsequent form out of his maiden does tell you he has ability. He beat some classy horses that day, meaning he should at least be up to city standard.

He had a jump-out at Ararat on Monday and led throughout to win impressively, and he’ll be having his first-up run very soon. I can’t wait to see it.

Stallion fees climb higher

At this time of year, it’s always important to note the movements in service fees of stallions across Australia. And probably the biggest mover in that department is boom shuttle sire Too Darn Hot.

The seven-year-old currently leads Australia’s first-season sires’ table by earnings and winners, and is third on the two-year-old sires’ chart. He was also Ireland’s champion first season sire for 2023.

Consequently, Darley took the bold move this week of more than doubling his fee here – from the $44,000 where it’s been for his first four seasons, to $110,000.
That’s quite the leap, though it comes on the back of some most encouraging results.
From his first crop of runners here he’s now had a Group 1 winner, thanks to Broadsiding taking Randwick’s Champagne Stakes over 1600m two weeks ago. That goes with his northern hemisphere first-cropper Fallen Angel, who took Ireland’s Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes, over 1400m.

Too Darn Hot has now had an imposing six stakes winners worldwide from 106 runners. That’s from 45 winners, importantly split almost evenly by gender, with 25 fillies and 20 colts.
For Darley to increase the son of Dubawi’s service fee by so much, it shows they have great faith in the stallion, and in the future demand for him from breeders.

It also means his yearlings will likely become significantly more expensive – not just those born in the spring of 2025 off his new fee, but those going to sales early next year, given the results and the growing buzz around the stallion.
Which is why we at Cumani Racing are especially pleased to have got in early with our two young horses by Too Darn Hot.

Our yearling colt out of It’s Semi Sweet looks especially good buying. He’s the one we snared at Adelaide for a bargain $45,000, a price helped no doubt by an ill-timed superficial cut on his off foreleg.

Thank you for reading,

MC

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