TWO-YEAR-OLDS.

​I will be honest and upfront on the subject of two-year-old races at this time of the year: I am opposed.
I have written on this subject in the past, so I am repeating myself, but the powers-that-be obviously either did not read the piece or chose to pay no heed to my concerns and so for new readers I will again this question: why should a two-year-old carry more weight in a race, and I talking about two-year-old races, than the weights colts carry in the classics? In my original piece on this subject I noted that a Mark Johnstone two-year-old carried 9st 10lb in a race, though admittedly it was much later in the season than early May.
It is my belief that in a day and age that is vastly different to ages past, an age where the horse was considered a beast of burden and consequently was not given due respect, we should extend respect at every opportunity toward the horse as without it we have no sport. I believe the problem, at least as I see it, lies more with breeders than trainers and owners, as there are far too many ‘sharp’ two-year-olds bred than is good for the species. In many ways the lower end of this market can be considered to be producing throwaway products, horses that are bred to be two-year-olds, with little though given to their future beyond their juvenile days.
If the emphasis was on breeding for stamina rather than speed the colts and geldings that become surplus to requirement to the flat would be better sought after by jumps trainers and by anyone looking for a horse to train on for other equestrian activities. These people are not looking for a horse that has spent all its life being propelled out of a starting gate to run as fast as it can for as long as it can. This characteristic is just useless for any other riding requirement. Where is the respect for the breed when so many of the species are rendered useless for any other equestrian activity?
Flat racing as a whole is in dire need of a root and branch overhaul – a subject for another article – but it is the two-year-old division where the evil lies. In any other equine sport, a two-year-old is considered a baby. If bred for show-jumping, dressage, polo, three-day-event or National Hunt, two-year-olds might be handled but certainly not broken to the saddle. At this time of year, they would still be out to grass. The flat-bred two-year-old is not a different species; it cannot be spoken-of as if its genes makes it any stronger either physically or psychologically. Somewhere down the line, down the ages, horse racing took a wrong path, and now of course there are a whole lot of people who make their living breeding and buying yearlings solely for the early two-year-old market and who would squeal like a pig readied for slaughter if there was a threat to their big-bucks trade.
I am trying hard not to claim that two-year-olds are being abused, though I suspect that is how I am coming across. I am not opposed to two-year-old races per se, just at this time of year. If I had my way the first two-year-old race would be in early July. Think about it; if this was the norm the first two-year-old race of the season would be an event, a mark-out time in the season.
Of course, as unlikely as it is, if my proposal was accepted it would leave gaps in the early season race meetings, gaps that would be filled by races for all those three-year-olds that had limited racing experience as two-year-olds. Royal Ascot would have to find other options for the Coventry, Windsor Palace and so on. But racing would evolve to meet the new criteria. I suspect racecourses would stage more selling races for three-year-olds to attract the National Hunt trainer on the lookout for new recruits. More four-year-olds would be kept in training rather than sold to the Far East and Hong Kong. In fact, I believe it is the reliance on the buying and selling of yearlings and on two-year-old races that has unbalanced flat racing and in making the change I propose the sport, once the breeders and race-planners have adjusted themselves to the new requirements, would benefit.
To return to my original point. I cannot see that it is justifiable to ask an immature horse to carry as much as 9st 5lbs, or any weight above 9st, when 9st is considered the correct and fair weight for a three-year-old to carry in the Derby, Guineas or St. Léger.
The powers-that-be have a duty to uphold and protect the sport and to oversee its long-term future. They cannot sit in their ivory towers thinking million-pound races are proof that racing is in a grand position and all must be well because it always has been. We should see our sport as outsiders and opponents see it. We can explain and defend until we are blue in the face but being in front of the curve is a better tactic. The whip is one issue where we need to bend and the racing of immature two-year-olds and the overburdening of the more mature two-year-olds is another aspect of the sport that needs careful looking at.