Just Racing Phil Purser bags others knowledge re Lights of Heaven Mosheen & Southern Speed

http://www.justracing.com.au/index.php?news_page=13&artid=3847&catid=52

Today I look at a three-quarter page story that appeared on Page 111 of The Courier Mail on Friday 12/8/11. This article referred to five “Emerging Spring Stars”, namely Mosheen, Southern Speed, Lights of Heaven, Delago’s Lad and Do Ra Mi, so The Courier Mail and other Murdoch papers was able to come up with five little thoroughbred gems for their paying clients to follow. I have absolutely no idea why anyone with any knowledge of racing would try to steer readers into horses of such poor quality as Southern Speed and Delago’s Lad, so let me bag those two publicly first.

For her part Southern Speed is grossly overrated by the vast majority of pundits. I would call her “a mare with limited ability who would struggle to ever win a Group 1 race, even against her own gender, in her lifetime”. As at today Southern Speed is Group 1 placed to Lights of Heaven and Absolutely in the Morphettville Oaks. However I’ll state publicly that that race was about the most pathetic Group 1 event that was run in this country in the 2010/2011 racing season, as the winner stopped the clock at a pathetic 2.05.35 for the 2008-metre feature on a good 3 track. Southern Speed sat right up on the slow speed that day and would have had to win the race if she was any good. If she’s an “emerging star” at any point in her life - then I’m a poor judge.

For his part, Delago’s Lad won one race one day at Sandown (29/1/11) and almost every video watcher in the entire country got excited. I didn’t. His sectionals were ordinary and he beat a bunch of scrubbers and I could tell you straight away after that win that “he’s not much good” in the general score of things. If he ever wins a Group 1 in his lifetime we should shut racing down. I’ll bet you he’s never an “emerging star”.

Move to Mosheen and the facts and realities are that he’s won one race, by a wart, in his career to date. Sure he ran second to Sepoy in the Golden Slipper but he was so highly regarded in that race that he started at wait for it - 100/1. Who is the last racehorse that ran a place in a Golden Slipper and went on to become a subsequent “star” galloper that started at 100/1 in it? I can’t think of one. Mosheen’s now changed trainers since his Golden Slipper placing so the bloke that had the key to him which allowed him to run second in a Golden Slipper is hardly going to ring the new trainer and give him the mail on how to train him. Some horses only “go” for the one trainer.

What about Do Ra Mi. She’s a classic tease if ever there was one. Who could ever forget that day at Flemington (12/3/11) when Michael Walker snagged her out to last and then she stormed home to win the Group 2 Kewney Stakes. Wow, how good was that. And she also ran pretty fair overall time that day of 1.22.2. The problem is until a horse has run fast overall time twice there’s nothing to suggest he or she is any good. So after the Kewney win, this revelation Do Ra Mi was taken to Sydney by Peter Moody and she got lost, running fifth to bandit Mirjulisa Lass (she’s another one hit wonder) and then thirteenth to Absolutely beaten just 35 lengths. I’ve written it here 100 times before but I’ll write it for the 101st time, so any new readers don’t forget it - and that is one thing that Mark Read wrote many years ago, when he penned a series of educational articles to help punters, that being that “a horse should return from a spell in the form it went to the spelling paddock in”. Sure enough squillionaire Mark Read was proven right again last Saturday when the Do Ra Mi that had got beaten just 35 lengths before spelling, went missing in action first up, leaving her trainer totally dumbfounded. Again you can be assured that Do Ra Mi is no “emerging star.”

The last one of the five mentioned in The Courier Mail article was Lights of Heaven. She was unbeaten before last Saturday having won four from four, so it’s fair that someone might pick her out as having a brighter future than most. There’s no question in my mind that she was unlucky last Saturday behind Whobegotyou. I cannot for the life of me credit that some people are still saying she wouldn’t have beaten Whobegotyou if she’d got out earlier. So as far as I’m concerned she should be unbeaten as at today. She is a Group 1 winner (Morphettville Oaks) and she’s a Group 2 winner (Fillies Classic), so she has what I’d call “good proven ability against her own gender”. But that’s the biggest rap I could give her as at today. There is nothing to suggest that she is any “emerging star” now that she has to exit the sanctity of her own age group and take on all ages and genders. If she were mine, I wouldn’t be putting such a lightly raced galloper into races like the Caulfield Cup where she is currently favourite - she’d stay in mares races, as she’s never once run overall time to this point in time, so as far as I’m concerned, as at today, no one including trainer Peter Moody has a solitary clue as to where she sits in the general score of things. It is quite possible even that she is in fact a false favourite for the Caulfield Cup.

In conclusion, as I have written recently, it is my considered opinion that the Australian thoroughbred racing scene is currently filled with the worst bunch of racehorses – with two exceptions – that I can recall at any time within the last decade, so there is certainly an opportunity for some horse to suddenly jump out of the ground in this upcoming Melbourne Spring Carnival and look like a topliner. But as at today, no journalist, whether they started their career yesterday or 50 years ago, could possibly come up with even one “star” that was guaranteed to shine in the Melbourne Spring Carnival, with the “two exceptions” to that statement obviously being Black Caviar who is a “champion” and Sepoy who is a “star”. As for the rest of the thoroughbred population, I’m not thinking Karuta Queen, Whobegotyou, Foxwedge, Mosheen, Southern Speed, Delago’s Lad or Do Ra Mi are set to become “stars” of the upcoming Melbourne Spring Carnival. I don’t like sitting on the fence on any racing topic, as one gets haemorrhoids from the fence, but I’d like to sit on the fence with Lights of Heaven as I’d want to see her again with an uninterrupted run, before passing a final judgement about where she sits in the general score of things. If you held a gun at my head today – which some people would no doubt delight in doing - I would say she is “probably being overrated by most people”. She would have had to win easily last Saturday had she got out when Ben Melham wanted to – and by “easily” I mean by two lengths or more. Whilst Blind Freddie, accompanied by a Labrador and holding a white cane, could see that she’d have beaten Whobegotyou home had she got out earlier, I’m not convinced she’d have won by “two lengths or more”. If she couldn’t have won that race by two lengths or more with no traffic issues - given that she could not even get away from ordinary quality gallopers like 100/1 shot Prince Obama and 30/1 chance Vesper in the last 200 metres – then going forward she will struggle to win a Caulfield Cup.


Genius bagged Lights Of Heaven QLD Cup Winner Flying this prep... Mosheen won everything she entered in last prep nearly and Southern Speed Caulfield Cup Winner

Simply amazing to find 3 superb horses in one article ....guy surely knows his horses