Former glories shouldn’t dictate Hollindale Stakes field
THE condensed carnival and juicier prizemoney have helped Saturday’s Hollindale Stakes assemble a field boasting more depth than at any time in its history.
THE more condensed carnival and juicier prizemoney have helped Saturday’s Hollindale Stakes assemble a field boasting more depth than at any time in its history.
The combined earnings of the 18 acceptors exceeds $22 million and includes no less than five individual Group 1 winners.
A fantastic support program is hopefully an indicator of what we have to look forward to over the next two months in Queensland.
But the willingness of southern raiders to accept the Queensland challenge this winter has led to the first controversy of the carnival, with a couple of big chances likely to be omitted from the race in favour of horses with poorer credentials.
Official handicapper ratings are the accepted benchmark for determining race fields in the present day, but the Hollindale ballot was based on prizemoney.
This means promising horses on the rise make way for journeyman gallopers that have accumulated more money over a longer period of time, but whose recent form has declined.
Pornichet is the sixth highest rated horse in the field, but finds himself only third emergency and likely to miss a run.
Leebaz, runner-up in the Doomben Cup just under 12 months ago, is the equal ninth rated horse, but only first emergency.
Pornichet was assessed at $6 in opening TattsBet markets yesterday and Leebaz $7.
Having four emergencies in the Hollindale is unprecedented and therefore balloting conditions have never been an issue.
The objective of any feature race should be to assemble the best field and allowing horses to qualify on former glories isn’t the answer.
Queensland prides itself on being the launching pad for future stardom. It will be a great shame if an up-and-coming horse misses the chance to join the elite list of horses that have come before because of an outdated ballot system.
Originally published as Former glories shouldn’t dictate Hollindale Stakes field
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