Category: Horses

The short answer is probably not. Previewing the 2021/22 season his Betfair column in early October, 2021, trainer Paul Nicholls wrote that Monmiral ‘will probably stay hurdling this year’, but added that ‘nothing is set in stone’. However, Nicholls and the owners of Monmiral, who include Sir Alex Ferguson and John Hales, have made no secret of the fact that they consider the Saint Des Saints gelding a steeplechaser in the making. Interviewed in January, 2021, by which time Monmiral was 2-2 for his new yard, following his transfer from French trainer Francois Nicolle the previous November, Nicholls said, ‘He won’t even have an entry in the Triumph Hurdle.’

His decision was vindicated when Monmiral won the Victor Ludorum Juvenile Hurdle at Haydock and the Anniversary 4-Y-O Juvenile Hurdle at Aintree on his next two starts to maintain his unbeaten record. Indeed, on the latter occasion, he beat the Triumph Hurdle runner-up, Adagio, by 7½ lengths at level weights and, in so doing, earned the highest Timeform rating, 151p, of any juvenile hurdler in 2020/21. Of course, Adagio has since finished a close second, under 11st 12lb, in the Greatwood Hurdle at Cheltenham on his return to action following wind surgery, so the Aintree form could yet prove even better than it did at the time.

As far as 2021/22 is concerned, Nicholls has said that Monmiral will reappear in the first Grade 1 hurdle race of the season, the Fighting Fifth Hurdle, at Newcastle in late November. He has, so far, declined to commit to future targets, but does seem keem on the idea of running Monmiral in the Aintree Hurdle, over two-and-a-half miles, at the Grand National Festival in April; Nicholls last won that race with Zarkandar in 2013.

 

At the end of the 2020/21 National Hunt season, Shishkin was the highest-rated novice chaser in the country, according to Timeform. Owned by Joe and Marie Donnelly and trained by Nicky Henderson, the seven-year-old won all five starts over fences in 2020/21, including the Arkle Challenge Trophy at the Cheltenham Festival, and is currently favourite for the 2022 Queen Mother Champion Chase.

In September, 2021, shortly after announcing the retirement of his former stable star, Altior, Henderson was keen to make it known that Shishkin had undergone a minor wind operation. A routine examination of his upper respiratory tract – performed with a device called an endoscope and therefore known, colloquially, as ‘scoping’ – revealed that Shishkin might need a wind operation at some point. So, rather than interrupt his training programme once the season was underway, connections chose to schedule surgery sooner rather than later.

Explaining the rationale behind the ‘safety first’ approach, Henderson said, ‘You don’t want to run in the Tingle Creek [his intended target for Shishkin’s seasonal reappearance, at Sandown in December] and find that there was a problem and stop and start again.’ Nevertheless, he played down the procedure, describing it as ‘nothing out of the ordinary’ and added that Shiskin had done ‘phenomenally well’, physically, over the summer.

It sounds a strange question.

However, there is a grain of truth in the answer.

Surely, racehorses are born throughout the year? Even this isn’t quite true. As the UK Flat horse racing season starts in March or April you will find most racehorses are born from January – June. For horse racing purposes, a simple way to categorise each age group, horses become a year older on the turn of the new year.

So for racehorses, January 1^st signifies one year older.

However, you will find that most two-year-old racehorses, although classified as two, are not officially two until their birth date (some are older).

For example, an individual born on the 2^nd May will not officially be two until that date. However, publications such as the Racing Post or Sporting Life will show them as being two.

All age groups of race horses are categorised the same.

Predominantly, two-year-old thoroughbreds race against their own age group. There is a small number of races where they are eligible to contest older horses. They are given a significant weight advantage (handicapped) because they would have little chance of beating older opposition without this advantage.

The most significant race where two-year-olds race against older opposition is the Coolmore Wootton Bassett Nunthorpe Stakes (Group 1) which is held at York racecourse in the month of August over 5f.

Since 1922, just five two-year-olds have won this race: High Treason (1953), My Beau (1954), Ennis (1956), Lyric Fantasy (1992) & Kingsgate Native (2007).

With a weight allowance of at least 22lbs and winning prize money of £226,840 it’s a race most horse trainers would like to win.