by Magnat
Horse-racing meetings will be held at the Marsa racetrack in the next couple of weekends, one this coming Sunday 22nd January and another the following Sunday 29th January. Each meeting starts at 1.30pm and consists of eight races, all trot races over a 2,140m distance, except for one flat race on a 1,250m distance.
Each programme includes a Premier class trot race. Next Sunday’s has a full list of 16 registered horses with various of them coming from good wins or places either in the Premier or the Gold class, such as Energy Launcher, Nagano Phedo, Count of Life, Anguz R.C. and various others.
For some a win would see them going up to higher levels of points in the Premier class, whilst a no-place means that a few of them would be relegated to the Gold class.
The Premier class race of the 29th January also includes a full field of 16 registered horses, with a line-up worthy of a final. These include Fire which has registered four wins and a runner-up position in its five races in Malta, December Prix de Vincennes runner-up Nevaio des Bordes, and other horses coming from a recent win or good placing, such as Noble d’Ete, Normand d’Oger, Magic de Assigny, Bello Fratello and others.
We also have two Gold class races in each meeting. The first one in next Sunday’s meeting is reserved for horses with the highest number of points in this class, where a win (or sometimes even a good place) would lead to promotion to the Premier class.
A number of them have raced in the Premier class until recently, such as Master Lupin, Key Value, Marquis Penalan, Manuel Jet, Or Noir Mabon and Dialect Af Prinfo. Others are coming from bright performances, including Jobie Lucky, Vasterbo Hitchiker, Najac, Nomade de Mai and others.
Horses of similar quality will participate in the other three Gold class races, which also include newcomers Pirate d’Urzy (FR) and Stoms Alex (SE).
The remaining trot races are four for the Silver class, three for the Bronze class and two for the Copper class. Five newcomers are registered to make their debut in these races, i.e. Esmeralda Run (SE) in the Copper class, Qualandry (FR) in the Bronze class, Nicole L.H. (SE), Prince Feulavoir (FR) (both scratched last week) and Punch Em (SE) in the Silver class.
The class A flat race sees a seven horse field, including among others 2011 McDonalds Mediterranean Derby winner Buttermilk, 2011 Burmarrad Commercials Coronation Cup winner Fyelehk, as well as Marivan and Sandy’s Dream and newcomers Capital Hill (SE), Darielli (US) and Sellybegood (IR).
Racing enthusiasts will be on the look-out for horses’ current form in these last meetings prior to the start of this year’s championships in February ...
Last meetings
The 2012 racing season opened last weekend with two meetings comprising 14 trot races in total, all on a 2,140m distance.
The weekend’s most awaited race was probably Sunday’s Premier class race reserved for horses with the highest points in that class. This saw Normand d’Oger taking an early lead which it maintained nearly all the way. However after advancing close to the leader with a lap to go, Fire demonstrated its fighting spirit by launching an impressive sprint in the final straight, managing to pip Normand d’Oger by the slimmest of margins after consultation of the photo-finish.
Fire took its fourth win in Malta and registered the weekend’s best time of 1’15’3 per kilometre. Magic de Assigny and Bello Fratello placed third and fourth respectively.
Saturday’s Premier class race was dominated for practically the entire distance by Noble d’Ete which comfortably took its second win in Malta in 1’15’9 per kilometre, notwithstanding Master Lupin’s attack in the final straight. The latter was disqualified, with Anguz R.C. finishing runner-up, followed by Nobel de Grimoult and Energy Launcher.
The weekend’s first Gold class race resulted in Touch The Diamond’s first win in Malta by a respectable margin, when it had the better of various horses which challenged each other in the final straight. Novak, Race Ball and Jigsaw finished behind it in that order.
Following a great tussle between Nagano Phedo and Count of Life, another photo-finish ending resulted in the former’s fourth local win, with both horses being promoted to the Premier class. Nomade de Mai (which held the lead for long stretches) and Big Hit finished immediately behind them.
Despite starting with the difficult number 16, Jobie Lucky was still strong enough to produce a brilliant final sprint which brought it in front in the last part of the final straight in its Gold class race, obtaining its second win in Malta in another good time of 1’15’9 per kilometre. Najac, Lime Casted and Baron GL took the remaining places.
It is also worth highlighting Nicos de Peneme’s very good time for the Silver class (1’15’7 per kilometre), when an impressive burst of speed half a lap from the end led to its first local win by a considerable margin from Mint Condition. The other Silver class races saw wins for Olympio des Loyaux in front of Flying As, Notice As ahead of Zilver Boko and Magnum in front of Nympheta de Besoir.
The other races were won by Mr King, Robin Lou, Nereus Galbe and Mario d’Orbec in the Bronze class and Papa’s Dream in the Copper class.
Doping tests
Trotter Mealington and its owners have been suspended by the Malta Racing Club for a period of one year from both racing and entry into the paddock, due to doping test offences.
2011 newcomers
The start of the new season and the newcomers that we are already seeing this year, prompted me to take a look at last year’s newcomers’ statistics.
On the basis of the available information, the number of different trotters which raced in at least one official meeting in 2011 amounted to 765 – slightly down from the 2010 figure (781) but more than that of 2009 (744). The number of thoroughbreds amounted to 43, slightly down from 49 in 2010 and 46 in 2009.
Among the trotters, around one in every three was a newcomer during 2011, i.e. 253 newcomers, which is the second best ever figure for newcomers in a calendar year (the best was 261 in the year 2000). Among thoroughbreds around half the horses that competed were newcomers, i.e. a total of 22 newcomers, one more than 2010.
Nearly all trot newcomers were European and even the US newcomers raced in Scandinavia. The majority of new trotters were French (141, a record for newcomers from a single country- 55.73%), followed by the Swedes on 81 (32.02%) a higher number than that of each of the last two years. Between them France and Sweden accounted for nearly 88% of all trot newcomers to Malta in 2011.
Then come the Danes and the Germans with 9 each (i.e. 3.56% each), and the remaining 13 (or just over 5%) being split between Finland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway and USA.
Among thoroughbreds the main country of origin was Ireland with 9 (40.91%), followed by the USA with 4 (18.18%), then France and Great Britain with 3 each (13.64% each) and the remaining 3 horses being shared between Italy and Germany.
New trotters were predominantly 9 year olds (83 – 32.81%) and 10 year olds (69 – 27.27%), then with a big jump to the 8 year olds (31 – 12.25%), 11 year olds (29 – 11.46%) and 7 year olds (21 – 8.30%), and the remaining 20 trotters being split in the other years between 4 and 13 years.
Among thoroughbreds, the most popular age for newcomers was 5 years (7 – 31.82%), followed by the 3 year olds (5 – 22.73%) and the 4 and 6 year olds with 4 (18.18%) each, with the remaining two horses being a 7 and an 8 year old.
More than one in three new trotters was registered in the Silver class (87 horses - 34.39%), with nearly equal numbers in the Gold and Premier classes, 75 in the Gold class (29.64%) and 73 in the Premier class (28.85%). The remainder were split between the Bronze (14), Copper (3) and Qualification (1) classes.
Statistics and numbers ... but behind each number there is a horse with its own past, coming from a distant country to race among us.
We wish you all two exciting meetings in the next two weekends.
