Knowing when to stop is obviously an essential weapon in the profitable punter's arsenal. Whether the bank balance is up or down on any given day, deciding when enough has been lost or, conversely, when not a dollar more needs to be won, can be the difference between ultimate success and failure. Without wanting to be overly critical of connections, I couldn't help but feel a little bit sorry for the stoic eight-year-old gelding Vote For Lust on Monday at Mildura, who stepped-out for his 77th st
Knowing when to stop is obviously an essential weapon in the profitable punter's arsenal. Whether the bank balance is up or down on any given day, deciding when enough has been lost or, conversely, when not a dollar more needs to be won, can be the difference between ultimate success and failure.
Without wanting to be overly critical of connections, I couldn't help but feel a little bit sorry for the stoic eight-year-old gelding Vote For Lust on Monday at Mildura, who stepped-out for his 77th start. Having not yet greeted the judge in his ponderous career to date (though said greeting might now be something along the lines of "Where the f*** have you been?!"), all available evidence suggests to me that the son of Voting and Lust For Spring has peaked. Remarkably, he actually started a red-hot $1.50 favourite in a race last November, but even then could only manage second. In a two horse field. It is no surprise that the winner of that much vaunted 'match race' - the mare Tonomar - has not troubled the place-getters in three runs since. Debuting in December of 2005, Vote For Lust finished last in his first three starts beaten a collective margin of 41.4 lengths. His 'career-best' effort came in June of 2009 at start number 40, when he followed up a third at Swan Hill with a desperately narrow photo-finish loss to Bundy At Midnight at Horsham. The track was slow that day and in Vote For Lust's defence, he does appear to go much better with a bit of rain about, having placed in 8 out of 40 starts on dead or worse, but showing 37-0-0-2 on good ground.
Sure the old fellow probably enjoys his racing, and his ongoing yet to-date futile quest for victory has seen him achieve 'cult hero' status, but watching him toil away impotently at the tail of another moderate field this week - ultimately beaten 20 lengths and never even looking like troubling the second-last horse - finally convinced me that it's time to pull the pin on the Cox Plate dream. The horse itself certainly knows when to stop (normally around the 1000m mark), so why don't connections?