WHERE are all the two-year-olds in Sydney racing this season? Despite record prizemoney, average field sizes for the juvenile races are the lowest in years, reports Ray Thomas in the Daily Telegraph in Sydney.The report adds: There have been 13 races for two-year-olds in the city so far, with exactly 100 runners at an average of less than eight starters per race. The last nine Sydney juvenile races have attracted eight runners or less.It is a disturbing trend that has Racing NSW and Australian T
WHERE are all the two-year-olds in Sydney racing this season? Despite record prizemoney, average field sizes for the juvenile races are the lowest in years, reports Ray Thomas in the Daily Telegraph in Sydney.
The report adds: There have been 13 races for two-year-olds in the city so far, with exactly 100 runners at an average of less than eight starters per race. The last nine Sydney juvenile races have attracted eight runners or less.
It is a disturbing trend that has Racing NSW and Australian Turf Club officials searching for solutions.
David Payne, Sydney's joint leading trainer of juveniles this season with three wins from Regimental Pride, Criterion and Queen Pin, is at a loss to explain the lack of competition in the early two-year-old races.
"I don't know why there aren't more two-year-old runners," Payne said. "I've only got 20 juveniles on my books and we have got many of them away early. Other trainers have 50 or 60 youngsters, even more, and you wonder what has happened to them.
"It doesn't make sense, particularly as the prizemoney is so good. It's not as if we are racing for $10,000. You win one Saturday race in Sydney and earn nearly $50,000 prizemoney and that is more than a year's keep."