Horse Racing: Credibility the key to world records

By Mike Dillon

A sensational 1.6.51, 1200m world record to Bawalaksana.

Sounds impressive, doesn't it.

But is it really?

For a world record to have any credibility, in whatever field of endeavour, it must be seen as conclusively better than anything else the rest of the world can produce.

Can we really say Bawalaksana would beat any 1200m horse in the world at the moment?

You would have to be deranged to even think it, even allowing much of the
Northern Hemisphere runs six furlongs rather than 1200m.

Here's a scenario: 1.8.5 is an incredibly fast 1200m time in Australia, even though Australian sprinters are universally accepted as being better than ours.
Dantelah, who came across the Tasman to win then lose the Railway at Ellerslie, is several lengths off the best Australian sprinters.

It is an even money bet whether Dantelah should have lost the Railway in the inquiry room which means there is little between Dantelah and Bawalaksana, who was promoted ahead of her, in ability.

Dantelah struggles to run 1.8.5 in Australia yet Bawalaksana can run a world record 1.6.51 at Trentham.

That has got to tell you something. Certainly there was a tail wind on Saturday that would have blown 9 out of 10 hats out of sight.

There is no suggestion there is something dodgy with the distance. Trentham's dog-leg 1200m almost certainly has some downhill element and has always been lightning fast. Take out Lady Madonna's 1.10.4 Telegraph on an "off" track in 1994 and the average winning time in the race in the past 15 years would be close to 1.7.6.

It is significant that the world record Bawalaksana broke was Victory Dias' 1.6.59 Telegraph Handicap win in 1993.

So what is the fuss about this world record?

Mainly the fact that horse racing is all about credibility. It is one thing to beat our chests with a world record, but how much long term good does it do us when horses who run records here go to Australia and get beaten by animals running two seconds slower?

It casts a shadow of doubt over all our horses.

And that is something our industry cannot afford.
Bawalaksana is a very smart horse, yet in a perverse way the record time could almost undermine him, which would be a shame.

Victory Dias was fast but was hardly a world record holder.

Samboa, whose form in recent sprints has only been useful, was half a neck and threequarters of a length from Bawalaksana, which means he must have also gone close to breaking the old world record.

Think about that.

You have to hope Mr Tiz and Courier Bay were not watching Trackside on Saturday.