Racing: Pinsoir regains best form but leaves connections in a quandary

Racehorses are meant to be frustrating.

But not quite as frustrating as Cambridge sprinter Pinsoir.

For a horse that measures up as one of the country's best short-course horses, Pinsoir's record for his owners in the past year has been abysmal.

That was until he ended a long run of outs by scoring a back-to-best, last-to-first win in the $25,000 Fairview Livestock 1200 at Hastings on Saturday.

As pleasing as that was for his connections, Pinsoir is rising eight and the major sprints and, therefore, the major money, have gone for the season.

Which leaves trainer Paul Duncan with a new frustration to replace the out-of-form frustration.

"Yes, it's a problem in what to do with him now.

"He's not up to the best Australian sprinters going to Brisbane.

"I've had talks with one of the owners about the possibility of Melbourne in the winter while all good horses are in Brisbane and it's been suggested to me I should take him to Sydney.

"He's a little different to most topline sprinters in that he doesn't mind a little bit of cut in the ground so even the off-carnival money might suit him in Melbourne or Sydney."

Even with those options, Duncan would have preferred the turnaround to have come before the $250,000 Railway at Ellerslie on January 1 and the $1 million Telegraph in late January.

That's much more Pinsoir's place than running for $25,000.

Duncan's best guess for the sudden rejuvenation is a month at the beach at Michael Manson's Ruakaka complex and schooling over the logs at Cambridge.

"Lately, he's looked better in the coat and he's very bright in the eye.

"Leading up to the Railway he wasn't eating well. We thought it might have been ulcers so we treated him for that.

"Whatever has turned him around he looks a different horse now and he's back to his best."

That certainly looked the case when Pinsoir finished brilliantly to win on Saturday.

Favourite Fritzy Boy sat parked to the corner then forged clear with a dash that would have won him 19 out of 20 races.

However, Pinsoir was relentless in coming down the outside from last under Matt Cameron and swept past with two strides left for a narrow victory.

That was left-handed and Duncan is half convinced Pinsoir is better racing that way around.

"Having said that he's won a Concorde [at Avondale] and finished third in a Railway, so maybe it's only coincidental that he, at times, looks better left-handed."

Duncan is now looking for a change of luck with his rising stable star Khemosabi, even though the horse has not missed a place in seven starts.

Khemosabi was caught three wide for most of his 1400m race at Hastings on Saturday and did well to hold on to fourth in a competitive race. "He just needs to draw a decent alley," said Duncan.

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Gutsiest call at the weekend goes to Foxton trainer David Haworth when tipping his horse Gorse as a likely winner at Hastings on Trackside Television.

"He's by Riviera and not many of them try hard, but he does."

Punters were happy when Gorse did the impossible to win in the last two bounds to pay $7.80, the owners of the other Riviera youngsters perhaps a little less delighted.

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More than a decade back, Des Friedricks, then chief executive at Hastings, came back from a fact-finding mission with the Japan Racing Association and made a quick change at his course.

Friedricks lined up the television camera at Hastings in the direct line of the photo finish equipment, mandatory in Japan.

The change might have seemed subtle, but it meant when you're watching a close finish, chances are you're going to nail it the same as the finish camera.

The alternative - and there are too many examples in New Zealand - is the telecast vision cutting back on an angle from before the finish, or just after the finish.

You get a false read on the actual result.

In the last race at Rotorua last Friday week, two horses (names are unimportant) flashed across the finish seemingly locked together, although the outside horse looked clearly to have won.

Caller George Simon virtually declared for the inside horse as they crossed the finish.

He was right and all those who thought they'd won on the outside horse watching on television dropped their lip.

There is nothing worse than a punter who might have their last on a horse - don't underestimate that - thinking they've won only to find out two minutes later they haven't.

Most commentators are very good at explaining the angle to punters in a close finish, but that's almost always moments later.

Some courses are worse than others - in the north Te Aroha has everyone guessing and that's not picking on them.

It may not be physically possible to co-ordinate the two lines of sight on all racecourses, but it should be done wherever possible.

Otherwise it's simply bad customer service.