I was quite interested to read about RVL’s latest hopeful in the 2012 jumps racing season.

A horse called “The Fuzz”. Read the article here . He’s going for his jumping ticket.

“The Fuzz” is a 9 year old gelding, who won $678,000 over 38 starts. The problem is, none of his wins have been recent.

FORMER top-class stayer The Fuzz will use today’s Camperdown Cup (1600m) as a stepping stone to a jumping career under his new trainer Ciaron Maher.

Please note the term FORMER ie, hasn’t had a placing since January 1st 09, where he bowed two tendons, but more on that later!

The Fuzz was trained by David Hayes when he won the 2007 group 3 Geelong Cup and the 2008 group 2 Blamey Stakes and garnered placings in other stakes races, including a second place in the 2009 group 2 Perth Cup (2400 metres) and a third in the group 2 Cox Stakes (2100 metres).

What they fail to mention here is, he also failed to appear in the 2011 season at all. Not a single trial, not a single race. In the 2010 season, he appeared in a grand total of 8 races, where he came 6/6  6/6 12/16  13/16  11/13  DH9/13 11/12  9/10. (latest to earliest starts)

“He’s one of our favourite horses. He’s given us plenty of highs with his Geelong Cup and Blamey Stakes wins and his runs over in Perth back in 2009,” McKenna said.

“He always gave 100 per cent, but he did both tendons in his front legs in the Perth Cup.

“We gave him a long break after his Perth Cup run.

So, January 1st 09, he came second in the Perth Cup, won $80,000 and bowed both tendons. Requiring an 87 week spell..

“We decided to get him back because the horse is feeling so good.”

So, because the horse made a full recovery from a very serious injury that horses normally get put to sleep for, because he was “feeling so good” you decided to put him back into racing. I ask you – does the horses results in the 2010 Season reflect the fact that he was “feeling so good” Does the fact that he had the whole of 2011 off reflect the fact that he was “feeling so good”.

“He’s shown us he has plenty of staying ability. We’ll get him qualified to run in jumps races before making any big plans.”

Of course you will! He’s been seriously injured in his racing career where he won a respectable amount of money – the PERFECT candidate for Victorian Jumps Racing.

Of course, he’s not a “jumps horse” yet, but why on earth are they even entertaining the thought?