Turf Heroes – Better Loosen Up
As part of our excitement about the Sydney and especially Melbourne Spring Racing Carnivals and all that they entail, Making The Nut is pleased to bring you a ten-part ‘Turf Heroes’ series, where Cliff Bingham will look back fondly upon the great memories these champions thoroughbreds embedded in his mind. Part two of the series recaps the career of Australia’s Japan Cup hero of 1990, Better Loosen Up.
Previous “Turf Heroes” Instalments
Part 1: Super Impose
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The career
Another future superstar who began his career minus the fanfare, Better Loosen Up ran four times as a two year-old for a solitary win at Bendigo in April of 1988, before being transferred from the Les Theodore stables at Bendigo to the Sydney stables of Bart Cummings.
Under Cummings’ watchful eye he progressed nicely as a three year-old, winning four times over the 1988-89 summer before placing second in the Group 1 Canterbury Guineas and seventh in the Group 1 Rosehill Guineas. Nonetheless, his career record of 16 starts for five wins, four seconds and a third with minimal involvement at Group level gave no indication of what was to come when he switched stables yet again to join the Colin Hayes (and subsequent David Hayes) team at Lindsay Park. Little was it known at the time that he had been racing with a hairline fracture of the pelvis for some time – his full potential as a 100 per cent healthy horse was yet to be seen.
He resumed at Listed level on Caulfield Cup day in 1989 and was a unlucky second to stable mate Heavenly View before winning the Group 1 Honda Stakes (now the Emirates Stakes) during the Melbourne Cup carnival. From there, he travelled to Perth and took out both the Group 1 Winfield Stakes (now the Fruit ‘n Veg Stakes) and the Group 1 Railway Stakes. He had clearly matured as a four year-old, but even better was to come.
In the autumn of 1990, he won the Blamey Stakes first up and ran second to the Queensland flyer Vo Rogue in the Group 1 Australian Cup, before heading to Sydney and taking out the Group 1 Segenhoe Stakes (now the Ranvet Stakes). Wet tracks hurt his chances in both the BMW (where he ran sixth) and the Queen Elizabeth (second), but it was now clear that Better Lossen Up was among the premier WFA gallopers in the country.
After resuming in the spring of 1990 with a fourth-placed run in the Liston, he took out the Feehan Stakes and Turnbull Stakes, birth at Group 2 level, before tackling the WFA championship of Australia – the Cox Plate. Noted front-runner Stylish Century set a blistering pace early on, but over the last 1000 metres Better Loosen Up reeled him in from 25 lengths back, nabbing top-liner Sydeston in the final hundred metres and breaking the track record in the process. He then defeated Stylish Century again in the Group 1 Mackinnon Stakes before the two horses headed to Tokyo as Australia’s representatives in the Japan Cup.
Against the likes of winners of the English Derby, Arc D’Triomphe and Breeders’ Classic, Better Loosen Up seemed more blue blood than blue collar. A combination of his plain looks and typical lazy track work did not endear him to the ‘Breakfast With The Stars’ session in the lead up to the race. But when the moment of truth came, he sustained a long run in the home straight and won a three-way blanket finish through sheer will more than anything else, his head extended out such that it was almost parallel to the running rail. It was a wonderful victory which served Australian racing well over the ensuing years on the international stage.
He returned in the early part of the 1991 autumn carnival and treated his rivals with contempt in both the Blamey Stakes and the Australian Stakes. With 12 wins (eight at Group 1 level) and three seconds from his past 17 starts, the world appeared to be his oyster. However, in preparing for a tilt at the Sydney autumn riches, he bowed a tendon during track work and spent almost 11 months off the scene.
For such an injury to befall the best horse in the country at that time seemed a rather cruel twist of fate, and for many horses this injury would have spelled instant retirement. However, Better Loosen Up underwent surgery in an attempt to get this champion of the turf back to the races.
He resumed in February of 1992, running a respectable third in the Listed Edward Manifold Stakes before a poor last place in the Blamey Stakes, where his intelligence may have simply led to him being more careful than carefree. After a fourth placing in the Group 1 George Ryder Stakes at Rosehill he was sent for a spell.
His spring 1992 campaign was beset by rain affected tracks (much as with Super Impose and Let’s Elope, his less preferred going). He lost a match racer to Let’s Elope on Thousand Guineas day and was a frightfully unlucky fourth in the Cox Plate, where Let’s Elope and Kinjite both shifted ground badly to close a gap he was set to charge through and challenge for the lead late in the race.
All of these setbacks seemed to be in the past through when he resumed in February 19933 with a stellar second over an unsuitable short 110- metre scamper at Morphettville. However, in preparation for attempting to win the Blamey Stakes for a third time, he injured his tendon again and that spelled the end of his racing career.
The memories
Better Loosen Up was not one of those horses who simply blew fields away with a lightning turn of foot or (1991 Blamey Stakes and Australian Cup excepted) treated opponents with contempt. Rather, he won races on the back of long extended runs, turning races into a battle of attrition more than anything else.
Indeed, eight of his 12 Group victories were by a long neck or less, and his Cox Plate victory came by only a half length. More often than not he simply ground down other horses with his greater courage and will to win. Never was this more evident than when he captured the Japan Cup over the aristocracy of racing, purely and simply because he wanted it more than they did.
Despite being a plain looking gelding he was reputed to be a very intelligent horse. His ability to go from semi-comatose in the lead up to a race to fully wound up for the race itself and back to semi-comatose shortly thereafter was well renowned, and his oft-lazy track work belied his efforts on race day. If ever a horse could be described as having the metaphoric ‘white line fever’, it was Better Loosen Up.
His intelligence also may have explained his flat run in 1992 Blamey Stakes, his second run back from a bowed tendon and a race during which he never really stretched out. Much as athletes are often careful or cautious in their first couple of matches after returning from injury, Better Loosen Up may simply have not yet been prepared to give it the full treatment on a leg he hadn’t yet regained full trust in.
The thing I will remember most about Better Loosen Up though are the two ‘what if’ scenarios, the first involving his pelvis fracture as a younger horse and the second involving his bowed tendon in the autumn of 1991.
Knowing what we do about his intelligence, his pelvis fracture and his ability to be runner-up in a Group 1 (the Canterbury Guineas) as a three year-old despite injury issues, what if he was fully fit and healthy during that 1989 autumn campaign? Would he have snared a Group 1 victory or two that autumn, or was he a horse who still needed to develop further as a four year-old before winning three times at the elite level the following spring? We will never know for sure, but given he was coming to the end of a long summer/ autumn campaign, the well may have already been tapped by that point of his preparation.
The more tantalising what if – after his two outstanding wins in the autumn of 1991, how would he have fared over the next 12 to 18 months without the bowed tendon? Keep in mind that he had 12 wins and three seconds from his last 17 starts prior to the injury. With his WFA record over Super Impose at the time, he would have been the prohibitive favourite in both the Ranvet and BMW that autumn. If he hits the 1991 spring in similar form, he would have also been a pronounced favourite to defeat Surfers Paradise and Super Impose to make it back-to-back Cox Plates.
Perhaps the saddest part of the 'what if' scenario was his absence from the field for the 1991 MacKinnon Stakes and 1992 Australian Cup, both won in scintillating fashion by Let’s Elope. With Better Loosen Up off the scene, the Australian WFA ‘title belt’ didn’t have a clear owner until she roared into the frame. Whilst the two did meet in both a match race and the Cox Plate in the spring of 1992, both horses were not in the same vintage form and the opportunity for two of the great match-ups had already passed.
Who would have won the 1991 MacKinnon Stakes and 1992 Australian Cup – the defending WFA champ in Better Loosen Up or the rampaging challenger in Let’s Elope? I don’t know the answer. It’s extremely weird to think of an eight-time Group 1 winner through a ‘what could have been’ prism, but that’s always how I’ll think of Better Loosen Up. Don’t pay much heed to his overall race record – just focus on his 17 starts as a four and five year-old and that will tell you how great he was.
The stats
Overall record: 45 starts, 17 wins (8 x Group 1s, 5 x Group 2s), nine seconds, three thirds, $4, 767,670 prize money
2YO spring/ summer (1987-88): One start
2YO autumn/ winter (1988): Three starts, one win
3YO spring/ summer* – preparation ran from October to early April (1988-89): 12 starts, four wins, four seconds, one third
4YO spring/ summer (1989-90): Four starts, three wins (3 x G1), one second
4YO autumn/ winter (1990): Five starts, two wins (1 x G1, 1 x G2), two seconds
5YO spring/ summer (1990-91): Six starts, five wins (3 x G1, 2 x G2)
5YO autumn/ winter (1991): Two starts, two wins (1 x G1, 1 x G2)
6YO autumn/ winter (1992): Three starts, one third
7YO spring/ summer (1992-93): Eight starts, one second, one third
7YO autumn/ winter (1993): One starts, one second
