This horse pictured being unsaddled in this file photo is Brisbane galloper Noble Gent. Did he create Australian thoroughbred history by breaking the track record at Eagle Farm over 1000 metres in two consecutive starts? Oddly enough, he raced on for another 38 months before retirement, but could never win another race - after achieving the astonishing feat.

A recent spate of track record holders getting rolled at their next start has led to several emails as to where to find a story I put in the book I published in 2006.

During 2009 a whole heap of horses that broke an existing track record have got beaten at their next start, in fact I can’t recall one that has won at it’s next start. For instance Judged, which broke a track record at Randwick on 7/3/09 got lost at her next start. Interestingly only weeks earlier Buzzy Henry had broken the same track record, before getting beaten at long odds on at his next start. At Moonee Valley on 22 August, 2009, Pass Me By broke the 2500-metre track record when running 2.35.58. He got beaten at long odds on last Saturday at his next start, which just happened to be at the same track and distance that he’d broken the track record over. On the same day that Pass Me By broke the track record, La Rocket, running in the last race, over the odd distance of 1519 metres, broke the extrapolated 1500-metre track record of Black Panther. That galloper Black Panther ran 1.29.86, which extrapolated to 1519 metres equates to a 1.31.00 run. La Rocket ran 1.30.93, in winning on 22/8/09, so technically broke the existing track record of Black Panther by seven hundredths of a second. La Rocket stepped out, heavily backed, at Moonee Valley last Saturday, this time over 1500 metres and ran second to Philda, the amazing aspect being that Philda actually broke Black Panther’s track record when narrowly beating La Rocket, so now Philda holds the track record for 1500 metres at Moonee Valley.

So what I have done today for website visitors is updated all the record holders from my original article that I penned on 28/4/2005 and here is the updated story, which still leads you to the same conclusion as the original story – that being to avoid backing track record breakers at their next two starts.

The original story with updated information reads:

You would logically think that if a horse breaks a metropolitan track record, that he or she must be absolutely flying.

I’ve always had the opinion that in breaking the track record, the horse has gone so fast, it has in fact had a “gutbuster” - and that track record feat will cause that horse to get beaten within two starts.

So let’s examine the question “do horses get beaten within two starts of breaking a metropolitan track record”?

I decided to do a survey of two tracks in each of Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. In Brisbane I did both tracks of Eagle Farm and Doomben. In Sydney I checked Randwick and Rosehill, whilst in Melbourne, Caulfield and Flemington were surveyed. All these tracks have a long history and are the tracks where the majority of Group races are conducted within each State. As such, they have all the best horses from around Australia racing there each year at Carnival times.

There is the odd horse I can’t find the form for, because they broke their record too long ago. That statement pertains to track record holders like Wish Me Well (Eagle Farm) and Apollo Eleven (Randwick).

** Please note this track record of Grand Armee’s was broken by three one hundredths of a second by More Than Great on 5/9/09, but as that galloper is yet to start again, I have left the record with Grand Armee - for the benefit of statistical purposes below. Please also note that when More Than Great broke Grand Armee’s track record, so did the horse that he beat a nose – So You Think – but I have done no research whatsoever into the statistics of horses that break the track record when being placed in track record time. So from my research, the vulnerable horse at his next two starts is the race winner More Than Great.

So what can we deduce from all that research?

I can only find one horse – Brisbane sprinter Noble Gent, who in the history of post World War 2 racing could break a track record, then go back to the same track and distance and break his own track record. He broke the Eagle Farm track record 3/1/05 and then broke his own record at his very next start on 22/1/05. I’m of the opinion that he created Australian racing history with that feat. After he broke the track record for the second time, he was unable to ever win another race and was retired after having had his last start at Eagle Farm on 8/3/08. Even what some people may chose to call “top class jockeys” couldn’t get him to win a race. These senior jockeys all rode Noble Gent, but couldn’t win on him after his second track record - Seamer, Munce, Katsidis, Michael Cahill, Pengelly, Scriven, Byrne, Holder and Galloway etcetera. In fact apprentice Owen Turpin got closest to winning another race on Noble Gent when he went down in two tight photo finishes in two consecutive Class 6 races at Eagle Farm on 8/9/07 and 15/9/07.

Across the six racetracks of Caulfield, Flemington, Rosehill, Randwick, Eagle Farm and Doomben, I checked on the 67 individual - or joint - current track record holders of the 60 current track record holders. Of those 67 horses we have to eliminate five horses – Wish Me Well and Apollo Eleven (as their records are too old), Defier and Depeche Mode (were both retired after breaking their track records at Doomben and Flemington respectively, thus denying them a chance to either win, or lose) and De Gaulle Lane who in fairness broke down after winning the Queensland Derby. That then leaves us with 62 horses to work with. Of those 62 horses only 16, or 25.81%, were able to win again at their very next start and that includes horses like Miss Andretti that went to spell after breaking a track record, then won first up – so in other words, historically 74.19% of horses get beaten at their next start after breaking a track record.

Of those 67 track record holders only six, or just 8.96%, were able to win their next two starts. Those six horses were the aptly named mare Special, Accomplice, Grand Armee, Toledo, Octagonal, Dignity Dancer and Takeover Target. It is interesting to note out of those six aforesaid horses only two – Octagonal and Dignity Dancer - achieved their consecutive wins at distances above 1400 metres. It is fair to therefore conclude that Octagonal and Dignity Dancer were “champion middle distance horses” of Australia. Few would beg to differ. In Dignity Dancer’s favour however was the fact he had a 112 day spell after breaking his track record – then on resuming won four races in a row when taken to Melbourne.

The great triple Melbourne Cup winning mare Makybe Diva even got rolled within two starts of running her amazing track record of 1.58.73 for 2000 metres, set when she won the Australian Cup in 2005. She didn’t buck the trend when she went over in Japan at her second start following the Australian Cup victory – and got lost.

So maybe punters now armed with the information that 74.19% of track record breakers go over at their very next start will not be so quick to think such and such a horse is a “put in take out” job. Extrapolating the figures out further, an astounding 91.04% get rolled within two starts of breaking a track record.

It is amazing to note a couple of other points. The great sprinter Hareeba broke the Eagle Farm 1300 metres track record and never ran another placing.

The great mare Lovey broke the 1400 track record at Flemington on 12/12/92. She still holds that record to this day. Incredibly, she never won another race in 18 subsequent racetrack appearances after she broke that record.

Grand Zulu looked like Phar Lap winning in the 2004 Sydney Carnival and smashing the 2400 metres track record. Such was the esteem in which his effort was held that he was packed off to Hong Kong. However he only won one race from 10 appearances in Hong Kong after his devastating track record demolition – and has never won another race since he returned to Australia.

Intelligent Star broke the Flemington 1100 metres track record on 12/2/02, but did not win another race in eight attempts before retiring.