Self Assured is a sensational pacer.
He has won 22 races, including 4 Group 1’s, and has only been out of a place once in his 37 lifetime starts, that being when he went into a wild break from the stand in the 2020 New Brighton Cup and lost all chance before the race had gone 100 metres.
That’s a mighty record, glowing in fact, but there is a glaring anomaly within it.
Self Assured has been beaten in more Group 1’s than he has won.
On each occasion he has finished second, which is super form for any horse. but it’s not the mark of a champion.
Champions win gold, not silver.
And when it comes to a dogfight they stretch their neck out and make sure their nose is in front as they hit the line.
Therein lies the conundrum of Self Assured, the the fundamental question: this bloke is brilliant, but how big is his ticker?
After his defeat last night in the Group 2 City of Auckland FFA, when he loomed up and looked set to sail straight past his stablemate South Coast Arden. only to turn it up in the last 50 metres, a lot of people are now asking that question.
It is very unfair in some respects.
South Coast Arden ran the the fastest time ever recorded in the history of the race by seven tenths of a second, and Self Assured sat outside him in the death as they sizzled home in 54.7 and 26.9.
That’s good going by anyone’s standards.
But it’s not great.
Gammalite used to sit outside champions like Popular Alm and beat them. Pure Steel did too. Lazarus would sit three-wide and paste them.
They were champions.
Although he is not given credit for it, Ultimate Sniper was too.
They ran the 2200m of the City of Auckland last night in 2.38.3.
Ultimate Sniper ran the same distance at the same track in 2.35.4.
His brother Ultimate Machete ran it in 2.36.1.
23 years ago Bogan Fella – a pacer that no-one puts in the annals of all time greats – ran 2.38.2, and carts were a whole lot slower then.
As I said, there are question marks over Self Assured’s claim to champion status, and the truth is that he isn’t one.
Lochinvar Art had the wood on him.
Copy That has got the wood on him.
And now it seems that South Coast Arden does too.
Self Assured is a real good horse.
But a champion he ain’t.
He lacks the ticker.