Happy Year of the Rat to you

That date marks the start of the Year of the Rat, or, to be pedantic, the Year of the Metal Rat.

One might think the Year of the Horse – such as 2014 – would be more auspicious for horseracing, but it’s the Rat that is said to bring the most good fortune to the world as a whole. That is because it is the first among the animals of the Chinese zodiac and denotes new beginnings.

Which will be welcome news.

The Chinese phrase quoted above means “cheers and beers”. Enough said.

The story goes that the 12 animals representing months of the year were those polite enough to pitch up when Buddha invited all living creatures around for a new year’s party. Assembled for the festivities were Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig.

The animals then had the bright idea of having a race to determine their order within the year – the sort of thing that can happen at a NYE bash after a fair amount of cheers and beers,

Surely the horse won? No; the rat romped in by several lengths. Google research tells us that this race wasn’t run at Turffontein or Greyville, but cross-country and across a river. How can you punt on something like that?

The Horse finished in seventh, well ahead of the Pig, who was tailed off last.

In defence of the Horse, and all Horse people (and horses) out there, the sign’s qualities are good: energetic, witty, good with money, etc.

But Rat is making the pace out front: the beginning of all things new.

How does this information help us find winners on the racecourse?

Well, it seems Chinese astrology is even more difficult to unravel than the form of an MR59 fillies handicap at a rainy Monday meeting at Kimberley. You have to factor in five elements – wood, fire, earth, sky and metal – your “inner” animals and your personal sign’s affinity with month, day and hour.

Further reading might tell you to beware of volcanoes, but what we really need to know is how to find the winner of the upcoming Sun Met at Kenilworth.

The truth is what we should be worried about is not volcanoes, but pace. Kenilworth is notorious for the “Cape crawl” – with jockeys seemingly able to manipulate the speed at which the field travels. Slowing things down can result in a distance race turning into a sprint in the last few furlongs.

Most infuriating for punters is when the pace gets muddled – with the crawl prompting some jockeys to try to speed things up and disruptive bumping and blocking ensuing.

Both the recent Green Point Stakes and the Queen’s Plate suffered this fate – so we still do not know the true state of the form of the current top rank of horses in the country.

But the racing crowd can cheer themselves for the approaching Met by remembering that the Rat is a sign of wealth and surplus. Previous Rat years have included 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996 and 2008.

Were they good times for you?

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