For those of you who’ve used the jump trials to help you decide which ponies to switch to over fences, how many “----- loves to jump!” are considered a good indicator of any kind of future in SC?
I have a horse who I’ve tried three times, and twice the jockey has indicated a ~love for jumping~… but I’m not sure if that’s enough evidence for me to permanently switch her career?
I have changed several of my horses to SC on the strength of the jump trials added to my suspicion that they might do OK at SC
Dream Alone has had 7 races as SC and won 6 of them
Highland joy has run 6 times for 4 wins and 2 seconds
Superbia has 5 runs with 4 wins and 1 second including 2 stakes wins and a second
taste the day with 2 runs for 2 seconds
There have however been others that have done no good at all. I have a couple more that look likely to be worth changing but i find there is a problem having too many SC racers in that there are not enough races for them without constant shipping and frequently the prize money does not justfy this course of action. As more members switch to SC the problem will get worse. I have had most of my SC horses under raced this year and sometimes have to enter 2 per race to keep them running though I don’t like to do this too often.
Were I in your place i would be inclined to take the chance, she may become a star!
When I see “_______ loves to jump!” I change them for the next race. I think that’s the highest pro-SC feedback you can get. The only time I’m wary is if they’ve been pretty successful over flat and then it says that. Then I redo it once or twice. But I’ve had nothing but good results for changing a horse’s career after getting that feedback. Here are a couple of my examples:
She’s Gawne didn’t place above 6th until I switched her… She’s still not a rockstar but at least she is earning now!
Eloquence was still talented, but not consistent until I switched her to SC. As soon as I did, she won her first jumping race and then got second in stakes!
I know it’s scary to make such a permanent switch, but if they love it, that’s what they should be doing!
With one horse - Shadow In The Dark I did multiple jump trials, just to see how different are they going to be. Her flat jockey knew her “fairly well” by then. Her jump trials were 4x “loves jumping” and once “seems like a decent jumper”. In her first steeplechase she placed 6th/12, then had several jump workouts, and now she’s resting at the farm while I’m thinking where to enter her 
so far her turf results are better, but I have only four steeplechasers so just wanted to try her. Another one of my steeplechasers (that used to run well on flat too) is The Woman In Black, and so far her career looks like this:
Dirt 29(13) 13(4) 6(2) 3(2) 3(2) $611,350
Turf 8 0 3 0 1 $25,950
SC 6(5) 1(1) 0 2(2) 1(1) $103,500
She had two jump trials, in both she “loved jumping”, and she had really many workouts with her flat jockey, although he never said how well he knows her and I switched her to jumping mostly for the breeding plans in the future - just to know what to expect from her foals.
The other two were terrible on the flat, and they have never had any jump trials, but recently they are rather good at jumping. These are Lacune and Alchaasibiyeh (okay, she won a race on turf, but Lacune was terrible).
I’ve had pretty good luck switching mine over too, I only switch if it says loves jumping as I have too many SC horses and not enough races for them all! Lol