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WORLD EXCLUSIVE. New Idea and Women's Weekly couldn't afford it, but Ron Maund and his wife Karen agreed for the justracing camera to take their photo with their seven-and-a- half month old baby Chelsea at Ipswich Racing Awards last Saturday night.
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15/09/06
I’m a great believer that we need to assemble the paperwork on the formula for weight-for-age racing - take it to the nearest toilet - and hit the full flush button. With the exception of the Cox Plate each year, which is generally truly run, Australian weight-for-age racing is really little more than a disgrace and like straight racing is an insult to the intelligence of punters.
Here we go again at Moonee Valley tomorrow where we have seven horses – and it will develop into a pathetic trot and canter affair. It is impossible to gauge how horses are going because the walk, trot and canter affairs turn into merely a sprint home. As a result of the race being run at such a farcical speed, I repeatedly tell my clients that horses are denied hard, conditioning hit-outs for upcoming feature races.
These races have been WFA contests since Adam and Eve played a game of “rudeies” and they need to revert to becoming handicap races to get a big field and a few horses that will run along and set up a true pace, then with their big weights the top weights will have to run the lightweights down, all adding up to exciting racing.
They say WFA races are a battle of tactics. What a lot of crap – they are a joke. Take this stupid race tomorrow. Unless a good chiropractor has been to him in the last 14 days, the short priced favourite Apache Cat has a niggling injury. He puts his head to the side when they swing for home etc., not normal behaviour for a sound horse happy racing in that direction. The day they fix him and get his head carriage right – like they obviously did that horse in Brisbane last Saturday – King Of Trumps – Apache Cat will win easily. If they haven’t fixed him, he cannot win tomorrow. I think up to 1600 metres inclusive, he is a wonderful talent, but skeletally he hasn’t been right his last two. Then go through the others – Spinney – the website/clients Caulfield Cup tip again will be needing a good hit out in a fast time for his Caulfield Cup mission, but he won’t get a genuine pace here. He’s still a chance, but 28 days between runs isn’t ideal. Lad Of The Manor went like a mule last start, sweated, pulled, didn’t want to be there, so how could you back it, yet on it’s best form he’d be a winning hope. Testafiable couldn’t win if he started now and lacks the class. Red Dazzler will get the gun run with no speed on, but I’ll bet you in life he’ll never be proven to be a better horse than either an unsore Apache Cat, or an in-form Spinney. Then I’d doubt Spielmeister at level weights could win either. He is on a “suck it and see” mission tomorrow, Spielmeister.
If the race were truly run there are only two winning chances to my mind – Apache Cat and Spinney, but it won’t be truly run, because it is a silly WFA race and we dead set need to give them the flick from Australian racing – they come from a bygone era where tradition reigned. We need to get rid of a lot of the “tradition” and 100–year old ideas in running racing and run it like the very big business it is. Who has done anything about getting an aeroplane to fly our best horses all over the country to the Carnivals – be they at Perth or Brisbane – nobody! Until another Carnival comes on in Perth, the silence will be deafening. What is the earthly sanity in raising prizemoney in races anywhere when B Graders are the only ones who can attend half the meetings because of “transport problems”?
What can win one tomorrow? Well everyone thinks Queenslander Nexgen can’t run 1800, but he’ll run 1800 I reckon tomorrow. He loomed up to win the other day and his bowser flashed, but these are an easier bunch to beat. His previous win was good and Elegant Roi stepped straight out from that defeat and won easily last Saturday and 3rd placed Divine Conqueror ran a nice race when 3rd at his next start, so there is a proven formline, therefore Nexgen simply has got to be the horse to beat tomorrow.
In Brisbane Race 6 Sea Zulu will win – well if they ride him right he will. I think he will win on the proviso that they ride him back. He will run straight over the top of them, if they ride him back, as he shoots for his first win past 1200. Buzz is paper favourite for the race - and it wouldn’t even get a start in a Cleveland Bay at Townsville – yet Sea Zulu won it. Buzz, geezz, I have got a photo of it here for the “Glue Factory Run of the Week” award. I’ll tell you it is running for its life tomorrow. It hasn’t won a race since Harold Holt disappeared from Portsea Beach when the Russian sub got him that time!
The best two roughies around Australia tomorrow are two horses at any old odds. In Brisbane Race 5 Special Package is 30-1 in the paper. Has a 3rd to Newgrange three runs back to her credit – admittedly beaten a long way – but Newgrange would make short work of these. Seven runs back got beaten 3.6 lengths at Sandown at 7-1 by I Command and again I Command would make mince meat of these. She’s got barrier one and is best when ridden 3rd or 4th in the run. I might be one run early, but that’s all I will be.
The other bolter is what I call a tip you fall across trying to spot a dud and is Sydney Race 6 Horse 3 Holy Bounty. She’s resuming, so that in itself is a worry, but it is resuming from a bleeding attack and I don’t mind backing them first up, because normally the horse has had a long, slow preparation because if it bleeds again it is out for life. She’s a high quality mare who can finish alongside Candyvale – not once, or it could be a fluke – but twice on 5/2/06 and 18/2/06. She got beaten half a length by Caulfield Cup favourite Zipping on 25/3/06 at Moonee Valley. She reeks of a touch of class, but she’s a bleeder. So Freedman got rid of this well performed mare. Why doesn’t she go straight to a stallion if her bleeding attack was so bad, as she could be now in foal? Why is Glen Boss riding her, he doesn’t need to ride scrubbers – but he is mates with the former trainer Freedman. Remember they won a couple of Melbourne Cups together. Why has new trainer Kim Waugh never sent the new mare in her stable around in a barrier trial to make sure everything is okay and assess her? I mean taking notice of barrier trials is really the most silly thing that happens in racing (apart from WFA and straight racing) but I would have thought they would trial this mare. Maybe Holy Bounty will have every chance and run 10th, or maybe she’ll bleed again and get barred for life, but you have to look beyond the square to come up with a roughie winner – and I bet you most people initially didn’t give her a second glance. I grew up at the racetrack with a lovely man who is no longer with us. He made a fortune when punting picking the right stayers to back over sprints when resuming. This one has his name all over it and it is big odds. She’s never finished further back than 2nd in four first up runs and has won at 1200 and runs a place 75% of the time when it heads to a racetrack. I smell a rat and so I will have a little spec bet each way to satisfy my wanton desire to back a winner.
I reckon a jockey tape affair phone call happened between Glen Boss and Lee Freedman early this week and this is how I imagined it went:- Freedman’s phone rings.
LF “Yeah” (doesn’t say 'hello' gets sick of answering it)
GB “Hey Lee, it’s Bossy here”
LF “Who – Mossy”
GB “No Bossy, you know Glen Boss, I won a couple of Melbourne Cups for you and we went fishing together in Port Lincoln with Tone”.
LF “Oh yes, I’ve got you now, I’m getting older, I won’t see fifty again, so I’ve got a Seniors Card and stuff…. talk slower hey”.
GB “Yes okay. Do you know Kim Waugh?”
LF “Mate the only Waugh’s I know are World War 1 and World War 2 and them couple of brothers who played cricket for Australia”.
GB “ Yeah that’s right, well one of them, I forget which one, married that sheila Kim Moore who trains that horse Mahtoum that that website wanker correctly potted in the Brisbane Cup”.
LF “Banker – he won a Melbourne Cup just before I was born”.
GB “No, not Banker, wanker”
LF “ Oh, why didn’t you say that the first time. Yeah I’ve seen that Kim Waugh sheila she used to be Kim Moore….Oh hell yeah couldn’t you (remainder of sentence withheld as this is a family website!)
GB “Well she’s got this thing you used to train called Holy Bounty and they want me to ride it, they reckon it goes good, what do yer reckon”.
LF “What’s in the race, what’s your name again?”
GB “Bossy”.
LF “Yeah Bossy, is there much in it?”
GB “No, not really only Imana and Coolroom Candidate”.
LF “Oh (word withheld - swear word - four letters starting with “s”) yeah get on Mossy because she’s a good mare and if that Kim Waugh sheila has her right, she’d be a hope”.
Steward Bec Lawson and Queensland Racing Senior Communications Officer Claire Power have sent the weights through for Doomben tomorrow and they are:-
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JOCKEY |
WEIGHT |
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Sheree Drake |
52 |
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Lachlan Fyfe |
52 |
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Rachel Mason |
50 |
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Matt Morris |
49 |
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Ryan Plumb |
50 |
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Mandy Radecker |
50.5 |
What’s happening on the site next week? Well there is the launch of “Wet Track Sires”, a story on a great jockey from the past who is no longer with us - and a whole lot more. My book will come out in October hopefully too, so more on that next week or the week after. Great Christmas present – sure beats the hell out of socks and jocks – aren’t they exciting!
You may recall on Lindsay Gallagher’s report Monday I said I would try to find out how Eagle Farm and Doomben got their name. Only one person knew so thanks to Jim and his writings stated:- “Eagle Farm was named that when the N.S.W. Governor advised the establishment of an agricultural station away from the Brisbane settlement. Captain Logan and Colonial Botanist Fraser, selected a tract of land on the north side of the Brisbane River backed by ‘a fine creek’ (Serpentine Creek). It comprised undulating ridges of a gentle height with a small watercourse between each one. The soil was a rich, brown loam, which supported a luxuriant growth of native grasses and was lightly timbered mainly with blue gum. An agricultural establishment was commenced there in 1829 using convict labour. Later it was used as the place for women prisoners. It got its name from the large number of eagles seen in the area.
Doomben was named after a species of tree fern. It was the Aboriginal name for the area, presumably because this particular kind of plant grew there in some profusion”.
Racing New South Wales Racing Manager Paul Bloodworth sent through a media release on a late gear change to favourite Activation in the second last at Rosehill tomorrow and it reads:-RNSW Stewards have approved an application for a gear change on Activation (NZ) which will have a bar plate fitted to the near hind for Race 8 at tomorrow's Rosehill Gardens race meeting. Trainer Graeme Rogerson has advised that this is a precautionary response to a slight stone bruise which the gelding incurred whilst working on the beach on Friday, 8th September, 2006. Mr Rogerson has informed Stewards that Activation (NZ) has not missed any work and galloped strongly yesterday morning. Racing NSW Senior Official Veterinarian, Dr Craig Suann, has this afternoon examined Activation (NZ) and declared the gelding fit to race.
Paul also advised Racing NSW has the same system as Queensland and South Australia for all gear worn by individual horses. It is on their website but can be accessed by clicking HERE.
The Brisbane Greyhound Club General Manager Luke Gatehouse issued a Press Release this afternoon which involves some of Australia’s best stayers clashing there next Thursday night. The Press Release reads:-
ALBION Park’s superstar stayers, Miss Brook, Lucy’s Light, Quidame and Miss Grub will clash in a special invitation race over 710m next Thursday night (21 September).
General Manager Luke Gatehouse pulled together the race last night after discussions with the Brisbane Club Committee and the trainers of the four greyhounds. “We have been trying to organise this race for ages, but haven’t had the four greyhounds ready at the same time. Most of them will be contesting the rich staying races down south over the next couple of months, and next Thursday night was the only chance we could get before December. Quidame and Miss Brook were heading to Victoria for a distance event at Sandown next Thursday night worth $7000 to the winner, so we needed to get some sponsorship together to keep those greyhounds in Queensland next week.” Gatehouse said.
The Club has received generous support from sponsors Big Dad’s Pies, Redcliffe Oxley Meats and Bookmaker Hayden Flynn. The race will be worth $6000 for the winner, with the winner also receiving a free service to 2005 Queensland Greyhound of the Year Black Enforcer.
What a clash it will be. All four are in fantastic form. Lucy’s Light rattled home to beat Quidame in a photo over 630m at Ipswich last Tuesday night. On the same night, Miss Grub won a 720m Invitation event at Lismore beating Miss Brook by two lengths.
Lucy’s Light is the current 710m Track Record holder at Albion Park. Miss Brook is the Group 1 Albion Park Gold Cup winner, Quidame winner of the Group 1 Gleeson and Tonta’s Stayers Trophy at the Meadows and Miss Grub has beaten both Lucy’s Light and Miss Brook this year.
All roads will lead to Albion Park next Thursday night where patrons will witness one of the races of the year.
More Information:
Luke Gatehouse
General Manager
Ph 3862 1744
Queensland Racing Limited also had a Media Release late today which involves the sale of Corbould Park racetrack by the Caloundra City Council to a joint entity of the Sunshine Coast Turf Club and Queensland Racing Limited. That Media Release in full reads:-
The Caloundra City Council has agreed to a multi-million dollar sale of Corbould Park which will see a Unit Trust established as a joint venture between Queensland Racing Limited (QRL) and the Sunshine Coast Turf Club (SCTC) to secure thoroughbred racing on the Sunshine Coast.
QRL Chairman Mr Bob Bentley said, “a Unit Trust will purchase the land from the Caloundra City Council with a long term lease back arrangement to the SCTC”.
“The Unit Trust will further develop the master plan to establish Corbould Park as a leading equine precinct,” Mr Bentley said.
“We expect the move will increase local employment, spending and investment on the Sunshine Coast whilst at the same time securing long term tenure for the SCTC.
“QRL plans to install a synthetic track to further improve the overall facility for training.
“The master plan will also look at various on-course accommodation as well the provision of equine services from veterinarians and farriers.
“It is important to QRL that we participate in the community as a valued partner ensuring established ecosystems are protected. We will also invest in a water treatment plant so that the course has a viable option to reuse water that would otherwise be wasted.
“The Mayor, Cr Don Aldous and his Council have been very supportive and we look to the Council for a continuation of this support in the future.”
Cr Aldous described the proposal as an exciting one for Caloundra City and the wider region.
“The development of Corbould Park into an international-standard equine complex will have substantial social and economic benefits for the City,'” Cr Aldous said.
“Caloundra City Council looks forward to working closely with QRL and the SCTC to ensure the best possible result for our community and for sport and recreation in this region.'”
SCTC Chairman Mr Les Geeves said, “this will be a wonderful boost not only to our Club but the Sunshine Coast as a whole”.
“It has been a high priority of the Club for many years to secure the long-term future of the SCTC and this joint venture with QRL certainly will achieve that and provide a big boost for racing in South East Queensland,” Mr Geeves said.
“There is certainly exciting times ahead for the SCTC commencing with the installation of a $5 Million synthetic training and racing track. The upgrading of the track, stabling and facilities over the next few years will certainly complement the continued growth on the Sunshine Coast.”
For further information please contact:
- Queensland Racing Chairman, Mr Bob Bentley, on 04119 964 210.
- Caloundra City Council on 07 5420 8200.
- Sunshine Coast Turf Club Chief Executive, Mr Mick Sullivan, on 0414 913 301.
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