GARY PALMER WAS ONE OF ONLY “FOUR OR FIVE” IN 17 OR 18 YEARS WHO TOOK THE TIME TO THANK ME

05/01/15

When the sun first peeped its head over the Gold Coast horizon last Saturday morning, the day that is the pre-cursor to the Magic Millions race day seven days later promised so much for so many hopeful two-year-old owners, yet within 24 hours the place would be in shock.

The opening race attracted 18 acceptors and after final scratchings 14 headed to the barrier stalls. The victor was straight into the Magic Millions field if the owners so desired and of that final field of 14, some 77.61 seconds after the gates had crashed back the owners of 12 of the 14 knew their hopeful was, on the balance of probability, “not much good in the general score of things”. But that’s the way life is in racing.

In the wash-up, victory went to the Mount Isa based Saunders bookmaking family owned horse – Le Chef. Even though Le Chef was looking for Le Oxygen Mask on the finish line, only Real Good offered any real competition to the winner as the rest came in at long intervals of between 4.5 lengths (Red Magic) and 22.25 lengths (the aptly named Real Naughty).

Down in Sydney at Rosehill the Gai Waterhouse trained first starter Giulietta won the opening race beating what I suspect are an ordinary bunch but that filly won’t go the Magic Millions, as it is understandably a big ask for a young horse to back up into a race, second-up in just seven days. I always think big two-year-old races are a bit like rugby league grand finals – in that most are won by the team that didn’t play in a gutbuster semi-final seven days earlier. So if you put a line through every two-year-old that raced seven days before a Magic Millions or a Golden Slipper I suspect that you’d finish a mile ahead. It’s just commonsense really, but in thoroughbred racing when punting is involved “commonsense” often comes in a distinct last.

After the opening race at the Gold Coast it was all a thrill a minute at the track where it’s a nightmare for punters to find winners at when “Saturday city” class races are unfortunately run there. If you think that’s a bit harsh then let’s work our way through the other seven races.

Race 2 was won by Meteorologist. He came into the race with form of 5-7-7. The only way a punter could possibly come into him is if they read what I wrote on my Brisbane Sectional Times report from two starts earlier at Doomben (20/12/14) after stewards correctly enquired into the horse’s run. Jockey Dan Griffin told them that day that the horse “felt awkward in its action throughout the race” and he added that “connections had advised they may place blinkers on the gelding prior to its next start”. Last Saturday Dan Griffin was rolling along on front-runner Avalanches, which blew in Darwin from $3.80 to $5, as Jim Byrne took over on the still non-blinkered Meteorologist in city Saturday company and came from near last to run straight over the top of the opposition after being backed from 20/1 to 12/1 both on course and in Darwin.

Race 3 went to Jumbo Prince and he came into his race after a tenth of 12 at Doomben.

Race 4 went the way of Nicky Nocky and she came into her race off form of 5-9-5-7, but well backed she won by about half a furlong.

Race 5 went the way of Voodoo Blue Magic and he pretty much picked himself as he came into his race with form of 7-0-8-0-9.

The first feature race was the Bat Out Of Hell (Race 6) and it went the way of Plateau Gold and no problem there as he came into the race off a top Doomben win at his previous start.

Then the feature races kept coming as the Goldmarket Handicap was run and won as the seventh race. Gundy Son came into the race with form of 6-0-7-9-0-5-0-4-6-3-6 and having not won for 23 months but he earned black type by winning here. And the horse that he beat – Daph ‘N’Alf – couldn’t run closer than sixth is a 0MW (no metropolitan win) race at Doomben three starts earlier.

The final race went the way of Friendly Dragon and he came into his race with form of 0-0-2-7 but those duck eggs meant nothing as he did work in the run and got home by a neck over Bushy, which as a matter of interest had only run one placing in his last eight starts prior to this day.

So the moral from all that is that, in about six of the eight races, “the dartboard method” would have probably been the key to backing the winners. “The dartboard method” – for those punters that have never used it – and who habitually keep losing on the punt, is to firstly buy a dartboard and hang it on the wall at eye level. Then take the Form Guide and place it on the dartboard. Then select a dart – take five paces back – and throw the feathered dart at the Form Guide. Then the trick is to back the horse directly under the one that the dart lands on. That way you may have come up with any of Meteorologist, Jumbo Prince, Nicky Nocky, Voodoo Blue Magic, Gundy Son or Friendly Dragon.

Then within hours of the Gold Coast race meeting being over, sadness hit the place as if a tsunami had struck the party capital of Queensland, when it was advised that former top jockey and a steward who had officiated at that meeting – Gary Palmer – had passed away overnight. The name Gary Palmer will always be near and dear to me, because of a phone call he once made to me. It would be fair for me to say that in the 17 or 18 years that this website has been running, I have helped either directly or indirectly hundreds and hundreds of people out via stories, or a montage associated with a photo – and so on and so forth. In all that time I would say that only four or five people have ever taken the time to ring me, or email me, with thanks for the story, the plug, or whatever. In fact in recent years I’ve only bothered really writing young apprentice’s biographies, to try to give them help along the path of life, as overall it’s a pretty thankless task. But one of the “four or five” people that ever took the time to contact me was Gary Palmer.

He rang me one day out of the blue and told me that he’d like to thank me for all the help that I had given his sons Matthew and Michael in their formative years as apprentice jockeys. It meant a lot to me at the time and I never did forget that phone call, so to receive the news of Gary’s passing yesterday morning was terrible for the racing industry. In fact I saw him occasionally at race meetings and we exchanged pleasantries and I only saw him from 15 or 20 metres away when I was at an Ipswich race meeting that he was officiating at just before Christmas (Chief Steward 17/12/14), but unfortunately I was banned from entering their hallowed enclosure and he had his back to me at the time, so rather than whistle Gary to get his attention to say “Hello”, I walked away – and straight out the front gate. Bugger it – I now wish I hadn’t walked away and had whistled him and struck up a conversation with him, as surely someone could have picked up some hint from talking to him that things weren’t right in his life. So the racing industry loses another good man, who raised two wonderful and well-mannered sons who were a delight to help in racing. Whilst neither Matthew nor Michael is still in racing, they deserved to have their father around to enjoy in later life. Sadly fate never intended it, so we now have to open yet another “running and handling enquiry” in racing – and ask “Why”. And so it goes without saying that our thoughts are with these two young men, their mother Debbie – and other family members – at this difficult time.

Today on www.brisbaneracing.com.au there the popular What’s In A Name segment. On www.sydneyracing.com.au there’s the story on the very successful sire that’s passed away at age 21, whilst on www.melbourneracing.com.au Matt Nicholls has his popular Monday Musings column.

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