27/11/15

Thankfully last Saturday is but a distant memory with all that transpired on the day but I omitted to mention that I thought the Ballarat club and Racing Victoria were both pathetic last Saturday as for the third year in a row the club weren’t able to advise the industry of one last 600-metre race sectional on the day and in any fair person’s assessment that is hopeless as according to my records that’s the third consecutive year where that same event has occurred. If thoroughbred race clubs want to have standalone Saturday race meetings and the governing body of that State wants to endorse same, basic infrastructure like overall times and a last 600 metres race sectional have to be in place. In this case in over three years no one obviously cares.

Doomben hosts two feature races tomorrow – the George Moore Stakes, which is obviously named after the champion jockey George Moore who ride with wonderful success, not only in Australia, but all over the world. He passed away a few years ago.

And the other feature race, the Mode Plate, is named after one of my favourite racehorses – Mode. The diminutive 14-hand high mare proved the saying, “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog” true on numerous occasions in her wonderful racing career. Her battle up the Eagle Farm straight when she was towered over by the stallion Tails will live in my memory forever, after she beat him off to win the Brisbane Cup of 1972. In reality Tails struggled to run the last 100 or 200 metres of a two-mile race but he was presented to beat her that day and she refused to lie down.

Trained at Deagon by the late Gordon Williams, Mode won 10 races in all and in a terribly sad event for the Queensland racing community she died whilst foaling, meaning we were all robbed of the chance to see if she would ever produce anything with her own ability. It’s all problematical but her mother Rising Fashion was a wonderful broodmare and produced some really handy Brisbane gallopers. Apart from Mode (three Group wins, namely the Grand Prix, Queensland Oaks and Brisbane Cup) she produced two other black type winners – All Fashion, which won the 1973 Labour Day Cup and Alostar which won the two features at Eagle Farm, firstly the Claret Stakes in 1972 and the Moreton Handicap two years later, in 1974.

And what isn’t common knowledge all these years on, but what is worth mentioning when the topic of would Mode have been successful at stud or not is mentioned, is that Mode’s grandmother, a 1948 foaled mare called Incomparable, produced the 1961 Doomben Cup winner High Society. And the horse that High Society beat home that year was no mug. Racing as Persian Lyric, he was good enough to win the Stradbroke that year, but he couldn’t beat High Society home in the Doomben Cup. And in an amazing chain of events that subsequently transpired, when Persian Lyric won the Stradbroke Handicap, a horse called Samson ran second to him. Samson also ran second to Kilshery in the Stradbroke the following year, but got home first in the Doomben Cup one year after High Society.

And in another amazing happening, the stallion Dalray stood at Canning Downs Stud at Warwick for that stud’s then owner, the late Ceb Barnes who bred and raced Tails. Amazingly Mode’s mother Rising Fashion was a daughter of Dalray, meaning when Tails and Mode joined issue to fight out the Brisbane Cup of 1972, without Ceb Barnes stallion Dalray the pair would never have been conceived.

Here’s the three generation tabulation of Mode:

 

Aloe

Alycidon

Donatello 11

Aurora

Dader

Dante

Umidzadeh

Rising Fashion

Dalray

Balloch

Broiveine

Incomparable

Channel Swell

Matchless

 

Racing Queensland Cadet Handicapper Mitch Treleaven has advised the website that the scaled weights for Doomben tomorrow are: Race 5 – 2kgs and Race 7 – 4.5kgs. So in my words, not Mitch’s you’d best get to Doomben early tomorrow morning and stand in the long queue that will be eagerly awaiting the champions of the turf that are going to step out in Race 7 which has been scaled down a massive 4.5kgs.

Doomben Track Manager Jim Roberts advised the website late today that the Doomben track presently was “in tip-top shape” leading into tomorrow. He added the track was currently “between a good 3 and a good 4” and whilst there is rain around there was none near Doomben at present.

The apprentice jockey weights for Doomben tomorrow should be:

JOCKEY

WEIGHT

Luke Dittman

55 claims 2kgs

Lani Fancourt

52.5 claims 2kgs

Cassie Schmidt

54 claims 2kgs

Matthew McGillivray

53 claims 2kgs

James Orman

53 claims 1.5kgs

Beau Appo

49 claims 2kgs

Brooke Stower

51 claims 3kgs

Sam Payne

54 claims 2kgs

Travis Wolfgram

54 claims 2kgs

 

Today on www.brisbaneracing.com.au I’ve taken a look at the CV of horses in the George Moore Stakes.