While we sit and wait for the names of the two more senior jockeys and an apprentice who has been known for some time not to veer against the side of caution to be named in the latest installment of Racing Victoriagate and people looking at Bernard Saundry to produce a Houdini act to wriggle outta this mess, I have wondered how anyone can have a serious bet in Oz.
Bernard Saundry?
The Damien Oliver and Danny Nikolic soap operas and the laundry list of names listed in the latest NSW Stewards Report have sullied the image and perception of horse racing so much that it is competing for bad press with that appalling “no ball” rort in cricket by those three Pakistani pariahs.
It makes me wonder about the rorts going on right now at smaller tracks and exactly who is part of them. Some of the recent rides where the short and curlies have ended last by jocks doing things like running up the arses of a horse in a five horse race are deplorable. That they are not drummed out of the industry is even more deplorable, especially after watching some of the gawdawful rides straight outta Dodgey City at Cranbourne on Friday night.
As an animal lover, it also makes me think of how rides like these can take away a horse’s will to win and to know why the hell he is being whacked about and what is meant to be the end game?
Another thing: Remember, Stewards are people, too, and some of you know what went on in Macau around a decade ago when Stipes took their orders from upstairs even after the race had begun, how licenses were given and taken away and also why and how bookies work so openly in Singapore and Malaysia and where jockeys being whacked is par for the course. Speak to Malcolm Johnston, below. about what happened to him in Malaysia. Or what happened some years ago to jockeys Colin Dean and Mark Gallagher in India. “Get it India ya”took on a whole different meaning.
What Racing Victoria doesn’t seem to be getting or else are happy to be that deaf, dumb and blind kid called Tommy is that, right here and now, they are seen as a pox on the ENTIRE horse racing industry. The supporting cast of boffins at Racing Victoria players are lost as there is zero leadership. There are only more Tommys.
The loony wisdom of Des O’Keefe, below, is the “most leadership” that is being seen, but this is not a good thing for racing. Dreary Des is just a “defense lawyer” who will do and say anything to get his clients off with minimum fuss. It’s nothing personal, it’s just business and with much of it being monkey business and Damien Oliver getting off with a fine of AUS$1,000 a month for ten months. Look at the maths this way and why even bother having a bet in Oz? Something has to change.
Why for instance do some Group 1 winning jockeys only wait until the Spring Carnival to show their true colours and ride winners? What are they doing the rest of the season on their rides and how can they afford to live the lavish lifestyles that they lead? What? Percentages of winnings? Pull the other one, will you? When the new trio of names are mentioned for pulling and tugging and having mates lay their horses as a, well, er, done deal, go back and look at one particular jocks rides on horses at 5s and unders and exactly what trouble he went through to not win. Me and my mates counted 30 of these non-winning rides while others have “installed” him on home-made Betunfair totes at odds of 43 to 1.
This is what makes me appreciate and follow jocks like Dean Yendall, Vlad Duric, Jenny Duggan, Josh Parr, the very underrated Christian Reith and even Craig Robertson. They all try even when riding goats and you don’t feel done if these lose. I’d have Reith heading this list and knowing everything he has gone through and how he’s exorcised his demons, if apprentice jockeys want a role model, he is it, Dreary Des. NOT Damien Oliver.
As for Sunday at Shatin, I notice that either L’il Wayne or 50 Cent has a runner in Hong Kong when the interestingly named Ho In One steps out in platform shoes for the second time in Hong Kong in Race 3. How I could have missed this ho the first time it ran beats me.
Though not a fan of Weichong Marwing especially when one hears he is carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders these days and going through the moody blues, I still can’t ignore his rides on Elegant Frames, Keen Marie- oh, for the Zac Attack to get back on it- and Green Eagle in Race 10. With G-One Winning in this race along with my favorite horse in the city- the Caspar Fownes trained Best Win with Matty Chadwick up and “Jim Dandy” Moore having Sterling City (Prebble) and King’s Knight (The Hobbit), this is going to be a big betting race.
My danger alert bells start ringing in my ears like a bad case of Tinititis when I see that David Hall has Berio backing up with Ben TH So in the saddle in this race. After all, that last run a few weeks ago was not bad at all and this is the combination involved in a huge and very successful plunge with this same horse last season when the odds crashed from 14s to 4s. It was the last race of a meeting and Berio is on the last again taking a class drop. Shudder. And with the rainy weather upon us, it could get to the front and keep going.
Berio
With The Zac Attack away in Japan representing Hong King in the International Jockeys Challenge,The Dream Team and with their nightmare start to the season forgotten to the strains of Auld Lang Syne, Trainer Johnny Size and Dougie Whyte combine again with some real winning chances- Victorious which threw in the towel recently when the AWT track suited greyhounds, the spooky Holyangelholy which still gives me the creeps despite winning for Tye Angland last time, Happy Era despite drawn out in the boonies and G-One Winning.
“I LOVE you, man and I don’t care who knows it! I wanna SHOUT it from building tops!”
Meanwhile, as we wait for the world to come to Hong Kong for International Week, I have been wondering why, with all these amazing minds in the one place- let’s forget the freeloading knobs- there cannot be some form of “conference” or “workshop” and then a black tie Awards Night tagged after the races have been run.
The music industry has gone overboard with music conferences and with most being a waste of time as they are nothing but a reason for freeloaders to get together on company expenses and listen to irrelevant speakers, watch some new acts conned into performing for free for “exposure” and playing their little hearts out to some hacks more interested in getting pissed, getting laid and being yobs.
The racing industry can learn from these tribal gatherings and just how they miss the mark and hold nothing of interest to consumers- the very people the music gurus are trying to understand- same as the global racing world. Trying not to be gender specific- but failing- I cannot think of anyone better than the very knowledgeable Francesca Cumani to speak about the role of women in racing and also how to market to the younger generation of female racegoers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBt6_w6g_wE
As with The Winning Post, the program she hosts for CNN, great horse racing sponsors Longines should consider Ms Cumani to also hosting a program that shows the fashionable and stylish side of racing to prove to this consumer group that things have changed and that the old boys club made up of lemmings singing “Send In The Clones” are on their last legs. This program can also educate those in the marketing of the sport that they are becoming and thinking older than their years. Some of the old most old-fashioned thinkers I have met in racing are those brought in to make the sport more exciting to those whose idea of a Day At The Races is as old as a Marx Brothers movie.
I mentioned this because I have seen the lack of SUSTAINING campaigns AFTER the main event. It’s like launching a record or having a music conference and then fucking what? A few samey same articles and some exposure for sponsors? Is this REALLY an ROI? Where’s the bona fide USP? This is what old-fashioned thinking does: Nothing.
If Hong Kong can bring together a panel that includes Francesca Cumani, CNN, Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, Lady GaiGai, Simon Fuller who manages the Beckhams, Andy Murray and Lewis Hamilton and who looks like purchasing EMI Music while still owning the “Idol” franchise, and two or three others outside of the racing world to be keynote speakers, we could all benefit from a more New Age Racing Conference. Racing needs fresh ideas and new thinking and not more of the same as the “universe”‘of most “racing men” is bloody minute and they can’t see further than their noses.
As for Sunday at Shatin, well, the weather has been a real pisser and the flu season is upon us. The steady drizzle could undo the best laid plans but glancing at the card, those that seem hard to beat are How Speedy (Race 5), Always Something (Race 6), Happy Era (Race 7) and Garlic Boy in Race 9.
I would also look at the rides The Zac Attack would have been on if in town as they would be big chances and then focus on the third Double Trio using Garlic Boy as a banker in Race 9 and taking G-One Winning as a banker in Race 10 and the legs being Berio, Green Eagle, Sterling City, Flash Knight and Best Win.
Okay, must rest my head and feel sorry for myself as I feel like a useless brinjal in the middle of wanton won ton Amazons.
The Guru
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PS: LOSER OF THE WEEK: BRIAN KAN PING-CHEE
He was “The Cups King” long before John Moore and was one of Hong Kong’s more colourful characters in racing.
He must be credited for signing up great jockeys like Brent Thompson and Felix Coetzee and Bart Leisher as his stable jockeys and was the first trainer in Hong Kong to recognize the talents of South African jockeys.
His on-track escapes and rages against the corporate machine made for interesting reading as did his escapade with his domestic helper and which some call “The Soiled Underpants Case.” Yesterday, and now an Ombudsmen somewhere in the New Territories, Brian Kan’s Cup runneth over and he was jailed for corruption. Guess he just thought he was gonna buy a new horse and offered a bit more to sweeten the deal?
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