You have to stand for something or you’ll fall for everything. I heard that line today and thought, oh my goodness and bring on the sarong party girls, but that line could be about horse racing!
Everywhere there is racing, it seems you need to shut your Punjab and float down the Ganges without causing any ripples or become a pariah and not part of the In Crowd which my good friend Ramsey Lewis and his trio made a record about. In the Sixties. Is there an In Crowd of racing in 2013?
(Source: Toon Pool)
Goodness, yes. Though today’s In Crowd is more The Out Crowd and with not too many members- maybe a dozen, tops- but with so much time on their hands that when they start chattering and pointing fingers all over the place- including at themselves- what happens is a cocked up cacophony of the blah blahs that is a combination of Desperate Housewives screaming at each other, the Kardashians talking over each other, Iron Butterfly, that very boring game of Georgie Michael’s Careless Chinese Whispers and a murder of crows flying straight at you like angry tandoori birds.
(Source: Rachael Ashe)
Look at what happened to Stephen Baster in Singapore. I am sure, there must be Chinese Whispers and Singaporean satays flying all over the place as to why he had his license taking away.
Well, rules are rules, contracts are binding and as many who rode successfully in Macau know, upset people and shit happens- and you’re out. Sometimes, success is an albatross.
(Source: Dreams Time)
Don’t me wrong: The Guru loves Singapore- the banana leaf restaurants, The Four Floors Of Whores, eating with his fingers at Sammy’s, shopping down Orchard Street, the restaurants down Boat Quay, the clubs at Power Station and have lived and worked there and have very good friends in The Department of Public Flogging.
(Source: Travel Blog)
The racing? It’s pretty good, the Singapore Turf Club has excellent facilities, even Steven King is now riding there, and it’s where many in Macau have tried to get licenses to ride and train in the Lion City for years, but have been constantly knocked back.
(Source: Punters Paradise)
It’s also where Joao Moreira is the Douglas Whyte of racing and with Manuel Nunes certain to give him some strong competition this season.
(Source: Joao Moreira)
Singapore is also where The Guru served his apprenticeship as a mini guru with Mr Ivan Allen who remains my racing hero and from whom he learned much about the ins and outs of the city and how nothing is what it seems. Mr. Allen was a very smart chappati and only a fool would have crossed him.
(Source: Racing Post)
What happened to jockey Stephen Baster? Did, as some flapping their wings in Oz say, he upset someone high up correct? Who knows? It comes down to this: You can’t fight City Hall- certainly not in Singapore.
It also comes down to that game of he-said-you-said and second-hand rose guesswork.
All I know is that racing in Singapore has progressed despite the same old bookies from the past when trainers like Charles Leck and Malcolm Thwaites were kings of the turf over there, still hovering overhead with the far more dangerous of the species from Malaysia.
(Source: How to Draw Cartoons)
My advice on The Baster Saga: Move on. The more one digs, the bigger the hole and greater the fall for everyone.
(Source: Cari Ferraro)
As for racing at Happy Valley tomorrow, with Dougie Whyte on a three-day holiday- and which he deserved- it opens things up a bit for other jockeys to bang home some winners.
With racing on the C+3 Course which usually favors those on the speed, as always, I’ll watch the first two races and then wait to back Casibah Fownes’ runners in the last four races despite the trainer being at the Karachi Sales in New Zealand.
I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he trained the Quaddie for those in Oz and the Treble for those in Hong Kong with The Zac Attack on two of those chances.
(Source: SCMP)
In the meantime, don’t talk with your mouth full and try not to talk at all around the In Crowd.
In fact, stay far away from them. Will this help? Goodness, gracious, not really. Words can still be made up and twisted like a stale papadum by those same birdie dum dums and fed to other dum dums. You can’t win.
Commenti