ROSEHILL TRACK AGAIN A DISGRACE – TIME FOR ISOLATION FOR NAVESH

ARCHIE BUTTERFLY looks back on a big day of SATURDAY RACING that survived the CORONAVIRUS:

The Rosehill Track

NOT again.

Yeah, again.

What the hell was that track at Rosehill on Saturday?

Crap, that's what.

How hard is it to produce a course proper that plays fair?

If Navesh Ramdhani can't, then perhaps it’s time that he found another job, because this just isn't good enough, no not at all.

 

Verry Elleegant

THE only winner on the day that did it against the pronounced bias.

Sure, she didn't beat much; but gee she did it like a good horse.

Addeyab's form looks better and better by the second.

Is there anything in the world that can beat the English Stayer in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes?

I don't think so.

 

What Could the Kid Do?

THERE’S been a lot of conjecture about Baylee Nothdurft's ride on Snappy Reply in Race 1 at Doomben, with the inference being that he cost the horse victory by putting the whip away at about the 150 metre mark when it was a couple of lengths in front.

It's all nonsense.

It wouldn't have mattered whether Nothdurft had gone to sleep on Snappy Reply, or whether he'd flogged the crap out of it, or even if he hired a helicopter and airlifted the horse to the finishing line, Minjee would have beaten it anyway. It was going three to Snappy’s one, and five to every other runner in the race's stride.

Robert Heathcote's youngster is good, real good.

That's why it won, and it will win many more too.

Snappy Reply won't.

And it won't be Baylee Nothdurft's fault.

 

Hayes, Hayes, Dabernig - The Three Stooges

I have long been critical of the HHD training trio in the past – and for good reason too.

They are a bunch of silver spooned, toffee nosed private school boys who had Lindsay Park and Angaston handed to them on a silver platter, and they've stuffed it all up. 

God only knows what the gross value of the yearlings that pass through their stable doors each year is, but it's gigantic. Yet they don't train winners of anything much at all unless they do it with a horse that they've acquired from someone else. They don't win Slippers or Blue Diamonds, and their strike rate is absolutely shite.

David Hayes is the only one of the three who even has the slightest clue about what he's doing, and he's about to sail ship to Honkers for good and leave his earnest and erstwhile son, and his more useless than an anorexic cow without tits nephew to it.

They will sink like stones.

And deserve to.

How could an operation as well-resourced and supposedly professional as theirs stuff up so calamitously as they did when they presented the wrong horses to race at Bendigo on Saturday?

It beggars belief.

So does the fact that anyone still sends their horses to be trained by this trio of clowns.

 

Jimmy Orman is no Mug - Command'n'Conquer isn't Either

THE first time jockey Jimmy Orman laid eyes on Steve Tregea's three-year-old gelding Command’n’Conquer was when he ran second to it in a trial at Toowoomba five weeks ago.

Orman had made the long trek to Clifford Park in the dark to ride the ill-fated potential top-liner Gem of Scotland in that filly's trial on the same day, but immediately after seeing the big lug of a thing's rump staring at him when it sat three wide and won under quadruple wraps with its head on its chest Orman decided that he wanted in to Command'n'Conquer, and in he got.

Luck's a fortune in racing like in any walk of life, but you make your own, and if Orman had been one of those show ponies who ride a few winners and then lie in bed in the morning and expect the gun mounts to walk through their door, then he would never have by almost accident become the chosen rider for this superstar in the making.

Jimmy Orman is not like that though. He is one of the hardest working hoops in the business, and doesn't sleep in. He rides pretty good too, as we all saw on Saturday, and as those who watch have been seeing for years.

Command'n'Conquer is good, really, really, really good. 

So is James Orman.

Together I reckon they just might win a Group 1.

You heard it here first.

 

Ho Ho Ho - It's the J-Mac Show

I wax lyrical about J-Mac every week, and it is because he deserves it.

What a rider this young man truly is.

His four winners at Rosehill on Saturday paid almost 300-1 if you had multied them.

The kid’s a genius.

George Moore?

Who?

 

Fingers in Dykes & Hands Over Racing Writers' Eyes

IT seems that many wide-eyed racing writers are running a hundred miles an hour for cover after having written a bible's worth of ill-researched 'road to redemption' stories about the Alligator's trainer in recent times.

Never believe the bullshit web that a junkie spins you is my advice to the wet behind the ears self-said journos who wouldn't know a reformation from a small plastic cup of OJ mixed with Methadone is my advice to them all.

And I top it with a question.

How come Boom-Boom Benny Currie got sin-binned on suspicion, and DVD is allowed to train on despite near certainty?

Answer it if you can, or if you will.

 

Gailo Chop

THIS French son of a German has won $4.4 million and done everything that any owner could ask of their horse, so why do his connections keep running him around like he's a plough mule?

Give poor Gailo a break. 

He’s nine-years-old now, and hasn't won in two years, and on Saturday’s 10-plus length shellacking in the last at Rosehill he is not likely to either, not unless the Birdsville Cup becomes a WFA event anyway.

Continuing to race this magnificent beast when he should be chomping on lush, green grass and telling his geriatric paddock-mates tales about his glory days in the racing sun is just downright animal cruelty.

Do the right thing owners.

Retire him now.

Unlike old Gailo Chop, the former Bookie King of the Brisbane Rails Ring Lindsay Gallagher shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon, not if the win of Sophie's Gold Class at Doomben is any indication anyway.

Word is that the indefatigable chaser of a point or seven over the odds cleaned up big time when his very handy and extremely well-placed mare went back to back by braining them in the first leg of the Quaddie, reportedly nailing the win bets, the quinella, the exacta, the trifecta, the first four, triple trio and the quaddie itself, as well as laying the rest of the field for plenty.

The only question that still remains about the boy from Wide Bay is how much he can take with him when one day in about half a century he clocks out as the oldest living trots punter in human history.

Whatever price the satchel swingers post, you can be sure that Lindsay Gallagher will get a couple of points over.

 

Trainer of the Week

Ron Quinton.

His effort to even get Royal Celebration back on the track after a break of almost a year was sensational, and his work in getting the horse back into the winner's stall was simply sensational.

Quinton was a great jockey, and he is just as good a trainer too.

Simply brilliant.

 

Who Needs a Boom Boom When You've Got a Boof?

BEN Currie might be in the sin bin after being sentenced to a long spell, and he might well be back soon after the Tribunal throws out the ill-evidenced DQ that he was unfairly slapped with if he really wants to, but my advice to the young fella would be to stick to the beaches and chasing waves.

After all, who needs junior causing ripples when you can have his much more taciturn old man kicking your goals?

Boof - aka Mark Currie, Boom Boom's dad and teacher - is absolutely on fire at the moment, and everything he is touching is turning to gold.

Currie senior's winning strike rate is 20%, his horses have won nearly a million bucks in prize money, he's sitting third on the provincial trainers’ premiership ladder, and he's led home the victor in six of his past 15 starters, which equates to a 40% winner to starter ratio for those of you without a calculator.

Best of all is that as the most watched, tapped and covertly followed by integrity spooks trainer in Queensland, he's obviously done it squeaky clean too.

Put that one in your pipe Commissioner and critics, and smoke it.

 

Metro Meetings at the Provincials

GOD only knows why Racing Victoria continues in its ill-guided quest to run metro meetings at mid-week tracks, for all it is doing is costing them a fortune and eroding punter confidence in their brand.

Mornington the previous Saturday was a debacle, and Bendigo this weekend was just as bad. Turnover was down a mile, the races were rubbish, no-one was interested and no-one cared.

Why, why, why?

 

Speaking of Why

WHY do they still bother running races in South Australia?

And why does anybody bother betting on them?

It's a joke, and so is Frances Nelson QC who runs it.

Shut up shop and redistribute the prize money to jurisdictions that know how to manage it properly by progressing the sport I say.

 

Speaking of Jokes

QUEENSLAND has the casting vote on the Racing Australia Board. 

It doesn't matter what the SA, WA, or combined Tassie, NT and ACT directors do - if Queensland aligns itself with one or the other of NSW or Victoria the combined vote carries the day.

And our rep is the ‘Whirlwind’, stockbroker Steve Wilson, who has about as much interest in racing as I do in Sydney's Gay Mardi Gras.

God help racing is all that I can say.

 

Has Peter V'Landys Bitten Off More Than He Can Chew?

Yes.

No further explanation required.

Will the Coronavirus Kill Queensland's Country Racing Model?

Yes.

 

Is It a Bad Thing?

No.

At least not if you are country Queensland's great defender Gary Gorrie who actually lives in South-East Asia anyway.

 

The Boy They Painted Black is Back - Big Time

I am an unabashed fan of the young jockey Michael 'Mickey' Murphy, and at the same time often his greatest critic.

Unlike those who criticise me for telling the truth about the kid's faults and highlighting the inevitable path down which a continuation of his repeat mistakes is going to lead Mickey, I have no financial skin in the game. I don't cop 25% of Mick's earnings as his apprentice master, and I don't skim 12.5% off his winnings as my jockey manager’s fee, and I don't suck on the fat of the young bloke's bones either.

I just like the lad. 

I like him a lot, and don't want to see such a rare talent piss his career down the drain because no bastard is game enough to stand up and say "Oi Mickey, what a pity, you're in the big city, here's the nitty gritty" and help the kid out.

All you cop is abuse for trying to be a good guy, but do you know what? 

I couldn't give a rat’s arse what blokes who are supposed to guide and mentor young men but let them down say. All I want is to see good young men do well.

Murphy hasn't over the past year, but rivers flow forward and the past is in our behinds where it should be, and after a long self-inflicted run of outs and near-career ending rut, my mate little Mickey Murphy jockey extraordinaire is back. 

Big time.

Mick has been finding rides hard to come by recently, but he had three at Warwick on Saturday.

And he won them all.

Welcome back sunshine - we've been missing you.

Long may the winners roll.

 

Talking About Pipes, Smoking and Comebacks....

A decade ago Queensland jockey Brent Evans was the hottest apprentice in town.

Then, like so many slightly too heavy hoops before and after him, the Ice got Evans.

In 2017 Evans was swabbed and returned a positive to the dreaded meth, and it appeared for all money that his riding career was all over red rover; but winners don't quit and quitters don't win.

Brent Evans has been battling around the back blocks of NSW since the QRIC scrubbed him instead of help putting him into rehab, and he's been doing it tough. But the frost has broken, and b-b-b-baby the boy is back.

Sure, it was only the Murrumbidgee Picnics that Brent took by the scruff of the neck and slayed on Saturday, but a treble is a treble in anyone's language, and the former gun kid turned troubled youngster turned reformed character rode one, and all power to him too.

The tide has turned.

Let's hope it turns into a tsunami of winners.

 

George Pell

BOREDOM has led to me reading the transcripts of Pell's application to the High Court for leave to appeal his conviction, and I have to tell you something that many won't like.

Pell is an absolute certainty to get off, and be released from prison the moment that the High Court judgement is handed down. 

In fact, having read the whole word for word copy of the proceedings, you would just about have to say that the Cardinal Sinner has been on the wrong end of one of the most absurd miscarriages of justice in the history of the Australian criminal law.

This is coming from me, a child sex abuse victim who knows that Pell covered a gazillion crimes up, and is a criminal for doing so. But there was no law then like there is now to brand him as such, and you can't send a bloke to jail for offences that he was guilty of, but which didn't exist.

It's a fucked up world, and people like George Pell and his Vatican forebears made it that way, and I wish them all a hot forever in hell. 

You can't be banged up for a crime when there is a reasonable doubt about you doing it though, and there is more uncertainty about Pell doing what he's been convicted of than there is about David Van Dyke being a drug cheat, which means the doubts are plenty.

The damages bill for wrongful imprisonment is going to be colossal.

The damage to society by the restoration of Pell's reputation as a man of God is going to be even greater.

 

Say It Ain't So Roscoe, Say It Ain't So

THE mail is that during these, the darkest days in the sport's history, the man in charge of racing integrity has gone on holidays.

It's the QRIC Commissioner Ross Barnett that I'm talking about, and my excellent sources in George Street tell me that while Rome burns all around him, the boss is doing a Christine Nixon on Black Friday or Scomo in the bushfires and lounging around somewhere with 17.5% leave loading added to his bulky pay.

Surely these sources are wrong. 

No leader would possibly think it apt to take it on the lam while the palace walls are falling down all around them.

Would they?

Perhaps we will have to ask the Acting Commissioner Mark Ainsworth why exactly he is acting.

Maybe he might tell us where Ross the Boss is while he is at it.

 

TAB WITHDRAWS FROM TALKS FOR EVEREST SLOT FOR ALLIGATOR BLOOD

OUTSPOKEN owner ALLAN ENDRESZ has blamed negativity publicity for costing his star galloper ALLIGATOR BLOOD a slot in the $15 million THE EVEREST.

Endresz, who has suggested the irregularity in a swab taken from Alligator Blood might have been the result of the horse being nobbled, says the TAB is no longer interested in the horse taking their Everest slot.

He claims talks with the TAB surrounding a slot deal for The Everest had advanced to the point of awaiting final contracts for a potential slot agreement.

Endresz told BEN DORRIES of popular website RACENET that the TAB decided they did not want the horse for The Everest after the negative publicity which surrounded Alligator Blood returning an irregularity to a prohibited substance after the preliminary analysis of a sample taken after one of his biggest wins.

Alligator Blood allegedly returned the irregular test to altrenogest - a substance normally used to control the reproductive cycle of mares - after the gelding's win in the $2m Gold Coast Magic Millions Guineas in January.

Endresz told Racenet that any prospect of a TAB deal for The Everest is now off the table.

"We were only waiting on the formal agreement, the written contract," Endresz. "As a consequence of all the negatives around what has happened with the swab issue, now the TAB has officially withdrawn given that our horse was tarnished with that drug issue.

"It was advanced to the point that they were preparing the contracts for signing.

"When the (swab) news hit they let it go for a while but we got news this week that they are not going to proceed with it."

A TAB source confirmed to Racenet they had talks with Alligator Blood's connections in regards to a slot for The Everest but added no agreement had been reached.

The source also said Alligator Blood was just one of the horses that had been explored as an option for the TAB slot in The Everest.

They also confirmed to Racenet that talks with Alligator Blood's connections had ceased once the positive swab issue surfaced. 

Endresz claims that after he was told the TAB would not take Alligator Blood in its slot for The Everest he then made an offer to buy the TAB's Everest slot for $1 million. He says he has not yet heard back in regard to that offer.

Endresz remains confident that he will win a battle over the positive swab issue - recently making the sensational claim that racing crooks or someone with an axe to grind against him "got" to his star horse "like they got to Phar Lap."

 

 

HORSE RIDING HOLIDAY CUT SHORT FOR THE NEWEST MAN FROM SNOWY RIVER

IF nothing else during these trying times we need a laugh which LGHR - and quite a few others - enjoyed at the expense of a great mate this week.

JEFF KELLY, a one-time high-profile walloper, left with his wonderful and long-suffering wife, Maureen, for a horse riding holiday in the Snowy Mountains – their version of City Slickers.

Maureen is a competent horse-woman while Jeff (to her dismay) is more at home riding the stool beside his bar drinking and punting and basically had to be strapped into the saddle.

The couple (pictured by the ‘pandemic paparazzi’ enjoying the first day of their riding holiday at Mt Koscuiszko) had no sooner arrived when the lockdown occurred and they had to scurry home to Queensland.

As Maureen explains on Facebook: ‘Made it back to Queensland....15 hours and 20 minutes on the road to get to the border in time. Two days riding on Mt Kosciusko was better than none (but not nearly enough)...glad to be home.’

There is a happy ending to the story (before the Animal Activist start raising the issue): Jeff’s mount survived the ordeal and no animals were injured during filming of the newest edition of The Man From Snowy River.’

PS: And for those who are concerned that Jeff’s old mate, Larry The Loser, will suffer withdrawal symptoms if there is nothing left for him to bet on during the pandemic, his New Year Resolution was to give up the punt. Larry (real name Steve) was so strong in his resolve that he even asked the five nearest pubs to where he lives to ban him for five years. Story goes he has taken up bowls.   

  

WHAT’S WRONG WITH THESE ‘KNUCKLE HEADS’ IN QLD RACING & LIFT YOUR ACT SKY

IT seems that horse racing – in parts of Queensland – is a disaster waiting to happen in the middle of the pandemic that threatens to shut the industry down and cost tens of thousands of jobs.

The action of some stakeholders, who don’t seem to care about the curfew warnings or the damage they can cause, has already provoked the circulation of a petition to ‘PUT HORSE RACING HOLD & STOP THE SPREAD OF COVID-19.’

A copy of the petition was sent to LGHR by a respected racing identity from country Queensland and it purports to have the support of QLD HEALTH. Whether it does or not and whether racing on the east coast gets another reprieve for the weekend action to proceed, it is only a matter of time before the industry is sent into lockdown with so many other services that will be missed by so many.

 

NON-ESSENTIAL PEOPLE TURNING UP AT THE TRIALS

Here are examples of emails received by LGHR on the above topic:

‘ROCKHAMPTON races yesterday and trials this morning still had owners and non-essential people turning up to be spectators.

Some trainers just either don’t understand their obligations to limit personnel attending races to only essential staff or don’t have the “balls” to advise owners to stay away.

Some of the serial offenders will be the first to cry loud and hard and have big dummy spits if the show closes down.

During such uncertain times it really exposes those who believe they are “entitled” and also the real knuckle heads in our industry.’

Ross Shannon, President, Queensland Trainers’ Association

And this one:

THOSE INVOLVED IN THIS DEBACLE SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER

FURTHER to your articles about non-authorised people attending racetracks I would like to point out an incident at Rocky on Tuesday that I found intriguing.

Heyington, trained by Rebecca Binder, won Race Four.  After the race Michael Charge (from SKY) interviewed a male person who he introduced as the owner of the horse.

At the time I did not pick up the guy’s name, but checking the ownership I believe the person was J G Hynes. I did pick up the name “Joe” when he was introduced. The Binders, Mr Hynes and a Mr B Moss are the owners listed, so I think I have it right.  Either way he was introduced as the owner, which has to be against the current restrictions.

At the end of the interview Michael Charge said this person was in charge of Mackay racing and was a good bloke and doing a good job in that role. Surely that position would still not give him the right to be in attendance at the Rocky races.

What do you reckon?  Maybe Mark Ainsworth should answer the query.

Neville Byrne – Rockhampton.

 

WARNING FROM THE QUEENSLAND RACING INTEGRITY COMMISSION

HERE is the response kindly provided by the QUEENSLAND RACING INTEGRITY COMMISSION to the above concerns:

Please attribute to Queensland Racing Integrity Acting Commissioner Mark Ainsworth

ACTING Commissioner MARK AINSWORTH said the QUEENSLAND RACING INTEGRITY COMMISSION has had a number of reports of individuals attending race tracks in direct contravention to the current ban on owners and patrons due to the coronavirus.

The Commission has acted on each report, has warned all people concerned and reinforced the ban.

Racing participants must take responsibility and refuse access to anyone who should not be on site.

The continuation of racing is dependent on adhering to this advice.

QRIC is working closely with Racing Queensland to ensure racing continues in Queensland as long as is practicable.

It is extremely disappointing that some individuals are placing the industry at risk and I would call on everyone to support the industry they love.

The Queensland Branch of the Australian Trainer’s Association is assisting the Commission to spread the messages and Race Clubs are assisting with signage and surveillance.

The Commission reminds participants that all race meetings – along with trials and track work – are limited to key race-day personnel only.

If you have information that unauthorised personnel are on racecourses please report it to the Report Something portal on the QRIC website or call 1300 119 291.

 

‘ROLL THIS IN TOILET PAPER & SEND IT TO GENIAL GERRY TO READ’

IT was suggested to LGHR that a copy of this message from BILL GATES ‘should be rolled in toilet paper and sent to that s…house Gerry Harvey’ after his disgusting lack of compassion about the less fortunate in our society.

It reads:

What is the Corona/ Covid-19 Virus Really Teaching us?

 I’m a strong believer that there is a spiritual purpose behind everything that happens, whether that is what we perceive as being good or being bad.

As I meditate upon this, I want to share with you what I feel the Corona/ Covid-19 virus is really doing to us:

(1) It is reminding us that we are all equal, regardless of our culture, religion, occupation, financial situation or how famous we are. This disease treats us all equally, perhaps we should to. If you don’t believe me, just ask Tom Hanks.
(2) It is reminding us that we are all connected and something that affects one person has an effect on another. It is reminding us that the false borders that we have put up have little value as this virus does not need a passport. It is reminding us, by oppressing us for a short time, of those in this world whose whole life is spent in oppression.
(3) It is reminding us of how precious our health is and how we have moved to neglect it through eating nutrient poor manufactured food and drinking water that is contaminated with chemicals upon chemicals. If we don’t look after our health, we will, of course, get sick.
(4) It is reminding us of the shortness of life and of what is most important for us to do, which is to help each other, especially those who are old or sick. Our purpose is not to buy toilet roll.
(5) It is reminding us of how materialistic our society has become and  how, when in times of difficulty, we remember that it’s the essentials that we need (food, water, medicine) as opposed to the luxuries that we sometimes unnecessarily give value to.
(6) It is reminding us of how important our family and home life is and how much we have neglected this. It is forcing us back into our houses so we can rebuild them into our home and to strengthen our family unit.
(7) It is reminding us that our true work is not our job, that is what we do, not what we were created to do. Our true work is to look after each other, to protect each other and to be of benefit to one another.
(8) It is reminding us to keep our egos in check. It is reminding us that no matter how great we think we are or how great others think we are, a virus can bring our world to a standstill.
(9) It is reminding us that the power of freewill is in our hands. We  can choose to cooperate and help each other, to share, to give, to help and to support each other or we can choose to be selfish, to hoard, to look after only our self. Indeed, it is difficulties that bring out our true colors.
(10) It is reminding us that we can be patient, or we can panic. We can either understand that this type of situation has happened many times before in history and will pass, or we can panic and see it as the end of the world and, consequently, cause ourselves more harm than good.
(11) It is reminding us that this can either be an end or a new beginning. This can be a time of reflection and understanding, where we learn from our mistakes, or it can be the start of a cycle which will continue until we finally learn the lesson we are meant to.
(12) It is reminding us that this Earth is sick. It is reminding us that we need to look at the rate of deforestation just as urgently as we look at the speed at which toilet rolls are disappearing off of shelves. We are sick because our home is sick.
(13) It is reminding us that after every difficulty, there is always ease. Life is cyclical, and this is just a phase in this great cycle. We do not need to panic; this too shall pass.
(14) Whereas many see the Corona/ Covid-19 virus as a great disaster, I prefer to see it as a great corrector.
(15) It is sent to remind us of the important lessons that we seem to have forgotten and it is up to us if we will learn them or not.

 

‘GENIAL GERRY’ SHOWS HIS TRUE COLOURS – HARVEY NORMAN DOESN’T MIND TAKING MONEY – NO INTEREST FOR FIVE YEARS – FROM THIS ‘HEAP OF NO-HOPERS THAT CHARITIES HELP SURVIVE’

LGHR totally supports what is written below by ARCHIE BUTTERFLY about one of Australia’s richest men, GERRY HARVEY, who has shown his lack of compassion for millions of battlers who have helped him build his empire. Gerry's entitled to his opinion but so are we & this is what the BUTTERFLY had to say in response to the unbelievable above quotes from the 'great man'

CAN you possibly believe that the Queensland Government throws tens of millions of dollars at the Magic Millions company owned by this man, all so that he can prance around the Gold Coast making tens of millions more?

If the Labor Government had even an ounce of Tree of Knowledge inspired spirit they would immediately cut off all funding to the privately owned sale and its showcase marketing piece the MM race day, and instead give all the money to charities for the homeless.

A drag on the community Gerry?

What about that funding son?

And how much tax have you avoided using your complex company structures over the past four decades?

I’m not a believer in God but gee I hope I’m wrong, for if anyone deserves to go to hell in a hand basket it’s the heartless harridan Harvey.

Take a look in the mirror Geraldo.

See that bum looking back at you?

He’s the real no hoper.

 

DID A SYDNEY TRAVELLING FOREMAN PUT QLD RACING IN JEOPARDY?

TRAINERS on the GOLD COAST late today called for stewards to investigate whether a travelling foreman for a powerful Sydney stable was present at the latest trials on the tourist strip.

They claim the foreman/stable worker may also have been at the Sydney trials where a prominent Melbourne jockey rode after being seated near a passenger an interstate flight from Victoria who has returned a positive to the virus.

Racing in Melbourne and Sydney was temporarily shut-down mid-meeting today (Wednesday) pending the return of tests taken from the Victorian jockey. A decision on Saturday racing will be made then and that could be as late as Friday.

The travelling foreman who brought a horse to the Gold Coast from Sydney to beat the closure of the border crossing was stabled with a well-known trainer who has concerns for staff that were in close proximity to him.

Whilst there were claims that the licensee had attended the Gold Coast trials, LGHR could not confirm this. Before there is an over-reaction and a call for a temporary closure of Queensland racing, stakeholders should give QRIC stewards time to investigate and await test results that need to be taken from the Sydney visitor.

Meanwhile, Acting Queensland Racing Intregrity Commissioner Mark Ainsworth said QRIC had dealt with a potential breach of the ban on owners and patrons due to the coronavirus at the Gold Coast trials, as soon as it became aware of it last night (Tuesday). 

“It was determined that a person who was a licensed participant but was working in a different capacity did attend the Gold Coast trials,” Acting Commissioner Ainsworth said.

“The Trainer who allowed this to happen has been told that only current and immediate staff are to be engaged in work at her stables and on a racecourse.  

“The Gold Coast Turf Club has also undertaken to increase security at the race track.

“I have also spoken with the Trainer’s Association who have undertaken to remind all participants that all race meetings – along with trials and track work – are limited to key race-day personnel only.”

    

 

 

BREACH OF CURFEW IN TOOWOOMBA WARRANTED LETTER TO PM

AT a time when our Prime Minister was trying to save the country from the coronavirus pandemic he has received a letter of complaint concerning an alleged breach of curfew by a prominent trainer at the Clifford Park racecourse in Toowoomba.

Following complaints from fellow licensees, a former high profile Member of Parliament made the PM aware of a situation that occurred at trackwork in Toowoomba reportedly involving trainer Mark Currie.

Here is the letter that was written to the PM:     

‘IT has come to my attention that one person’s action could very well compromise the entire racing industry as was the case this morning at Toowoomba racecourse.

This will need your urgent consideration for decisive action, sooner rather than later.

A single racehorse trainer (Mark Currie) has put the entire racing industry in jeopardy this morning by parading his horses around the Toowoomba racetrack in front of owners of those racehorses as if there was no curfew imposed by Queensland Racing, Australian racing, or the Hon Prime Minister himself, without consequence from local stewards.’

AND THE QRIC RESPONSE FROM MARK AINSWORTH

As there was an assertion that stewards in Toowoomba took no action concerning the breach of curfew, LGHR asked the Queensland Racing Integrity Commission for a response.

Here is what QRIC Acting Commissioner Mark Ainsworth had to say:

‘As soon as the QRIC became aware that two racehorse owners, one of whom was visiting from Charleville visited the Toowoomba racetrack during track work being operated by a Toowoomba Trainer Stewards acted immediately.

Visiting a track is in contravention to the current ban on owners and patrons due to the coronavirus.

The Toowoomba Trainer has been warned that he must not allow any owners to attend the track during the current ban.

The Trainer has admitted that he should not have allowed access to the owners and has subsequently undertaken to contact all owners in his stable reminding them of the ban to all racetrack visitors.

The Toowoomba Turf Club has supported the QRIC actions and has reminded all local trainers that they must not allow access to anyone other than licensed participants to the track at this time.

The Turf Club has also posted signage at the Toowoomba track to reinforce the ban and has undertaken to do hourly surveillance at the track to ensure only Trainers, track workers, jockeys and licensed stable hands are onsite.

QRIC reminds participants that all race meetings – along with trials and track work – are limited to key race-day personnel only.

Access is permitted to licenced participants who have a horse or greyhound engaged at the meeting, along with essential club, QRIC and RQ staff; broadcast services; approved accredited media; and associated staff required to conduct racing activities including veterinarians and ambulance services.  

Access is not permitted to the general public in any code, nor owners or on-course wagering providers.’

ALLEGATIONS OF CURFEW BREACH ON GOLD COAST INCORRECT

SUBSEQUENT to the Toowoomba situation, which was seen to be more ignorance than disregard for the curfew rules, the subsequent issue has been raised by concerned trainers at the Gold Coast.

It reads:

‘So (trainer) Helen Page thinks it’s a great idea to bring a Chinese owner to the barrier trials yesterday – taking pictures, videos etc, then going up and watching the trial.

He could hardly speak a word of English and was terrified of getting too close to a horse so had no horse sense or experience at all.

What is wrong with these people putting our industry at risk of being shut down?’

The complaint, forwarded to LGHR, was accompanied by a photograph of the Chinese owner at the Gold Coast track.

LGHR has since learnt that our information was incorrect and we apologise for any embarrassment that it caused. The Chinese racing identity referred to in the email that we received is actually a licensed strapper who was entitled under the curfew to be at the track for the trials.

We thank IAN BROWN of the GCTC for correcting the situation and again apologize to the gentleman concerned, trainer HELEN PAGE and her stable and the club.  

SADLY it will take only one industry stakeholder to contract the virus and tens of thousands of jobs will be in jeopardy with racing facing the prospect of a shut-down.

 

THE RUMOUR FILE

THE above story about curfew breaches at south-east Queensland tracks is certainly not fake news but we run the following under the ‘rumour file’ fully aware that there is some substance to what is written below.

STANDBY FOR A KEY RACING FIGURE TO FACE A ‘PLEASE EXPLAIN’

STEWARDS raided a training property at a major centre in south-east Queensland last week and allegedly discovered illegal drugs used to enhance the performance of horses.

The trainer, in whose stables they were discovered is small potatoes and has only one horse in work at present, but is said to be closely associated with a licensed person (not a trainer) with links to some prominent stakeholders.

Interesting times if the small-time trainer decides to co-operate with stewards especially as the alleged ‘provider’ of the illegal drugs has a close association with a person of interest to the authorities nationally at the moment.

 

IS A TAB CLUB IN QUEENSLAND IN FINANCIAL STRIFE?

IF you are to believe the rumour mile a TAB club in Queensland could soon have an administrator appointed.

Story goes the club has lost massive sponsorships and is on the verge of bankruptcy.

There are calls from those keen to sabotage the current committee for a full investigation and suggestions that racing could soon be temporarily closed at the venue.

 

SKY FAVORITE TO WIN MEDIA RIGHTS – WHEN WILL RQ EVER LEARN?

SKY Channel has firmed to short-priced favouritism to win the media rights for racing in Queensland.

This does not sit comfortably with many industry stakeholders and punters who cannot believe that RQ would renew the SKY contract after the way it has been treated.

One hopes that that the no-nonsense Chairman of the BRC, Neville Bell, will insist on some guarantees under the new coverage agreement and not rely on former SKY ‘boy’ and now RQ CEO Brendan Parnell to gain such assurances.

Why RQ wouldn’t have split the contract among SKY, racing.com and free-to-air TV remains a mystery. If they gets similar treatment from SKY in future – and the major Saturday meeting plays second fiddle while Dad & Dave do their endless, boring previews of the second rate ‘goat rooter’ track outside Sydney, then RQ gets what it deserves.

 

READER ASKS: ‘IS THE SPIN DOCTOR IN QUARANTINE AT PRESENT’?

IT’S apparently almost three days now (we wouldn’t know as we don’t read it) since there was a local racing story in the daily rag or on their website which prompted this email:

‘Could you please check out if God’s gift to racing scribes in the Sunshine State has contracted the coronavirus?

‘We know he works public service hours – nothing like the 24/7 of the racing industry he allegedly covers – but it seems like the spin doctor for RQ and the BRC might be in quarantine.’

    

 

IT'S ALL ABOUT THE GALLOPS NOW - PULL YOUR FINGER OUT RQ!

By ARCHIE BUTTERFLY

THE footy is gone.

Basketball too.

Motor racing's engines have been turned off, PGA golf clubs have been laid down, soccer has been silenced.

The Casinos are cactus, the poker machines aren't poking, and the scratchy selling Newsagents have drawn down the blinds.

All that is left to bet on is the online lotto and the three codes of racing.

Let the peasants pick six from 45 and a powerball.

The only thing that really matters anymore is racing.

Australian racing.

The Pommies have done what Poms do and retreated to the bunkers. The French have laid down. No-one is surprised. The Irish are isolated, the Scots have fled to the Highlands, the Welsh are bunkered down under the coal, and the Kiwis have said Kio Ora and goodbye.

Poor grade horses are still running around in front of no-one in Hong Kong and Singapore, but no-one outside of those little islands cares.

Australian racing is all that is left.

We can turn rocks into diamonds if we can just keep racing.

For once in in a hundred years Racing Victoria has come up with the right idea, and has implemented it. They've isolated the 25 jockeys needed to keep TAB meetings going in the the face of the plague.

It may not be original - that 25 is based on the number of jockeys riding in Hong Kong - but it's a stroke of genius. 

COVID-19 can't be passed to humans through horses, so as long as those jocks stay fit and well and don't go near anyone who might infect them, racing can go on, provided that enough trainers and support staff can stay healthy to keep horses fit and prepared and get them to and from the track.

As much as it might hurt people like Peter V'Landys to admit and accept it, every other racing jurisdiction in the nation needs to follow Racing Victoria's lead, and follow it right now. If they don't, and their riders get sick, their industry is shot.

Forget the Everest, the Golden Eagle, the Kozzie and all that schlock: if NSW racing fiddles while Rome burns and its CEO is distracted doing his NRL job instead of doing his racing one, they are going to get caught and closed down. Queensland will too. Only the strong and the smart will survive.

Victoria and West Australia.

They will get all the product fees, and become richer than Croesus. 

The Governments in the other states will still spin in the Point of Consumption tax revenue skimmed from bets their citizens make in the still racing states, but in a time of recession if not depression, when every sector of the public state needs dollars, what's the chances of it being spun back into rebuilding racing industries that stood like startled rabbits in the headlights and did nothing?

Zero, that's what.

Queensland needs to move, and move super quick, and the answer is real simple.

The facilities required for self-isolation of the critical players needed to continue to race are already in place.

The stables at Eagle Farm are built on the infield.

The Ascot Green tower looms large over the track and is only 2/3rd's occupied.

Hotels and motels in the immediate vicinity lie vacant and dormant.

There is a supermarket just over the back straight fence, and the feed merchants are just down the road. 

It's time for a mass mobilisation of the required healthy racing participants onto the track and its surrounds. Jockeys, trainers, strappers, stewards, starters, work riders, vets, judges, barrier attendants, the lot.

Test them for the virus, and if they are ‘clean’ move those prepared to make the personal sacrifice required to save racing into these facilities, and keep them isolated there any time they are not down at the track doing their work.

Have doctors, nurses and a mobile lab on course, and test them every morning and if necessary every night. Whatever it takes to keep things going, that's all that matters. Those who can't, or won't, or aren't required miss out. It's hard and it’s not fair, but that's life, and if we can keep things afloat they can be compensated for their loss.

It can work at the Sunshine Coast, the Gold Coast and Toowoomba too, although under different circumstances and restraints. They can be worked out, but Brisbane takes first priority. Get it sorted out immediately and work the others out after. We need to continue to race.

The dogs and trots don't have the same on-site facilities in place, so it's likely they are screwed. They can keep racing for now, but the minute an infection hits either of the industries they are gone, and there is not much that anyone can do about it.

Nothing else matters anymore, not for now at least.

We have to keep gallops racing going.

Racing Queensland needs to move quickly.

Go you good things, go! 

Pull the whip and go right now.

 

‘DO WE NEED TO TRICK HORSES INTO DOING THEIR BEST THESE DAYS?’

DAVID BAUER makes some interesting observations re public non-attendance at race meetings Australia-wide:

‘AS the general public at this time may not attend any race meetings, these meetings unfortunately lack total atmosphere due to little or no sound, apart from the course announcer plying his trade.

As horsemen and women worldwide know full well that sometimes the horse is a little bit smarter than a few of the postilions on top, and a lot of the powers to be who run the show!

Bung some horses in a barrier trial which is devoid of any noteworthy crowds, and that horse will do what he is taught to do, and that is go for a trial, knowing full well it is for fitness, not for winning.

Now not all horses are like that. Some will act like a lot of people or the mug lairs who will always parade in public like peacocks to make out they are winners every time. But the good horses, the really good ones, are smart enough to contain their energy for race-day.

The problem herein lies, that is, the really good horse thinks because there are little or no crowds, along with the associated noises and cheers that usually come during a race, it is only a barrier trial, goes out and performs for fitness only.

It’s that odds-on pop, that every cat and his dog has bunged his hard earned on, and he goes around for a working gallop. The dilemma lies with the stewards of the day when that horse goes around like a busted a—e. Do they believe that jockey when he says he couldn’t get that horse to go, or does he give him time for not letting the horse run on his merits, or does he send that horse back to the trials to improve his manners?

This is bound to happen under the current set-up. But there is a way that might trick the horse up, if the powers that be could use a little bit of nous for a change. Surely they have recorded noises of crowds leading up to a race. They would also have recorded noises and cheering from races run previously over a distance the same as that particular race is due to be run.

By playing a separate sound system to what the course announcer is on, you just might be able to hoodwink that odds-on pop into thinking it is a race-day. Go one step further, and line up a cardboard poster crowd along the fence from about a furlong out from home. Maybe on the lawns, near the finishing post, a few strategically placed hats and streamers could pop up in the air once they hit the winning post.

I’m not saying that this will fool every horse, because we all know that there is always one horse out there that is a bit different, but it may give the mug punter sitting at home a bit of olden times atmosphere, the incentive to throw another $20 on his or her chosen horse.

We’ve lost the big crowds that used to attend the races in my younger days. Can we afford to lose that stay at home punter also, because the racing under these circumstances lacks the atmosphere to stay interested? Sometimes in unique times, you have to, and need to, think outside the square!’

 

‘OVERSEAS WORKERS LOST IF THERE IS AN INDUSTRY SHUTDOWN  

GREG BLANCHARD of NUDGEE writes:

‘RACING is still hanging on a shutdown which would have huge ramifications.

Clubs have been highlighted and they will struggle no doubt.

I would like to mention a group who will be effected that will have a flow-on effect on trainers.

I speak of overseas stablehands and track riders. There are many in our industry. Some big and small stables employ them.

If there is a shutdown local workers can rightfully get the dole or if they are lucky find other employment which would be so difficult in the current situation.

But overseas people on working holiday visas cannot. They will be forced to go home.

When racing starts up again these people will not be around leaving a huge gap in our industry.’

 

NEWS LTD ACCUSED OF DOING NOTHING TO HELP DURING VIRUS DISASTER

SOME interesting identities have questioned what the daily fish and chips wrapper with a dwindling circulation is doing to help in these trying times of the coronavirus. The Courier-Mail has been accused of doing nothing. As you can see below Racing Nathan hasn’t copped it too sweet (protecting his job of course).  

Thought we might share their thoughts from FACEBOOK:

 

 

ARCHIE BUTTERFLY takes a look back at the crowd-less weekend that was in AUSTRALIAN RACING

The Rosehill Track

WHAT a letdown the Golden Slipper meeting at Rosehill was, ruined by a horrendous track bias that brought shame to the so-called professionals that curate the course proper, or claim to anyway.

I know the track started out as a Soft 6, but the surface was upgraded after Race 2 to a Soft 5, which is what we used to call ‘Dead’ back in the day, and horses were running the six furlongs (1200m) in low 1.10's, so there is absolutely no excuse for the horrendous leader bias that was inflicted on trainers, owners, jockeys and punters. 

Wake up to yourself Nevesh Ramdhani! You talk a good game on the radio and TV, but matches are played on the grass not in the grandstand, and your team just got flogged. We punters with family commitments who put our bets on before the first race did too.

 

How Good is Addeybb?

WOW! 

How good is this bloke?

Over a distance of 2000m on a Soft 5 track carrying 59kg, he ran his final 600 metres from the front in 33.41 seconds.

Let me put that into perspective for you.

In the very next race, as the track was starting to dry out more, Dreamforce like Addeybb, led all the way over 1500m in the George Ryder, and zipped home too quick for Te Akau Shark to catch him. 

He ran his last 600 in 34.07 seconds.

The race after that Castlevecchio won the Guineas over 2000m – 34.99 was his final sectional.

Then Farnan won the 1200m Golden Slipper and ran 34.32.

I Am Excited won the Galaxy over 1100 metres, just a tick over half as far as the high-class English middle distance galloper ran in a closing sectional of 33.94. 

Miss Exfactor won the last over the six furlong Slipper distance – home in 34.62.

As I said, wow!

How is anything going to beat Addeybb this Autumn in Sydney?

Only Shadow Hero is a hope, if connections of both decide to go to the Queen Elizabeth. 

We can only hope they do.

 

Shadow Hero

THIS gun colt was a total victim of circumstances in the Guineas.

That and a poor ride by Josh Parr, which are pretty much the same thing.

Shadow Hero spotted his great rival Castlevecchio six lengths in the run on a track on which you just couldn't, and Craig Williams’ great ride on Richard Litt's horse gave him another length or two advantage, which made it impossible for Mark Newnham's bloke.

It was a great run, and this horse is right in the Derby up to his eyeballs. It looks a match race, and gee isn't it going to be one for the ages?

If we get there!

 

Ride of the Day

WHERE do you look?

Sydney?

Marquand on Addeybb? Williams on Castlevecchio? McEvoy in the first on California Zimbol? Tim Clark on Missybeel? Hughie on Farnan in the Slipper? Jay Ford on Miss Exfactor in the last?

Melbourne?

Tom Stockdale on Sizzlefly? Tom Stockdale on Salsamor? Jai McNeil on Aktau? Tom Stockdale on Nudge Bar?

Brisbane?

James Orman on Mishani Epic? Baylee Nothdurft on Get Stuck In? Steph Thornton on Star of Michelin?

They were gems, one and all.

Aren't we blessed with some great riding talent in Australia?

Our boys and girls are the best in the world, bar none.

 

A Rising Star

KEEP your eye out for a Godolphin horse named Zacat over the coming month, for I reckon this 3YO gelding is good, real good.

Zacat won a BM64 at Kembla Grange on Saturday afternoon, which is usually no great wrap for any horse, but trust me this bloke will be the exception that breaks the rule.

This young son of the great Lonhro was absolutely fantastic in victory, and looked for all the world like his old man as he charged from a seemingly impossible position buried back worse than midfield to come over the top and beat them, and do you know what was strange? Even though he looked a million to one coming to the turn, you always knew that he was somehow going to win the race, that's how imposing he looked in the run.

The time says it all.

Zucat ran within under a second of the long-standing track record, and ran a cracking 33.47 final 600 metre split in doing so. Best of all was that he looked for all the world like a horse just waiting to gobble up a bit of extra ground. 

The way this lovely looking horse is so rapidly improving, I wouldn't put a race like the Queensland Guineas or even the Stradbroke off a low weight beyond him this prep.

Just remember, you heard it here first.

 

One From the West

SPEAKING of good horses in the making, how about the WA two-year-old Gemma's Son?

This spawn of bargain basement sire Snippetson took out his fourth win from four starts in the Listed Perth Stakes, and did it like a real topliner of the future too.

Put him in your little black book and back him with confidence if he ever travels east.

 

A Ring a Ding Ding, JC's Still the King

IT’S no secret that I'm a great admirer of the Capalaba Greyhound Chairman Johnny 'JC' Catton's skill as a dog trainer, and after what we saw down the straight track on Saturday you'd have to agree that my high rating of him is justified.

JC's kennel star Jasper the Jet went amiss in a race at Wentworth Park last September when on his way home from Adelaide and a fabulous fourth in the SA Derby, and the young greyhound's hope of ever racing again looked forlorn, but Catton's are bloody tough and they don't give in. That's why JC's dad and older brother both played for Queensland, and his younger brother overcame huge (self-inflicted) adversity to kick again in life and come good, real good, and why Johnny himself made it onto the A-Grade honour board at Norths despite the handicap of being a chunky, slow slug that Mother Nature dealt him at birth.

Never give up, never give in. Those words are imprinted in the DNA of the Catton mob, and so it proved when JC brought Jasper the Jet back from the brink of the GAP program and half a year off the scene – which is a hell of a long time for a dog whose racing span is usually 2 1/2 years tops – to blitz them first-up at Ipswich a week and a half ago, and then repeat the dose in spades on Saturday at the 'Ba.

Thanks to the JC TLC and a little bit of training magic this bloke Jasper is back big time, and don't be surprised if you see him go all the way. I hope so. It couldn't happen to a nicer bloke.

 

Something Different

JUST to break things up a bit and spread the love in these dark days of CV-19's, sickness, fear and death I thought we'd do a quick around the grounds from the NSW country tracks on Saturday.

Hope you enjoy it.

Casino

It was the Ben Looker and Matthew Paget show at Casino on Saturday afternoon, with the talented pair dominating the six-race card by riding a treble each.

Looker rode a second and Paget didn't so he gets the honours, but they both did pretty well and so did any punter who'd backed either jockey’s winners in a multi. 

Paget's paid $172.50 at SP, and Looker's $115.45.

Belinda Hodder rode a treble too, three thirds.

Jordan Mallyon booted home three at Queanbeyan on Saturday afternoon too, but they weren't the type that most jockeys prefer, for they all ran last. At least he copped $220 a ride and did manage a third, a fifth and a seventh from his other three rides.

Queanbeyan

Quayde Krogh didn't go the early crow – his mount ran last in the first – but he did come home strong to finish the day with a double, and also rode a third and a fourth.

Neville Layt of Karuta Queen fame, who we didn't hear much of before that flying filly set the tracks alight for a couple of seasons early in the 2010's, and haven't heard much of since, led in a winner. It was his fourth this season and his sixth in the past 12 months.

Kembla Grange

Grant Buckley and Keagan Latham were the kings of Dick Van Dyke's old stomping ground, Kembla Grange, riding a double each. Buckley rode a placegetter and Latham didn't, so the aged stallion took home the crown.

Tom Sherry rode a winner and two seconds, Mitchell Bell rode a winner and one second, and Sam Clipperton rode three seconds. It must have been a frustrating day for the kid.

On the training front, Glenda Markwell did herself proud by not only matching the might of Godolphin by training a treble on the card along with James Cummings, but also actually nutting him in the hypothetical trainer's challenge by leading in two seconds to young James' three thirds. 

Good on ya Glenda, that's one for the battlers.

 

THE RIDERS IN THE STAND by BANJO PATERSON

There's some that ride the Robbo style, and bump at every stride;
While others sit a long way back, to get a longer ride.
There's some that ride like sailors do, with legs and arms, and teeth;
And some ride on the horse's neck, and some ride underneath.

But all the finest horsemen out -- the men to Beat the Band --
You'll find amongst the crowd that ride their races in the Stand.
They'll say "He had the race in hand, and lost it in the straight."
They'll show how Godby came too soon, and Barden came too late.

They'll say Chevalley lost his nerve, and Regan lost his head;
They'll tell how one was "livened up" and something else was "dead" --
In fact, the race was never run on sea, or sky, or land,
But what you'd get it better done by riders in the Stand.

The rule holds good in everything in life's uncertain fight;
You'll find the winner can't go wrong, the loser can't go right.
You ride a slashing race, and lose -- by one and all you're banned!
Ride like a bag of flour, and win -- they'll cheer you in the Stand.

 

PUNTERS DIRTY ON 'DOPEY OPIE’ OVER HIS HANDLING OF BOOM KIWI

DOPEY OPIE BOSSON was responsible for one of the worst rides ever seen on an Australian track by an international jockey at Rosehill on Saturday.

Punters took to social media to vent their anger against Bosson’s ride after the boom Kiwi Te Akau Shark, heavily-backed to run odds-on, was slaughtered before finishing third to the enigmatic Dreamforce in the Group 1 George Ryder Stakes.

Stewards grilled Bosson over his positioning of Te Akau Shark in the early stages and later rubbed him out until April 2 for causing interference to Super Seth. He had the hot favorite wide on the track and told chief stipe Marc Van Gestel he thought the inferior ground was on the fence after riding in the Ranvet Stakes.

But Van Gestel questioned why Bosson allowed Happy Clapper and Alizee to improve to his inside and asked whether he had spoken about his tactics in the race to anyone else. He said no.

“In a Group 1 race you’re going to expect they’re riding competitively and I just find it surprising you allow your horse to be as wide as you were in the back straight to the point you’ve got two horses improve to your inside,” Van Gestel said.

“I just find it surprising Opie a jockey of your calibre would put your horse in that sort of position.”

But Bosson admitted his plan was to follow The Bostonian, which went down fighting behind Dreamforce. “I thought it was a nice position and I just wanted to keep him out of trouble. He just didn’t quite quicken like he did last time.”

Stewards adjourned the inquiry but if Bosson gets a slap on the wrist for what was a questionable slaughter job on a horse that should have bolted in then it’s fair to say the punters won’t be happy.

 

 

‘THE GOODIE, THE BADDY & THE UGLY’ SIDE OF THE EAGLE FARM TRACK

TALK about the goodie, the baddy and the ugly – the Eagle Farm track was nothing short of an absolute disgrace on Saturday.

Here at LGHR we can hear the bells ringing in the studios of 4TAB with the ‘Bantam’ having a rave about ‘dinosaurs with no talent bagging his mates at the BRC’ rather than addressing the issue of his questionable chairmanship which has led the Albion Park Harness Racing Club down the financial tube.

Politics aside his good mate Nathan Exelby did the right thing by the punters and stakeholders reporting the problem with Eagle Farm that has existed now for several meetings. Forget all the excuses, millions have been poured into this track, Mick Goodie has been hailed a hero, the spin doctors in the mainstream racing media have waxed lyrical about the new surface being the best in the land and now, it seems, we are back to square one.

If the track shapes up like it has at the past couple of meetings during the Winter Carnival, Queensland will once again be the laughing stock of Australian racing.

Mick Goodie told Exelby, writing in The Sunday Mail, he wasn’t surprised at how the track raced on Saturday. “It does look terrible on TV. I will concede that but they aren’t getting into the track. It’s more what’s on top. This won’t be fixed overnight.”

To the punters and some trainers and jockeys, who aren’t afraid to speak out, it seems like what’s coming out of Goodie’s mouth is what needs to be spread over the track to improve it.

NSW-based trainer Matt Dunn told The Sunday Mail: “The track (on Saturday) was unacceptable. The fact the stewards didn’t downgrade it is even worse. It’s like swiss cheese and is racing like a Heavy 10. There’s clods coming up as big as human beings. It’s a disgrace.”

Even leading trainer Tony Gollan, who rarely criticized anything racing in Queensland, couldn’t hold back. “It’s an ugly look. There’s no running away from that but the first step in rectifying the problem is admitting it and they have done that.”

Sure Tony – but did they wait until the horse had well and truly bolted?              

 

STAKEHOLDERS CALL ON ENDRESZ TO ‘PUT A SOCK IN IT’ OR FACE A CHARGE OF BRINGING THE INDUSTRY INTO DISREPUTE

ALLAN Endresz, the outspoken part-owner of Alligator Blood is entitled to be frustrated and angry, but stakeholders are claiming he should ‘put a sock in it’ before stewards charge him with bringing the racing industry into disrepute.

The controversial Mr Endresz has come out swinging after his star galloper returned a swab irregularity and has claimed on Twitter and in an interview with Radio TAB that Alligator Blood has been nobbled.

As one LGHR reader commented: ‘What was the point of nobbling the horse if it won? Is this bloke suggesting that someone connected with one of his rivals did so to see it disqualified and then claim the money? That’s a well and truly left-field conspiracy theory.”

And another sent this email: “Perhaps the media should republish an expose of the colourful business life of Mr Endresz from the Australian Financial Review if it comes to a case of credibility.”

As MATT STEWART, Racing Editor of RSN Racing & Sports wrote: ‘While the trainer of Alligator Blood has bitten his lip as he awaits the result of a B sample to a swab irregularity, the gelding’s most recognised part-owner has come out swinging.

Allan Endresz has engaged in a handful of robust twitter exchanges since it was revealed (earlier this week) that “the Blood” had returned an irregularity to Ovumate, a product only recommended for use on fillies and mares.

Ovumate contains traces of steroids, putting it on the “don’t use” list in most states, including Queensland.

Victorian stewards confirmed Alligator Blood’s C S Hayes Stakes swab had returned clear of illegal substances and that results of his Australian Guineas win and unplaced run in the All Star Mile were not yet available.

Trainer David Vandyke issued a brief statement to media (earlier this week), saying that Alligator Blood or any other male horse in the stable had not received Ovumate “to my knowledge”.

He said some female horses had been treated with the product “under our care with accurate records kept surrounding administration. Those records have been given to QRIC (Queensland stewards).”

Vandyke said he was reviewing stable security and stable management. Vandyke inserted a security camera in Alligator Blood’s Flemington box during his recent stay in Melbourne.

Endresz, whose colourful business life was exposed an Australian Financial Review feature in 2018 that was recently re-circulated via twitter, insisted there was no “karma” in the positive swab.

The “karma” tweet was in response to a tweet suggesting the swab was “bad karma” for Endresz’s controversial business life.

Endresz tweeted that “if it was some desperate nobbling (followed by three emojis) … then watch the owners.”

In another tweet he said: “The questions are why and how. If he was nobbled once, then it might happen again. Remember, they tried to shoot Phar Lap as a first warning before finally getting him.”

When someone tweeted the owner of Alligator Blood was a “loose unit,” Endresz tweeted back “Very loose.”

Endresz sent a number of tweets suggesting he would take legal action against those accusing him of illegal behaviour.

Racing Victoria chief steward Robert Cram said it was not common practice in Victoria to publicly release swab irregularities before B samples had been tested.

Endresz tweeted that “I can’t see how the sample B could come back clear. If there is Ovumate in the blood, there is Ovumate in the blood.”

A leading vet said the only reason Regumate or Ovulate might be used on a gelding might be to calm it down.

Trainer Leon Corstens was handed a six-month disqualification in 2010 after his budding champion Starspangledbanner tested positive to Altrenogest. Corstens claimed he hadn’t given the colt Altrenogest and speculated his close proximity to fillies and mares in the stable may have been a factor in the positive swab.

 

 

DUX OF YAKAPARI SCHOOL DEFENDS HIS BELOVED MORANBAH RACES  

THERE is no more passionate advocate of country and bush racing in Queensland than former highly respected bookie GARY GORRIE who now lives in THAILAND. Today we set the scene for another verbal stouch between GARY and our good mate at LGHR, ARCHIE BUTTERFLY, who has a different outlook on the cost implications of so many bush and country race meetings on the industry in Queensland.

Here’s ROUND ONE from GARY GORRIE & you can bet ARCHIE BUTTERFLY will be quick to RETURN SERVE:

‘AFTER Archie Blowfly’s recent rant about the Moranbah Races I thought I might report on the meeting there last Saturday.

The crowd was down a little because of coronavirus – about 700 which is about 8% of the population. Not bad considering if we were comparing it with Brisbane’s 2.4 million 8% would be about 300.000. I am told the city tracks would be lucky to get 700. Makes you ‘wonder’ which town wants the races?

When Archie was Archie Canary working for the unions if he had listened instead of Whistling he would know that Moranbah has the richest income per capita in Australia. 

Jack Treasure and a few of us built the track almost 50 years ago. It was all done at no expense to Queensland Racing and we were granted some 10 meetings a year. That has been whittled away to just three now.

If you took a postcode look at revenue from betting from the region $40,000 would be a pittance to what the miners here put back into racing – and $5,000 not $10,000 was the cost for the meeting which was paid for by the club.

A few years ago one of the mines was going to sponsor the meeting and pay all the prize-money but Queensland Racing in its wisdom knocked the offer back.

Then Chairman Bob Bentley wanted it shut to plunder the racecourse land worth millions as industrial land, had the barrier stalls condemned and made the club build an outside running rail. But we got Council to finance new starting stalls and installed a rail which ironically was not as safe as the earth bank previously used.

I am only a boy from the bush not as bright as you city slickers but was Dux of the Yakapari School and ‘me’ other classmate, Knuckles Knowall, now an accountant, had a squiz at the books of the clubs in Blowflies south-east corner and reckons that they put capital grants into revenue and cook the books to show a profit but in fact are all running at big losses.

How many times do we have to rebuild the tracks down there and prop them up using part of the $6 billion in royalties this region generates for Queensland?

Now Archie wants to race only in the south-east corner. He has already such a model with the trots. Once we had harness racing in Cairns, Innisfail, Townsville, Charters Towers, Mackay, Rockhampton, Maryborough, Rocklea (there was a track where the bookies would let you on), Southport and many other venues.

We took a pacer named Clarendon south once and got 100/1 and the money. We all had a bet on the trots because we had an interest in trotting in these towns which gave us an interest in Harold Park on Friday nights and Albion Park on Saturday nights. Turnover was  good.

Come on Archie you have your mate ‘Feathers’ on the ropes. Let’s see your business plan to make the trots great again. Show us the promised land. Show us the way. That way when you close all country racetracks we will know Brisbane will get bigger and better and not end up like the trots. Show us your solution.

Or is it true when you got to Kuranda you went to the pub, grabbed a witch’s hat, put it on your head, sat in corner and said: “I am the leader of the Dope capital of Queensland’ and it was hard for the locals to ‘weed’ you out of that idea.

Maybe you are deaf from all your ‘Whistling’ dumb from ‘dope’ and blind to reality but I will be enthralled when you give us your learned plan to resurrect the trots to glory. I can picture you parting Brekky Creek at high tide. ‘Feathers’ would be crazy not to install your business plans and save the trots and his job.

I’ll be shocked if ‘Lucky Lingard’ does not give you enough space at LGHR for your ‘MASTERPLAN’.

Nows the time to ‘Put up’!

Gary Gorrie – ‘Dux of Yakapari School’  

 

 

WHEN ARCHIE RAISED EARLY QUESTIONS HE WAS LAMPOONED BY VAN DYKE SUPPORTERS – BUT WHO’S LAUGHING NOW?

By ARCHIE BUTTERFLY

WELL we’re not going to enter a guilty or innocent verdict until the B Sample comes back and the Stewards make their call, but I will say right here and now that I have been telling you for months now that leopards don’t change their spots, and dopers don’t turn into deities, and that there has been a strong smell of fish emanating from the ‘Dick’ Van Dyke stable for ages.

26 percent strike rate hey?

Yeah right.

And now the Alligator, just like his former stablemate and Queensland Horse of the Year Yankee Rose – who never actually raced in the Sunshine State in her life – has thrown a positive swab.

I’m not being smart after the event; I went out on a limb in January to declare my huge doubts about ‘Dick’ Van Dyke’s training methods and the reasons behind his success, and I’ve repeated my concerns several times since, and been roundly abused for my trouble, as recently even as yesterday.

Archie is a tool.  He needs to get out his gold fish bowl.  It is a big world out there.

That is why the guy loses credibility.  

Bit like Alligator Blood.  As a bookie if you laid it every time it ran I know who would be in front –10 wins from 12 starts and I might add $2.8m in stakes money.

Well there is an old saying that he who laughs last, laughs loudest, and I would be right now but for one thing.

Horses being hit is no laughing matter.

This is ‘Dick’ Van Dyke’s official line, for the moment anyway.

I was informed today that Alligator Blood has returned an irregularity to altrenogest after his win on 11 January at the Gold Coast. There is a B sample under review.

Altrenogest is a drug that has never been used to my knowledge on Alligator Blood or any male horse in our stable.

It is used in our stable under the brand name Ovumate and is given to some female horses under our care with accurate records kept surrounding administration. Those records have been given to QRIC.

We are in the process of reviewing our security and stable management.

There will be no further comment as we await the result of the B sample.

In my opinion this is complete and utter bullshit.

Ovumate is a controlled substance that is totally banned for use in male horses.

It is administered either over the tongue by syringe, or by injection.

That means that a horse cannot absorb by accident, only by deliberate design.

In other words, a gelding can’t throw a positive to the illegal substance unless someone has treated him with it.

Enjoy it while you can son.

For you it never seems to last.

These sage words of advice that I gave to ‘Dick’ Van Dyke, published on letsgohorseracing.com.au a couple of weeks ago, look like they are about to turn out to be rather prophetic, don’t they sports fans?

I’d declare myself a genius but I’m not.

The Alligator was the only horse in the Gold Coast Magic Millions Guineas to be late to the track. None of his opponents got caught in traffic jams, because they were already stabled. It was only ‘Dick’ Van Dyke’s star running behind time.

Why?

He was brought down on his own, not with his stablemate running in the race two before the Guineas.

Why?

There were two people in the truck with the single horse.

Why?

Back in the days when he was still called Hayes, ‘Dick’ Van Dyke got punted from the game for years for being a dope cheat.

Why?

Yankee Rose got stripped of a couple of Group wins because she threw positive swabs.

Why?

Rhetorical questions one and all.

It’s those that don’t look and think who can’t see.

NO ASSUMPTIONS BUT THE STORY WE RAN BACK THEN IS NOW EVEN MORE INTERESTING

LETSGOHORSERACING ran the story below by ARCHIE BUTTERFLY soon after the farcical scenes that preceded the Magic Millions race day on the Gold Coast. We are making no assumptions and await the results of the B Sample of Alligator Bloods’s positive from an interstate laboratory. But we reproduce that story to remind the public of issues and concerns we raised at the time:     

A Fairytale about Alligators Written By a Bunch of Racing Writers With Vivid Imaginations and Scant Regard For the Truth

EVERY punter in Australia by now knows the Alligator Blood Magic Millions story, or at least they think they do anyway, but there are a few things wrong with the tale.

The first is the reporting.

Respected racing writers Steve Rodgers and Mark Oberhardt told the 17 remaining readers of The Australian that the Alligator arrived at the Gold Coast track under police escort. Nathan Exelby repeated the tale to the 26 people that read the Sunday Mail. Chris Roots took it a step further and reliably informed the 38 strong audience of the Sydney Morning Herald that the Alligator’s police escort was riding a motorcycle, which given Queensland’s draconian VLAD laws is a brave thing for anyone, even a copper, to do. Ben Dorries did a brave thing too. He told the tens of thousands of readers of Racenet not only that the Gator arrived on course shepherded by coppers, but that Channel 7 broadcast.

It was a cracker of a yarn, an absolute doozy. The only problem is that it was total bullshit. All of it. Dorries, Roots, Exelby, Oberhardt, Rogers – they were all speaking straight out of their arses and relaying as fact an event that never actually happened at all. If the lithesome fivesome had been born a century earlier, they would have all been assistant scriptwriters on War of the Worlds.

The Alligator didn’t arrive at the course under police escort at all. David Van Dyke’s partner Emma Lehmann drove him in under her own steam, with one-time Survivor runner-up Tara Pitt riding shotgun in the passenger seat. Exelby admitted as such in his column in the circulation sinking Courier-Mail on Monday, although strangely he neglected to print a correction or apology to readers for the fantasy that he’d weaved for them the day before.

None of the other so-called racing experts printed a correction or apology for their utter furphy either, which is not quite cricket is it? No, it’s not, and its bloody embarrassing for these blokes too. Journos are supposed to source and check facts, not manufacture them. This mob have let the side down big time Sportsfans, and the people they have let down are you and me.

False news is no news Sportsfans. That’s why you’re reading this right now. Because you can depend on our stuff being true. And it is too, don’t you worry about that.

Back to the Alligator

David Van Dyke told the Stewards that due to the crash on the M1, Big Al was no hope of making it to the track within the prescribed two-hour before the start time-frame, and Racin Nathan faithfully reported it without question.

There’s just one problem.

As per the QRIC public decree issued on the 25^th of November 2019 – just six weeks before the millions – all runners in Group races have to be on-course THREE hours before starting time, not TWO.

The 3YO Magic Millions Guineas was due to start at 3:15pm, which meant that all runners in the race had to be stabled on the course by 12:15pm.

By trainer Van Dyke’s own admission Alligator Blood left his Sunshine Coast yard at 10:15am, and it was a minimum 2 hour and 15 minute trip to the Goldie even in traffic that was sailing smoother than a Sydney to Hobart winner entering the Tasmanian harbor.

Do the sums.

Even if all went to plan the Alligator wouldn’t have arrived on track until 12:30pm. In other words, he would have been there too late, and if the QRIC were fair dinkum about their 3 hours strictures he should and would have been ineligible to line up in the race.

The connections of the other runners in the Guineas have been had.

The so-called rules have been snubbed and blown into a thousand pieces.

The QRIC and its so-said commitment to racing integrity is a joke.

A Few Random Questions That All Sportsfans Should Be Asking

1. Why were no other runners in the Guineas caught in the traffic jam? At least 4 of them came down from Brisbane for the race. They had to travel the same highway. How come they didn’t get stuck?
2. Why was Alligator Blood brought down in a large, multi-horse truck on its own? The Guineas was race 6, and Van Dyke had a runner – Constant Flight – in race 4, so why were they brought down separately?
3. Why did the Alligator need to come down in a big truck with only his mate the pony along for the ride with him?
4. Why were 2 Van Dyke employees in tow, one of them who was not even supposed to be on duty that day?
5. Why were the pair so keen to take a so-called back road (which wasn’t at all – it was a major thoroughfare) on their own, without the coppers escorting them and running the risk of them taking a look in the back?
6. Why would the two stable staff need to make or take 57 phone calls back and forward to Van Dyke along the way? Why wouldn’t they have just stayed on the phone?
7. Why was the 3-hour rule introduced by the QRIC in the first place?
8. Why was Robert Smerdon having his horses bicarbed on course within 2 hours of the start time for their races?
9. Which trainer has multiple breaches of race day treatment rules on his rap sheet, including two three-year sentences that he served concurrently for bringing horses to the track tanked full of the dreaded Elephant Juice?
10. Who is the only trainer to have recorded a better strike rate than Ben Currie three years in a row, during the Tornado’s reign as Queensland’s premier trainer?
11. Is it the same trainer who currently boasts a 50 percent or more better winning strike rate than the top 3 trainers in the State?
12. Is David Van Dyke the best trainer in Australia? His strike rate says he is. Boom Boom Benny’s did for a while too.
13. Does any of this mean anything at all? Or is it just sheer coincidence?

We don’t know, and we’re certainly not suggesting anything untoward. We are just laying out some cold hard facts for your consideration, that’s all.

But gee, wouldn’t you think someone in charge of racing integrity might be asking themselves the same questions.

Then again, wouldn’t you think they’d know their own rules.

Nah, this is Queensland isn’t it?

The place where phantom police escorts bring horses to courses, journos write imaginary stories gleaned from invisible sources, and pink pigs fly.

My oh my, the whole thing would just about make a grown man cry.

Especially if he owned the runner-up.

 

PROHIBITED SUBSTANCE IRREGULARITY AFTER ALLIGATOR’S MM WIN

BOOM Queensland galloper ALLIGATOR BLOOD has returned an irregularity to the prohibited substance altrenogest after its win in the rich Magic Millions Three-Year-Old Guineas at the Gold Coast in January.

This was the day when the float containing Alligator Blood had to be diverted onto a back-road to dodge massive traffic congestion on the freeway that prevented it and other MM runners from getting to the track by the allotted time.

There was considerable publicity surrounding police escorts and the problems encountered by Magic Millions horses making their way to the Gold Coast from Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast, most notably Alligator Blood.

Queensland Racing Integrity Commission (QRIC) Stewards informed trainer David Vandyke that the sample has been sent for confirmatory testing at an interstate laboratory.

 

SURELY THE CORPORATES’ TALKING HEADS DON’T HAVE SPECIAL DISPENSATION TO BE AT THE TRACK

WHEN one of Australia’s biggest and most successful owners was told he could not attend the All Star Mile meeting at Caulfield last Saturday, Bob Peters copped it on the chin and headed back to the west.

Peters and his wife, Sandra, who have been racing horses for four decades, were banned from watching trackside as two of their stable stars, Regal Power and Superstorm, quinellaed the $5 million feature at Caulfield.

Special dispensation was given to the connections of Alligator Blood to attend the track after threats were made to scratch the favourite. RV officials sympathized with their special circumstances with the wife of one of the owners gravely ill. No-one objected to that decision.

But what has been questioned is some of those who were allowed to be trackside for the big meeting that allegedly didn’t need to be there. Here’s an example of the emails received by LGHR:

“While Bob Peters, one of the biggest, most successful and highly respected owners in the industry Australia-wide was refused permission to watch his horses run in the Allstar Mile (along with most other owners of starters), it seems the same rules did not apply to corporate bookmakers.

“Correct me if I am wrong but the coverage on racing.com showed the talking head from one of the big corporate bookies updating the betting markets and he seemed to be at the track. Unless they superimposed his head over a track background, what right did he have to be there?

“The corporates already have too much start in the industry in this country. Surely one of the racing.com hosts could have read these figures out from the studio or they could have placed a camera in the corporate bookmaker’s office. If that did happen – and it didn’t appear to on the coverage my mates and I watched – then we apologize. But if the corporates have special permission during this coronavirus outbreak to be in attendance then that needs to change. They certainly aren’t an essential service. They're a bunch of parasites.”

 

RACING IS BRACING FOR THE UNIMAGINABLE – NO RACING AT ALL

RACING officials are beginning to turn their minds to the unimaginable scenario not of crowd-free racing but no racing at all.

Racing Editor MATT STEWART reports for RSN RACING & SPORT that officials are pondering how long racing’s delicate economies, from the macro level of the “industry” to the micro level of small businesses and individuals, could survive if federal officials ordered racing to indefinitely cease.

“The impact would be huge and we’re turning our minds to that,” said Racing Victoria chief executive Giles Thompson.

Thompson’s comments came as UK officials aborted April’s famous Grand National Steeplechase at Aintree as a response to the coronavirus pandemic and Kentucky cancelled a major racing festival at Keenland, also scheduled for April, at the same time.

The Warrnambool Racing Club is now pondering what to do in the first week of May, given the Grand Annual jumps carnival, like Aintree, is more defined by its on-course vibe than off-course turnover.

Thompson said that in Victoria, 25,000 employees would be directly affected by a racing shut-down and many more by ripple effect.

He said RV’s focus was to implement strict health measures that might convince the federal government that it was reducing risk as best it could and therefore justify being allowed to continue.

“If they (Government) take it out of our hands, they take it out of our hands,” Thompson said, adding that he hoped authorities “will be comfortable with what we are doing and that we can continue.”

He said that while a racing wipe-out would “clearly be a serious blow, racing is not unique.”

He identified wagering operators as major employers who would “cease to exist to a degree” if racing was cancelled.

He said racing’s “strong balance sheets”, which included an RV slush fund of about $80 million, “won’t last long if the taps are turned off.”

Thompson said racing was a $3.2 billion dollar industry, making the cash in the coffers seem like small change.

“But if we stop racing, if it grinds to a halt, we’ve got to plan for it,” he said.

Racing NSW chief executive Peter V’landys defended his decision to race with a crowd at Rosehill on Saturday despite Victoria racing crowd-free at Moonee Valley and Caulfield last weekend.

He said Racing NSW merely “abided by the best advice available.”

V’landys said a racing ban would be “a hell of a thought’ but said the halt to racing in NSW during Equine Influenza provided some comfort that he and his senior staff “knew how to handle it.”

V’landys defended himself against critics who wondered how he could effectively act as racing boss and chairman of the NRL during such crisis. He said the twin roles “make it invaluable getting information on both sides that’s beneficial for both sports.”

“I’m comfortable in my own skin that I’m doing the best job I can for both and will continue to do so. The moment I think I can’t do that I’ll take appropriate action.”

 

MAINSTREAM MEDIA FINALLY CATCHES UP WITH WHAT LGHR TOLD YOU WEEKS AGO – HEADS UP THEIR ARSE AS USUAL!

WHEN LGHR reacted to queries from our readers and questioned the apparent kick-back at recent Eagle Farm race meetings, the usual ‘spin doctors’ for racing in Queensland gave us a ‘bagging’.

These supposed ‘turf scribes’, who are supposed to be protecting the interests of the punters and the stakeholders and not sucking up to officialdom, suggested we had just jumped at another opportunity to criticize.

Fast-forward a few weeks then low and behold a story appears in the daily ‘fish and chips’ wrapper headlined: ‘EAGLE FARM TO BE PUT IN COTTON WOOL’.

It read, in part:

THE Brisbane Racing Club has been granted permission to swap two upcoming Saturday meetings scheduled for Eagle Farm to Doomben in a bid to preserve the surface of the new course proper.

Doomben will now race on March 28 and April 11 and in return, Eagle Farm will race on Wednesday, March 25 and Easter Monday on April 13, where the rail can be placed wider on the track.

The meeting scheduled for Eagle Farm this Saturday will go ahead as scheduled, with the rail in the 9m position.

Officials say the switch is to ensure the Eagle Farm surface is in the best possible condition for the upcoming Group 1 carnival after it became apparent there had been an issue with the track following the March 7 meeting.

“The scuffing was a result of the leaf tissue being weakened by weather related disease — the profile and root health of the track remains in great shape,” Racing Queensland track specialist Mick Goodie said.

“We have treated that and decided to give the inside of the track a rest to ensure we’re in the best shape for the Brisbane Racing Carnival.”

In other words that’s a fancy way of saying what we relayed from some of our readers weeks ago that there was ‘a stack of kick-back on the track’.

Just another example of how the mainstream racing media in Queensland continue to have their heads up their arse when it comes to protecting the punting public.

 

 

ARCHIE BUTTERFLY looks back at the weekend that was in RACING:

The Phantom Self-Isolates 

CHIEF Steward Chadwick was MIA from a metropolitan meeting yet again on Saturday at the Gold Coast. He wasn't at Doomben on Wednesday either. 

Most people pay to go to the races; the Singapore Sling gets paid. Yet still he won't show.

This whole ‘no show’ thing is getting beyond the pale. If Chadwick doesn't want to turn up at the track to lead his troops, then there are plenty of talented stipes who do. 

I reckon it’s about time Commissioner Barnett started giving them a call.

 

The Alligator Sinks

I copped a bucket load of sledges during the week after I put the knock on Alligator Blood and declared it the lay of the century in the All-Star Mile, but he who laughs last laughs longest, and I'm giggling like little Gertie.

Everyone now claims that the Alligator had come to the end of his prep and was over the top. All I can say to that is times don't get it wrong, only people do; and that when it came to assessing the merits of the star Queenslander's form coming into the All-Star Mile, most of them got blinded by the picket fences and didn't do any digging to check the foundations.

With a bit of luck they all backed it, and got the just reward for their laziness.

 

Rothfire Misfires

I was talking to one of my bookie mates a couple of minutes before the jump in Rothfire's race, and commented to him that I reckoned only a turkey would take 7-1 on ($1.14) about an inexperienced juvenile racing on such a terribly wet and unpredictable surface as the course proper at the Gold Coast was on Saturday.

My mate, who's a whizz at rating the unders and overs, tipped me the winner as huge value at the price. He's a good judge, isn't he?

The Rothfire backers aren't. 

They're probably spending their broken-arsed Saturday night running up stairs.

 

The Bookies do Their Bit to Stimulate the Economy