IN his popular column, ‘SILKS & SADDLES,’ published by the NORTH QUEENSLAND REGISTER, respected racing writer TERRY BUTTS reports on a determined bid by trainer Daryl Hansen to resurrect the career of top sprinter Essington in the Mackay Newmarket on Thursday.
Butts, just back from a trip to Vanuatu where he experienced an earthquake (no he hadn’t had a dozen or two of the local brew), reports on the up-coming annual meeting on the Island.
He also has an interesting piece on the Laura Cup meeting and again raises the plight of Steve Hogno who has to be the worst treated man in racing in Queensland still battling for justice after the Kooralbyn ‘fun day’ 14 years ago.
Here is his column:
ESSINGTON WILL ATTEMPT TO END TWO-YEAR DROUGHT IN MACKAY NEWMARKET
WHEN the Daryl Hansen-trained Essington lines up in Thursday’s Newmarket at Mackay it will be almost two years to the day since he had his last win.
That was the in the Listed Ascot Handicap at Eagle Farm, and as they say, much water has flowed under the bridge since then.
Essington had a change of trainer, went interstate and lost all the form that stamped him one of the best sprinters in Queensland with sights on the Melbourne spring carnival of 2011.
He went to Melbourne but the dreams were never realized. He lost all form – and it’s been a long painstaking road back under his former trainer – who is desperate for his one-time stable star to salute again.
The stars are lining up for that to eventuate on Thursday.
Essington’s most recent runs over the Rockhampton carnival where he twice chased home the unbeatable Our Boy Malarchi have been excellent. And the former Rocky Newmarket winner (2011) meets a much weaker field this time.
OVERALL FIELDS FOR MACKAY'S BIG DAY DISAPPOINTING – SOUTHERN STABLES NO LONGER COME
THE overall fields for Mackay, apart from the Newmarket that attracted 19 entries, are a trifle disappointing. The southern stables, which were in force at Rockhampton, failed to continue up the highway like they once did.
Crippling transport and accommodation costs have made it very difficult to travel these days and the comparatively smaller prize-money on offer in Mackay was obviously not tempting enough.
And, apart from the in- form Bill Kenning stable, there is not a single entry from Townsville.
There has been an urgent call for an overhaul of programming, particularly for carnival days in the north. Dates need to be seriously looked at.
Mackay trainers are facing a struggle to secure top jockeys for their Cup day on Saturday.
Grafton, racing on the same day claimed regular visitor Robert Thompson and while there were many Brisbane riders available for Newmarket day, they were required for the final meeting of the Winter Carnival, Queensland Cup day at Eagle Farm.
Mackay Cup day also clashes with the big V8 car race in Townsville, which in turn clashes with the Sunday meeting at Cluden.
Then there is Oak Park which will also put a strain on jockey availability.
One suggestion is that the northern carnival should begin at the end of the Brisbane carnival and continue up the coast until the Cairns Amateurs in mid-September. That might lure a few more visitors and alleviate the clashes.
TOWNSVILLE TRIALS THE FIRST OF FOUR SUNDAY MEETINGS THIS WEEKEND
THIS weekend Townsville will trial the first of four Sunday dates that the TTC has been allocated for the year. And it will be interesting to see how it fares against the V8s – and a day after the Mackay Cup.
The program features the time-honored Magnetic Mile, formerly the J S Love and considered a main lead-up to the Townsville Cup.
It is a gamble on whether it can attract the crowd and the fields, but the popular contention is that most people are ‘over it’ by Sunday.
The V8s that is – we’ll just have to wait and see.
But there has already been an impact. Air fares into Townsville this weekend have prohibited jockeys from the south flying in to ride.
QUEENSLANDERS TO OFFICIATE AS STEWARDS AT THE VANUATU CUP MEETING
QUEENSLAND’S Deputy Chief Steward, Daniel Aurisch and Heide Lester from the Victorian panel will officiate at the annual Vanuatu race meeting on July 16 which has been a major charity fund raiser for the needy of that country since 1986.
There are some great stories to be told about the Vanuatu race day and this year champion jockey Damien Oliver, who has been sidelined after his ‘betting misdemeanor,’ will be the special guest.
Australian race-callers and stewards, including the high profile John Schreck and Victoria’s Terry Bailey, have officiated at this meeting for years.
The club has no affiliation with any other racing body.
The horses, many bred by artificial insemination, are not registered and nor are their riders – all local stockmen.
This writer has absolutely no problem with senior officials taking a break from the ever-strict ritual of Australian racing to attend such an event. It is probably good for them – and certainly great for the organizers of the worthy once-a-year event.
VANUATU AND MACKAY ARE ‘FUN DAYS’ JUST LIKE THAT FATEFUL ONE AT KOORALBYN
VANUATU is a ‘fun day’ – similar to the one held on the beach at Mackay – which again raises a subject that ‘officialdom’ and Racing Queensland don’t want to talk about.
We are referring to the plight of Steve Hogno, who was disqualified for life by strewards in Queensland 14 years ago and lost everything ‘including a racehorse agistment farm’ simply because he took a registered quarter horse to a ‘Sports Day’ at Kooralbyn.
Steve and his partner Deb Lee are now broke, with a $400,000 demand from Racing Queensland which many believe, in the circumstances, should be written on. He might be fighting a losing battle in the courts to clear his name but Steve isn’t about to give up.
When the Queensland Government is prepared to financially support an event like the Beach Race Day at Mackay, where high profile jockey Corey Brown was the ambassador last year, it makes a mockery of the stand ‘officialdom’ and the ‘courts’ continue to take against Steve Hogno.
All he did wrong was attend a race meeting – a fun day just like that on the beach and Mackay and the one in Vanuatu. There is – and never has been – any other charge and in fact the rules under which he was charged back then have since been changed.
But does that make one iota of difference to the Racing Minister and Racing Queensland? Nosireee, they just continue to totally ignore his plea for help.
VANUATU HAS A COLORFUL HISTORY – FROM TOILET CRASHES TO DRUNK OFFICIALS
THE first meeting at Vanuatu was held in l986 and according to the Kiwanis Club archives is remembered as the day the toilet crashed.
Apparently the ablution block consisted of a trench dug into the ground and surrounded by an iron corrugated fence which, half way through the day, crashed ‘leaving a line of men exposing themselves to all and sundry.’
The following year Sam Barlow, a Queensland grazier donated young stallion Prince Colnic to the club “to breed some Vila racing champions.”
It was also the year, according to the archives that the entire committee “got blind drunk and the Australian stewards were landed with the task of judging as well.”
No doubt many of this year’s runners will be descendants of the Queensland stallion. They will walk to the course from cattle stations all over the Island, and some will contest two or even three races during the day.
But there are so many stories that make this race day so special, and unique. It is certainly Vanuatu’s Big Day Out on a paddock adjacent to the city’s abattoir, eight kilometres and 20,000 pot holes from downtown Vila.
The track has been carved out of scrub by tractor and plough, and this year surrounded by a sparkling white running rail donated by the Mooney Valley Race Club. It replaces the bamboo one that has been used for nearly 30 years.
The track just happens to be on the final approach to the busy Vila airport and horses and jockeys (in their stock saddles) have been known to part company as jets swoop over the track on their final approach.
But the game goes on.
Thousands of ladies decked out in their finest will cheer on their fancies on the eight race card – and their men will be knock back Kava and the local brew Nambawan (number 1) like there is no tomorrow.
And of course all the fun and will be conducted strictly by the rules….though you might well ask….
What rules?
EXTRA SUPPLIES OF 'BUNDY' BROUGHT IN AFTER DOOLAN WINS THE LAURA CUP
THEY had the biggest ever Cup day at Laura last Saturday.
No one knows the exact crowd figure but according to one Cairns-based regular for decades: “It was the biggest I have seen at a race meeting in North Queensland.”
The bloke should know too. He is Cannon Park trainer George Doolan, a native of the Lakeland region, who has been going to Laura races since he was in shorts.
Doolan won his second Laura Cup on Saturday too, with a Canberra reject named Hittamahottamus, which George is hoping can do what Varmint did after he won the Laura Cup. That is to go on and win the Cairns Cup next month.
They reckon the place was almost out of rum after the Doolan charge with the unlikely name cantered home in the Cup and such a calamity was avoided when fresh reserves of Bundy arrived in the nick of time.
There is an interesting sidelight to the Hittamahottamus-Varmint connection.
Varmint didn’t actually win the Cairns Cup that year. He was ‘presented’ with it after a protest by the second horse was thrown out.
Believe me, it was a cameo performance by George, the former police prosecutor (pre Fitzgerald era) in front of a mainly hometown stewards’ panel.
The decision however dumbfounded most and prompted one of the panel to shake the hand of the trainer of the runner-up and say: “Sorry, I had nothing to do with that.”
And George knows your scribe has been waiting 15 years to get that on paper.
‘On ya George!
COLUMN COURTESY OF TERRY BUTTS AND THE NORTH QUEENSLAND REGISTER, one of Australia's leading rural newspapers.
TERRY BUTTS can be contacted by e-mailing: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
