THE successful MYRACEHORSE Syndication Group have thousands of owners, many with an interest in topline mare APOCALYPTIC and it seems some of those were far from happy with the ride of TOMMY BERRY on the Group 1 winner at her comeback in Saturday’s Toy Show Quality at Randwick.
Berry arguably gave Apocalyptic next to no chance when she came from near last to finish third – less than a length behind the in-form Prima Bella, especially considering the sectional times she would have needed to run to win.
In his post-race report trainer Michael Freedman was keener to focus on the positive that Apocalyptic had put behind her plain performances in the Autumn. He did admit she got too far back on Saturday, highlighting that the final 600m was run by the winner in 33 seconds.
Admittedly this was an 1100m race, over which Apocalyptic had run second at the track and distance before. When she won the G1 Flight and ran 2nd in the 1000 Guineas she settled 2nd and led, albeit both were over the mile.
Freedman told the ‘army’ of owners that he thought she would win being the best horse in the race. Berry on the other hand did not join Freedman or the owners present in the enclosure at Randwick but was collared escaping to the jockeys’ room.
Here are the thoughts of a few owners of Apocalyptic as expressed to LGHR:
‘Tommy’ explanation of his ride was shocking. He clearly got it wrong in the early stages when he took hold of her, getting back to second last some two and a half lengths behind the third last horse and then taking off prior to the corner giving away up to nine lengths to the eventual winner and second horse. Our horse tried her heart out and thankfully has pulled up well.’
And from another: ‘Myracehorse has brought many people into the industry as owners. However, as some of us know, unless you have a good number of shares in these horses you will not make much out of the prizemoney. Therefore the punt is relied upon. This is not the first time Berry has ridden shockers for us and coincidentally (not suggesting anything untoward) they always seem to be on favorites. I’ll say no more as my pocket was very light after the run.”
And finally: “There have already been calls for Berry’s replacement on social media sights. Don’t expect the same from his mates in the mainstream Sydney media who were too busy declaring his win on Boniface the ride of the day. Respected form analyst Paul Joice is the manager of Tommy Berry. One wonders what he thought of the Apocalyptic ride.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: BERRY told Stewards that he had intended to settle three pairs back near midfield. However, Apocalyptic shifted out and made contact with Savvy Hallie on jumping and consequently lost ground. He said that he was then reluctant to ride the mare forward as he did not want her to over-race and with a solid tempo being set in the early stages Apocalyptic settled towards the rear of the field.
STEWARDS WEAK-KNEED WHEN IT COMES TO WALLER TREATING PUNTERS LIKE MUGS
THE shenanigans that occurred involving the Team Waller scratchings at deadline time for the Winx Stakes on Saturday was unacceptable and arguably treated punters and form students like dills.
Those who did the form expected there to be sufficient speed in the race to give Sheeza Alibi a competitive chance despite the fact that Autumn Glow was better suited over the 1400m trip. The withdrawal of the favorite’s stablemate Beiwacht took that speed out of the race.
After Rawiller let the cat out of the bag in a radio interview, Waller was fined the massive sum of $500 for failing to declare him as the rider of Aeliana by the prescribed time. Stewards said, in determining penalty, they were mindful that the race was of Group 1 status.
Their handling of this whole deadline scratching schemozzle has only added fuel to the fire for those who claim the champion trainer is a ‘protected species’ in Sydney racing. Sure he trains a lot of winners and his stable provides the numbers to ensure that some meetings are even less of an embarrassment but why should Waller be treated any differently to any other trainer?
From a form perspective, LGHR worked on the basis that with Beiwacht setting a strong pace, Sheeza Alibi would make a race of it. Once the speed went out of the race Autumn Glow should have been 10’s on.
The one positive is that without the presence of Sheeza Alibi another Sydney Group race would have been an embarrassment with Waller gang tackling it. Don’t forget he had half the field in the Winx when original acceptances were taken.
As one respected form analyst reported in his tipping service to clients throughout the country: ‘By my own rules, I’m supposed to preview every Group 1 race in my reports. But I decided that previewing the Group 1 Winx Stakes (today) from Randwick would be total stupidity, as in my opinion, no humanoid could possible have a clue what might happen, as 13 of the 14 acceptors (92.86%) resume, whilst Waller has eight of the 14 acceptors or 57.14% of the entire field. I reckon Waller is already severely financially damaging to punters, let alone when his stable has eight runners in the one race, and all eight are first-up.’
SPOT ON!
FOLLOW-UP OF RACE PROGRAMMING INTEGRITY ISSUES IN VICTORIA
SYDNEY contributor PETER MAIR follows up on his questions regarding race programming integrity in VICTORIA:
LAST Saturday endorsed the ‘fair’ rating of racing at the Sandown track.
Issues raised were resolved when the scratching of one third of the acceptors for the eight Quadrella races left the average field size at about eight.
Betting turnover on 17 runners, rewarded for starting at 20/1 or more, would not have generated a ‘tax take’ likely to recover much of the cost to RVL.
Whatever, RVL’s policy to inflate fields has problems — ‘big fields’ accepted on Wednesdays is partly corrected by the scratching of runners drawn wide by Saturday.
Next Sunday will be about the racing at Caulfield on Saturday 29th — running four races over 1400m and one over 2000m will, et al, test the sense of inflating acceptors on the Wednesday.
