Did you know that three jumps races were run at Bendigo on Wednesday, and for $60,000 in prizemoney they attracted $166,043 in betting revenue. The fourth race, a pissy 0-68 Handicap attracted more than those three jumps races added together!
Holy you-know-what! Yep, the thirteen starters in a crappy 0-68 race brought in $246,337…..and the following race added a further $239,438….and the trend continued thereafter.
Betting Investment: Bendigo 29th May 2013
Total: Win, Place, Quinella, First-Four, Exacta, Trifecta
(Quadrella shown extra) Source Vic-TAB
Betting investment on three jumps race $166,043 Average $55,347
Total betting investment on five flat races $1,370,828…..Average $274,165 that’s five times as much for the flat races! (plus a quaddie of nearly $350,000)
Are racing administrators total dopes? We’re beginning to wonder if Major Bloodnock, and Nuffy can read the tune? Look at this:
One more thing: we saw this in the Stewards’ Report today: “At the first steeple in the straight on the first occasion Via Savoia and Show Dancer jumped awkwardly…….At the first steeple in the straight on the first occasion McLoaded jumped awkwardly and fell……..At the third steeple in the back straight Futonic…….. At the last steeple in the back straight Show Dancer jumped awkwardly ……… At the second last steeple Via Savoia jumped awkwardly….. At the last steeple End of Time jumped awkwardly…..”
Where did all these ‘steeples’ come from? We thought a steeplechase was so-named because it was originally a horse-race between the various church-steeples in English towns…..and that the horses, or ‘steeple’- chasers, jumped ‘fences’. Hurdlers may jump hurdles, but we suggest that Bendigo may be the only place in the world where steeplechasers jump ‘steeples’. We think steeplechasers jump fences, but then what would we know?
But then we think flat racing is subsidizing these novelty races…..what would we know indeed?
Folks, we’re not laughing with you – we’re laughing at you!
Jumps Racing – The Good, The Bad, and The Fugly.
What a big weekend in jumps racing! A jumps race in South Australia with one of our hometown heroes winning. We wuz wrong! Two races at Casterton, a few croppers, but everyone’s happy…….except the TAB.
The flat races subsidise jumping again.
First…….Saturday, in the City of Churches. Jeez, this was funny. Stoneblack must have been given starting practice during the week, for when he flew from the gates we thought he must have believed it was the Goodwood Handicap, not a jumps race. Starting at $1.60 he finished 8th of the ten starters, and 8th of the eight finishers…..that means stone-motherless-last…..31 lengths from the winner. This time the Victorians only took home 2nd and 3rd prizemoney, and we doubt that paid for the trip. They’ll be more circumspect about coming here now they know we have a new champ. Just wait to Roll on Bert gets back into full gear.
Anyway, Tiger Won’t Tell (probably a relation to Tiger Won’t Win) pulled out of the race and was found to be lame (but he still loves it!). Rabbuka had a minor laceration, but he still loves it too. We still remember that awful fall he had at Oakbank a couple of years ago. Hell, he really enjoyed that!
We suggested the money would all go to Victoria. We repeat: We wuz wrong! Here we were thinking that Stoneblack could carry Dumosa and still win. How wrong can you be? Still, it once again proves that we don’t know what we’re talking about. Sadly, the punters share our condition….they don’t know either, but that’s nothing – the race organizers need examining also for running these crappy races. Still, in Adelaide they gave the second lowest prizemoney to the jumps race……at least someone, somewhere is waking up to this
Then came Sunday….what a day!
This is an enigmatic meeting: we had three jumps races in 2010 when they reduced the prizemoney for the Casterton Cup to an amount equal to the steeplechase. In 2010 the 22 jumps horses had three events worth $55,000 to run for. This year the 16 starters had two events worth $50,000 in prizemoney: see, jumps racing just continues to grow! LoL.
First the hurdle. Eleven starters and seven finishers….heck, that would please the punters……nevertheless the favourite won. Stewards reported, “Shortly after jumping the seventh hurdle Wacheem knuckled. As a result of this Da Pump and Sanctuary which were following were also brought down. A subsequent veterinary examination of Da Pump, Sanctuary and Wacheem revealed that Da Pump had a slight laceration to its off hind leg and Sanctuary and Wacheem had no abnormalities.” Wow. We saw the chaos and it looked to us a whole lot more serious than that….but what would we know? Anyway, we’d appreciate your help in deciphering the following remark from the Stewards: “In the straight Success Dostta hung in under pressure and as a result in the concluding stages was placed thirteen in restricted racing room.” Please interpret!
Then came the steeplechase: Five horses line up for the most prizemoney paid that day – more than the Casterton Cup! Which genius comes up with this plan? Still, it is down in Naf Naf country. And poor old Mephistopheles……poor bastard! Last time we saw him was at Warrnambool when his shoulder bled from a deep wound he suffered when he struck a pipe after falling in the Grand Annual – hell, that was in 2010! Seven weeks later he Failed-to-Finish in a hurdle at Morphettville – and that was it for 137 weeks – which is more than two years! This year he’s back in full action – 4th (of 5) in a pissy $12,000 steeplechase at Mt Gambier – only 16 lengths from the winner, and then a lost rider when ‘knuckling’ at Casterton. How about pulling the plug owners?
Betting Investment: Casterton 26th May 2013
Total: Win, Place, Quinella, First-Four, Exacta, Trifecta
(Quadrella shown extra) Source Vic-TAB
Betting investment on two jumps race $114,951 Average $57,475
Total betting investment on six flat races $791,480…..Average $131,913 that’s 129% more per race! (plus a quaddie of nearly $138,709)
Wowee! We think we’re looking at the whackiest racket going on in sport anywhere in Australia. Consider the following:
Who in their right mind would sustain the necessity for jumps racing? It is bleeding the industry of funds that should be going to the wider training populace.
Hell, isn’t someone going to own up to this mess?
Coming Up: Banna Strand and Grand Ducal…..additional, interesting stories about horses that love jumps racing.
Jumps racing – Excuse us, but this just gets funnier (Part 2, or is it Part 3? 4?….it’s all the same anyway!)
Did you know that jumps racing is back on track? Really! But at least racing journalist Matt Stewart has a dose of reality about him. He witnessed the three jumps races at Sandown on Wednesday – costing $220,000 in prizemoney – with the final of the three races conducted before noon. Something to be proud of, huh? Matt reported
But jumps fields are still small, interest improving but many are cautious – and still not betting. The next mishap is always lurking because that’s simply the nature of the beast. Best stay off Broadway for a while, just in case.
Matt Stewart
Early Jump Start at Sandown Herald Sun May 21st 2013
What could he mean ‘not betting’? Surely the punters would bet on races of this level and quality? Well, no……one announcer at the course suggested that if ever they do this again they’ll have a ‘sleep-over’. Gawd, it’s funny, isn’t it!
Now for the betting…..this is beyond funny….this is bloody hilarious – or tragic. It depends on which camp you’re in!
Betting Investment: Sandown 22nd May 2013
Total: Win, Place, Quinella, First-Four, Exacta, Trifecta
(Quadrella shown extra) Source VicTAB
Let’s get this right!…. a pissy 0-72 $35,000 event run at noon attracts more betting investment than three jumps races paying $220,000 in prizemoney. Now we didn’t even have to do any betting analysis, because we found the following site that did it for us:
We have no idea who these good people are, but unlike the racing industry in general they seem to have already worked out that the flat-racing people are subsidising jumps racing. Smart stuff! Take a look at this:
Secondly, jumps racing provides an alternative for horses that are too slow to compete on the flat; a point not without merit, but it is a bit like paying retired AFL players to play in a seniors league.
Finally, it provides a living for jumps jockeys, and to a lesser degree jumps trainers. Again there is more than a hint of truth in this point, but then you need to ask what is Racing Victoria’s key remit: running a profitable sport, or acting as a type of welfare agency for some of the marginalised industry participants?
It would be remiss not to mention that yesterday’s meeting had a very non-punter friendly start time of 10:05am, and this would have undoubtedly affected turnover to some degree. Jumps defenders will also point out the presence of three short-priced favourites in these races, but this is not an anomaly for current-day jumps racing; rather a result of the lack of depth we see nowadays.
(passages market bold/italics are our emphasis)
http://www.backpagelead.com.au/horse-racing/9526-jumps-racing-falls-flat-with-punters
Now we couldn’t have summed it up better: first the analogy with retired AFL players is a cracker…….a nice idea, but who’s going to invest money in it? Probably RVL would….they seem to love novelty events, coz that’s what jumps racing is.
Secondly, a living for jumps trainers?…..LoL. The winning trainers yesterday were Peter Moody and Robert Smerdon….they’re hardly battling trainers!
Thirdly, the short-priced favourites are easily explained. Macedonian is a high class horse that has won $480,000 in a flat career – he’d even won the Lavazza Long Black handicap ($100,000) on Melbourne Cup day 2010 and the 3200m ($125,000) Sandown Cup eight days later.
Then there’s Black and Bent. A field of six, one of them a horse going for ten straight victories – yet carrying just 69kg and giving five kilograms to Love Or Gold, a horse that had experienced just one pissy $20,000 hurdle (which he won). Hell, we might as well run these events as weight-for-age. Would you run your horse against Black and Bent? We’re not expecting large fields in anything he contests. He won the Galleywood last year with 68kg, and gave only 3.5 or 4kg to the others. Before that he won a Sandown hurdle with 70kg, giving only 3.5 or 4kg to the three others. See where we’re going here? Understand now why they have small fields?
Well, luckily the amateurish first hurdle race won by Macedonian had nine starters – and even then three of those couldn’t finish. When a third of your field doesn’t finish you can’t blame the punters for lacking any desire to invest their money.
And then came the steeplechase, and two of our favourite horses Show Dancer and End of Time were at work – again at the wrong end of the field. We don’t think these two aren’t good enough to be in this type of race, but what would we know? End of Time is a lucky boy: he fell during the $250,000 Grand Annual on May 2nd, then finished 2nd in a pissy $12,000 steeplechase at Mt Gambier on May 17th, then came to Sandown to finish 13 lengths back in second-last place in yesterday’s steeplechase. We note he’s scheduled to run in a steeplechase at Casterton on the 26th, and again at Bendigo on the 29th. Busy boy. Just as well he loves it.
Oh, one last thing: we note that two riders in the six-horse steeplechase were fined for excessive use of the whip. Still these horses are owned by people who really love them – they’re just lucky to be in jumps racing – they just don’t realise how lucky they are. Obviously their owners will sack the jockeys who inflicted the extra pain on these loved horses….won’t they? We watch with interest, but won’t hold our breath.
Horses to watch: First, Reckless Rat: This cunning fellow finished stone-motherless in a trial at Warrnambool on Friday. Don’t be fooled by this critter. Ratty is warming up for the big ones. A champion won’t be denied!
Second, Hempstead: we notice that after three unlucky runs in maiden hurdles he’s already ‘looking for the bigger fences’. Today he had a steeple trial at Warrnambool. On 30th April he failed-to-finish in a numbnut hurdle at Warrnambool then twelve days later came in 5th of 12 at Ballarat but only 1.5 lengths from the winner. However he did beat the cream of our new hurdlers, including Must Have, Encosta Rica, Da Pump, Dorndale …..need we go on? Then on Wednesday (22/5) he finished 5th in another numbnut hurdle (well, Macedonian was so far in front we thought he was in a different race) only 53 lengths from the winner. Actually, 5th sounds pretty good. But then only six horses finished, and the horse behind Hempstead was 68 lengths from the winner. The owners are onto something here. Don’t say you weren’t warned….. This bloke is even better than Paddywax!
A Saturday hurdle in Adelaide at last…..and 40% of the field are locals. Wow! Jumps racing thrives in Adelaide. We’ll watch where the prizemoney goes.
We’ll let you know (or can you guess?)
Jumps racing: much-loved horses just getting a fair crack of the whip!
Oh Gawd….this gets funnier and funnier!
Matt Stewart wrote in Melbourne’s Herald Sun during the week about the problems Jumps Racing will face in getting this ‘sport’ back onto city tracks. He talked about field sizes, betting revenue etc….the usual stuff. At least Stewart is a realist, and that’s why he’s already out of contention for this year’s AJRA Media Award. He’s not writing puff-pieces these days.
On Sunday we have three jumps races on the one program at Mornington, one of three tracks operated by the MRC (the other two being Caulfield and Sandown). Those three jumps races will be run as Races 1, 2 and 3. Well, that’s not unusual, you might say. But consider this: The first race in a piddly hurdle of $20,000 run at 11.15am. Fair enough, and nominations are good. The second race is a $100,000 hurdle run at 11.50……and nominations are poor….and that’s not ‘fair enough’. We obviously don’t understand a lot, coz we can’t remember the last time a $100,000 race was run before noon?
Well, you see they’ve got to keep it away from the punters, coz they don’t want to bet on this crap. Stand in any TAB as we do, or go to the course and listen as a favoured-horse hits a jump….or loses a rider..….or falls..…or is pulled out of a race. The reaction is immediate, and predictable. So on Sunday the first three races will distribute $220,000 prior to 12.40. After that the six flat races will offer prizemoney of $130,000 and provide most of the betting (including the quadrella). We can’t wait to do the analysis, and we say it again, flat racing is demonstrably subsidizing jumps racing……it’s a complete farce.
Oh, one more thing: here’s the field sizes and prizemoney comparison as of Friday:
So, we ask again: where are all these jumps horses we keep hearing about? Two $100,000 events draw six and seven acceptances….and that’s as of Friday. How many will it be come Sunday?
The raceday is being promoted as providing ‘Free Family Entertainment’ – that includes face-painting, pony rides, balloon modeling, and the famous Jurassic Combo. The only thing Jurassic is the jumps racing. It comes from the ancient past, and firmly belongs there. Most of the rest of the world has grown up and no longer feels it necessary to put animals through these brutalizing races for ‘fun’. But hell, let’s face it, the kiddies won’t get there until 12.30 or later, so they’ll miss seeing anything go wrong in the jumps races – but then again, so will the punters. Nice: Pure genius!
Poor Pentiffic makes a goose of himself – again.
You probably haven’t read much about Pentiffic lately. Even the local racing journalists have stopped their pathetic crap about him ‘jumping out of his skin’. At his latest start in the UK, our champ finished 7th of 8 starters in a pissy steeplechase at Kempton, with a winner’s cheque of 6,330 pounds, a long way short of the $129,563 he took home when he won our Grand National in 2009.
Hang on a minute! We just realised – he finished seventh because one horse fell. That means he finished stone-motherless-last…..but then he was only 35 lengths from the winner! Hell, we take it all back – he’s obviously on fire!
This now means he’s had nine starts for the season, winning a crappy 7-horse affair in January, with his other results being 7th (33 lengths behind the winner), 7th, (38 lengths adrift), 12th (65 lengths), 6th (15 lengths), 5th (36 lengths), Pulled Up (twice), 7th, (35 lengths). Hell, you have to admire his consistency!
Let’s face it: it’s nearly as interesting as watching Singo, Tommy and his Mummy in their Sydney capers…. (to be continued)….
Congratulations are in order……
Well done Warrnambool – for the second year running you didn’t kill a horse. Terrific.
And Banna Strand won the Grand Annual. He won his owners $159,250. To win this his jockey struck the horse so many times the Stewards fined his jockey for ‘excessive use of the whip’. How much? Well $500. Sheesh, that’s a lot of money isn’t? That’ll teach him.
And as for the fall of End of Time, who cares? We didn’t think he should even have been in that race. The poor bugger just isn’t good enough, as you’ll see below:
Here he is again, crashed, but enjoying himself anyway! He’s won three pissy events from 21 jumps starts, including a four-horse hurdle at Gawler and a six-horse steeplechase at Coleraine. This fits him for a Grand Annual over 5500m? We don’t think so, but then what would we know?
Anyway, here’s the betting analysis as we see it for days 2 and 3 of the carnival. Nothing much changes – the flat races still pay for the jumps.
Betting Investment: Warrnambool Carnival Day 2 May 1st 2013
(Win/Place/Quinella/First 4/Exacta/Trifecta) Source: Vic TAB
The Quadrella attracted a whacking $559,606 on races 6-9 (conveniently, all flat races).
Aggregate betting on the only jumps races $183,176
Aggregate betting investment on 8 flat races $2,677,948 Average $334,743 (that’s 83% more!)
Here’s a comparative-worth evaluation
The only jumps race, placed as race 5, returned the lowest betting on the day.
Betting Investment: Warrnambool Carnival Day 3, 2nd May 2013
(Win/Place/Quinella/First 4/Exacta/Trifecta) Source: Vic TAB
The Quadrella attracted $765,578 on races 7-10 (conveniently, all flat races).
Aggregate betting on 2 jumps races $414,578 Average $207,289
Aggregate betting investment on 8 flat races $3,303,907 Average $412,988 (that’s 99.2% more!)
Here’s our comparative-worth evaluation:
How’s this for a return on the betting dollar: The Brierly $2.29, The Galleywood $1.83, The Grand Annual $1.27. The major flat races: The Wangoon $4.30, The Cup $3.78. Bit of a difference!
The Quaddies? - All free of any jumps races! Fancy that during a jumps carnival.
One more thing – Reckless Rat. We’re somewhat saddened to report that poor Ratty didn’t do well. He contested the Hammonds Paint 0-120 Hurdle Thursday and ran fifth of six runners. Well, perhaps that’s not exactly right – one horse didn’t finish, so Ratty actually finished stone-motherless-last. Remember, Ratty had been entered for the Brierly, Galleywood, the Grand Annual and the Hammonds Paints 0-120 Pissy Hurdle. He was robbed of a start in the big races, but finally got his chance in a minor hurdle and finished last.
Can you see the difficulty we have with fathoming jumps races? We try hard. Hell, do we try. However we believe poor Ratty wasn’t up to the job, something we’d sort-of worked out prior to the carnival.
We could only think of the golden words jumps trainer John Wheeler: “these horses are brave, the riders are brave – and the trainers are crazy” (Ron Reed. He’s top Banana. Herald Sun May 3 2013)
Interesting to note that 125 horses raced on Wednesday (10 races) but only 107 yesterday (10 races).
Jumps racing. You gotta love it coz the horses do.
Here we go again, the ‘big jumps carnival at Warrnambool’ as the announcer introduced it on the television news last night. Their carnival has 29 races of which 23 will be flat races. Jumps races will comprise 20% of the racing – that’s not exactly a jumps carnival, is it?
Here’s Tuesday’s results:
Betting Investment: Warrnambool Carnival Day 1 30th April 2013
(Win/Place/Quinella/First 4/Exacta/Trifecta) Source: Vic TAB
The Quadrella attracted $473,930 on races 7-10 (conveniently, all flat races).
Aggregate betting on 3 jumps races $473,842 Average $157,949
Aggregate betting investment on 7 flat races $1,961,432 Average $280,204 (that’s 77% more!)
Here’s a comparative-worth evaluation:
Flat Racing subsidises Jumps Racing. If the Quadrella was added to flat-racing investments the situation would be even worse.
Anyway…… We hate to flog a good thing, but our mate Ratty (Reckless Rat) was poised for glory over the next few days but has now been denied his place in history. When we last looked, this survivor of a total of four jumps races was in nearly every jumps event during the carnival: the Brierly on Tuesday, the Galleywood on Wednesday, and the hurdle and Grand Annual on the Thursday. Now we find that he was an unwanted emergency in the Brierly Steeplechase (he’d have flogged Cats Fun!), has been scratched from the Galleywood, where he would have taken on the best hurdlers and probably flogged ‘em. But alas, he’s still nominated for the 0-120 Hurdle on Thursday. What, didn’t they think he could win the Grand Annual? Pessimists! That’s what they are. The horse was poised to make a clean sweep of the jumps events and now he’s been robbed of that opportunity. Poor form, chaps.
Hissing Sid. Well, where is he?
One of the horses we take great interest in is Hissing Sid. His name isn’t as silly as that of Reckless Rat, Rusky Ya Ya, or Roll on Bert, but it’s not far removed. May they never line up in the same race!
However we have reason to be curious regarding Sidney’s absence at Warrni this year. Read on and you’ll see what we mean:
Hissing Sid a hurdle winner
Hissing Sid made an overdue return to the winner’s stall with which is so familiar when he scored an emphatic win in today’s $20,000 Callaghan Motors Maiden Hurdle at Warrnambool.
(14th August 2012)
The Bill and Symon Wilde-trained gelding careered to his first win since completing back-to-back Warrnambool Cups in May 2010 when he strolled to an effortless win in the 3218-metre event.
“He might have one more run and then we’ll probably put him away and then focus on May next year.”
Nice. One more run then focus on May next year. OK, so after the ‘one-more-run’ we read
Wilde star Hissing Sid eyes Galleywood Hurdle after another win
Adrian Dunn – Herald Sun 30th August 2012
BILL and Symon Wilde have won more races than they care to remember on their home Warrnambool track. Numbered among those wins are two Warrnambool Cups with Hissing Sid, who may provide the father-son team with a piece of history in next May’s three-day carnival.
Hissing Sid, a comfortable winner of yesterday’s 3300m Carnival Tickets Hurdle at Sandown, will be aimed towards the Galleywood Hurdle.
And, as Symon Wilde said, if Hissing Sid wins the Galleywood, he would have won races at four Warrnambool carnivals. The horse won on debut in a maiden in 2008, then won the Warrnambool Cup in 2009 and 2010.
The eight-year-old has relished the switch from the flat to hurdles, with yesterday’s success his second from three starts.
Note that he’s ‘relished the switched from flat to hurdles’. Well, they do, don’t they? They just love it. We can think of a whole range of horses that said that. So then we read the following on the trainer’s site:
Now for Warrnambool carnival after Sid’s city win
Local hero Hissing Sid showed he would be a force at the 2013 Warrnambool carnival with his dominant win on unsuitable ground at Sandown. (29th August 2012)
Hissing Sid captured the Warrnambool Cup in 2009 and 2010 but will tackle the Galleywood Hurdle next May after taking his jumps record to two wins from three attempts in the Carnival Early Bird Tickets On Sale Hurdle (3300m).
OK, so the 2013 Warrnambool carnival is now, isn’t it? So where is he?
The horse loves it yet he hasn’t been seen for nearly nine months? Not fair.
On the way to Warrni?
Titch has won $841,344, and we think that makes him a pretty good horse. That amount includes $119,788 he’s won from six jumps starts – including the $100,000 Houlahan Hurdle in 2010 – and $456,135 he collected when he won the Auckland Cup in March 2011.
He’s been to the track on seven occasions so far in 2013. Six visits were for flat races, and include the prestigious Terang Cup which he won on February 3rd from the eloquently named Lordoftheparrots and Hurdy Gurdy Man (Future rivals for Reckless Rat and Roll on Bert for the stupid names contest).
Seventeen days after his breathtaking win at Terang he fronted for a hurdle trial at Warrnambool where he finished four lengths in front of Gotta Take Care and the future champions, Paddywax, Flakey Dove (there’s another stupid name) and Pedinbe. We suspected he might have been aiming to be part of the forthcoming Warrnambool carnival. It wasn’t to be.
Titch had a date in Adelaide: First he contested a 2600m Group 3 event at Morphettville on March 3rd, and finished third, a pretty good effort when you learn that the vet reported him to be lame in the off-hind after the event.
No Matter. Eight days later he was sent out for the Adelaide Cup of 3200m, and this time he really distinguished himself by finishing twelfth of twenty starters….(hell, he must have been going slower than RVL’s website!) …..but hey, listen to this from the Stewards’ Report:
L. Meech, the rider of TITCH (NZ), explained the gelding was disappointing and may have come to the end of its preparation. TITCH (NZ) was examined by the Club’s Veterinary Surgeon who reported the gelding to be lame in the near foreleg and off hind leg and a higher than expected heart rate. First Aid was administered. Mr. K. Myers, the Trainer of TITCH (NZ), was advised a Veterinary Certificate of Fitness would be required prior to presenting for a future trial or race.
“Come to the end of its preparation”? We have a different suggestion. Maybe the horse was lame? It was lame eight days before the Adelaide Cup, and lame immediately afterwards. Still, what would we know?
We love jumps racing, and the horses love it almost as much as we do!
And load up on Ratty on Thursday.
Oh, you just can’t help bad luck!
Well, strike-me-lucky, poor bloody Pentiffic went to the races again a few days ago in the UK – in the Coral Scottish Grand National Chase, an important event with a first prize just over 100,000 pounds.
That’s big money for our boy….but don’t worry, he was up to the job He was carrying 10-5, and at least seven of the twenty-four starter carried less weight than our lad. Not fair, especially given our champ’s pissy performances to date. However, it can be claimed that he is running with consistency. That’s twice in thirteen days that our champ has pulled up. Can’t be more consistent than that!
He was running with the leader to the 7th jump, and hopes would have been high. But then he weakened at the 19th jump, and pulled up with five to go. Bugger! And he’d started at 50/1, one of only two horses at the wrong end of the odds – even the people in the UK have worked out that poor old Penny’s crap.
Now here’s the rub: Aurora’s Encore, winner of the English Grand National on April 6th was also in the event. The difference was that he now had to carry some extra weight – an extra eleven pounds, and it seems he might have noticed the difference. The race report says that he was positioned towards the rear of the field, blundered the 7th fence, weakened seven from home and duly pulled up. Shucks, but we tell you he wasn’t a great horse. Still, he’s won a National….but then so did Pentiffic (in Australia).
Ratpower.
You must know that Reckless Rat, (along with Roll on Bert) is one of our favourites. We noticed this (see: http://www.standard.net.au/story/1449456/inside-racing-april-23/?cs=75)
First-season jumper Reckless Rat is destined for a successful career over the jumps, according to his trainer Symon Wilde. Reckless Rat ran third behind Petushki and Lord Of The Song in a steeplechase trial over 2400 metres at Warrnambool last Friday after being unplaced in the Eulong Steeplechase at Hamilton the previous Sunday. “I’ve got a very good rap on Reckless Rat,” Wilde said. “He’s done a good job for a first season jumper.
“We’ll probably send him around in the Brierly Steeplechase on the first day of Warrnambool. “If we don’t go down that path we may run him in the restricted hurdle on the last day. “We’ve done a lot of schooling with him. I reckon with this year under his belt he’ll come back a better jumper next year. “He might be our Warrnambool Grand Annual Steeplechase horse for next year.” Reckless Rat has won one of his four jumps starts. He also has two minor placings over jumps to his credit.
Well, you already know how highly we regard Ratty. Top Class, we say. However we’ve heard all this stuff before. Let’s look at this animal and see why he’s nominated not for two, but four events during the Boolshit carnival.
Ratty at work – he loves it so much they’ve entered him for nearly everything at the Warrnamboolshit Carnival. After the Bool he’s to be set for the Melbourne Cup, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, and then the Tour de France. He’s up to it. Then he can go to England and take over from Pentiffic. The world’s his oyster, but we believe he’s lucky that Roll on Bert isn’t at the Bool. Anybody know where Bertie Beetle is? Haven’t seen or heard of him lately.
Ratty is a five-year-old. He’s contested four jumps races for one win in a maiden hurdle, and two second placings. In his second hurdle race he ran second to King Triton, just seven lengths away. Then he ran second to Jungle Fighter when only 1.3 lengths adrift, with King Triton in third placing. It was obvious then that the horse ‘was looking for the bigger fences’. He’d actually completed a steeple trial between his two mercurial second placings, so it was no surprise to see him do so well at Hamilton at his first steeplechase start….when he finished 9th, only ten lengths from the winner after he stuffed-up two fences.
You might be interested to learn that this new jumps horse is nominated for the following
Tuesday: Brierley Steeplechase $3,450m $100,000
Wednesday: Galleywood Hurdle 3300m $100,000
Thursday: Hammonds Paints 0-120 Hurdle $20,000 and/or
Thursday: Wheelie-Waster Grand Annual Steeplechase 5500m $250,000
Then we remembered reading this after his Hamilton Steeplechase:
(Reckless Rat) made a faulty jump at the third obstacle and knuckled on landing. Jumped the second last obstacle awkwardly and knuckled on landing.
Source: http://www.racingvictoria.net.au/asset/cms/Jumps/20130414_Hamilton.pdf
Unlucky Lurch
Ratty’s race at Hamilton was the same event in which Stewards finally worked out that Lucky Lurch couldn’t continue racing….and bear in mind this fella had finished 4th in the Grand Annual last season. He jumped three Hamilton fences ‘awkwardly’ and then fell at the last fence. Poor bastard.
Twenty-two jumps races yielded just two wins – he’d won a Warrnambool Steeplechase on 15th September 2009, followed by a Coleraine Steeplechase on 10th October – the Great Western Steeplechase of $60,000. Just look at the field he defeated that day: Wheel The Lead (a good horse) Royal Laddie, Infusion, Tainui Teina, Believe in Victory, Bugatti Royal (who we seem to remember being killed) and the giant, Track Wiz. Wow, what a field…..and they gave $60,000 for that?
From then on things got worse: he finished second in a hurdle to his champion stablemate, Mybigfatgreekhorse, and then failed-to-finish at his next race. He bled that day.
At Oakbank early next year, 2011, he finished 10th in the Von Doussa, only 20 lengths from the winner. His only other jumps race that year was a hurdle where he was eased out of the race and found to be lame in a hind leg.
In 2012 he resumed in a Sandown steeplechase and finished last of five, just 9 lengths from the winner. Then he finished 9th of twelve in the Brierly at Warrnambool and two days later 4th in the Grand Annual on a Heavy 8 track. He didn’t beat much home, but it was a gallant performance by a very ordinary horse. His jockey was fined just $200 for excessive use of the whip.
Seventeen days later he was sent out for a $100,000 Mornington steeplechase and fell at the fourth fence. He was referred to the Jumps Review Panel before being sent out 22 days later in a pissy $15,000 affair at Murray Bridge. He was eased out of the event and failed to finish. Just 9 days later he appeared again at Sandown, and again failed to finish. Once more the Stewards commented:
At the first obstacle on the hill Lucky Lurch shifted in abruptly and hampered End Of Time.
Lucky Lurch had a tendency to shift in abruptly approaching the obstacles.
Lucky Lurch was eased out of the event and did not jump the final obstacle. Lucky Lurch will be referred to the Jumps Review Panel.
Then came his first jumps race in 2013, and he duly fell in a Hamilton Steeplechase.
Lucky Lurch jumped the fifth fence awkwardly and as a result Lucky Lurch’s rider became unbalanced.
Lucky Lurch raced wide without cover throughout the race.
Lucky Lurch jumped the second last fence awkwardly and knuckled on landing.
Lucky Lurch jumped the last fence awkwardly, knuckled on landing and fell. Lucky Lurch will be referred to the Jumps Review Panel for assessment. Stewards questioned into the reasons why he did not ease Lucky Lurch out of the race after making a faulty jump at the second last fence and out of contention. J Lynch explained that after jumping the second last awkwardly both he and the horse became unbalanced. By the time he was able to balance his mount up he was unable to safely manoeuvre Lucky Lurch around the last fence. J Lynch further explained that he was also aware of Awakening Dream racing to his outside and was of the belief he would have hampered that horse.
Bled in one race, lame after another, excessively whipped in the Annual, and thereafter unable to finish a race, with four final starts recording ‘fell’, ‘failed-to-finish’, ‘failed-to-finish’ and ‘fell’.
What kept him going? He loved it, he really loved it. A bleeding attack? ‘Love it! Falling? “Love it’.
How much enjoyment should one horse expect?
No Warrnambool jumpers for Tommy Waterhouse’s mum.
We are not in the least surprised that Mrs Waterhouse’s neddy The Nemesis has gone astray. He’s had a heavy campaign – one jumps trial in 2013. This one-race jumper is off to a bad start. He only finished 21 lengths adrift of the winner of a six-horse hurdle trial.
Just six-years-old, he won the only jumps race he contested in New Zealand – maiden hurdle – carrying 65kg to win by .1 lengths over a horse carrying 68kg. Prizemoney? A pissy $4,755 for winning….must have been a huge event!
On March 12th we read on Racenet:
Waterhouse announced in January that she had purchased a Kiwi horse call The Nemesis, who “won his first start over the jumps at Te Rapa back in September and now it is headed for Tulloch Lodge then to Warrnambool”.
“It cleared the jumps like a gazelle and has not been flogged to death like many jumpers,” Waterhouse said on her website.
“He has had just eight starts and will be fresh and ready come May and because he is young for a jumper, a six-year-old, and lightly raced, he will be a fixture at the jumps carnivals for a few seasons yet.”
Jumpers ‘flogged to death’? We would never use language like that coz we love jumps racing. Anyway, one thing is certain; Nemmo won’t be a fixture at the Bool. On April 24th we read the following on Racenet’s site
Champion trainer Gai Waterhouse’s jumper The Nemesis has gone amiss and will not compete next week in the Warrnambool May Racing Carnival.
The Nemesis was set to be Waterhouse’s first jumps competitor after earning his jumps ticket when finishing a distant third in a 2800-metre trial at Warrnambool last Thursday.
Waterhouse had set her sights on the Benchmark 120 Hurdle race to be held on the final day of the three-day carnival.
The trainer purchased the son of Yamanin Vital under the advice of respected jumps trainer John Wheeler earlier this year following the gelding’s breakthrough win in his jumps debut in New Zealand.
It’s unknown how long the setback will sideline The Nemesis for.
Source: (http://www.racenet.com.au/news/89441/No-Warrnambool-for-Gai-Waterhouse)
Heck, he hardly seems to have been overtaxed: two flat runs in July 2011 followed by a 37-week spell. A 1580m maiden in April last year, followed by a ten-week spell. Then a 2180m maiden in June before being freshened for five weeks to contest three maidens over 2100m in August and September….then a 2400m (yep, you read that right – 2400m) hurdle on the last day of September. Twenty-nine weeks later he steps out at Warnambool, jumps the 6th hurdle awkwardly and is thereafter unable to race. What rotten luck. The horse is six-years-old and has hardly been to the track!
Shucks. We were looking forward to Gai’s entry to jumps racing. T’would be good to see one of her horses win a race in Victoria. It doesn’t happen often.
Gai Waterhouse: she loves jumps racing nearly as much as we do!
