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Flemington New Year’s Race Day

January 2nd, 2012 2 comments

It’s looking ominous. The forecast is for 40 degrees, my official meltdown point. And worse. The stewards have rescheduled the first race to start at 11.50 am with the last at 3.20 pm. The chief steward Terry Bailey is quoted in the paper as saying that “it won’t be a pretty presentation of racing … as the horses will be brought into the mounting yard and the riders will immediately mount up, and once they arrive at the barrier stalls they will be placed in and dispatched as quickly as possible.” It throws me right out of whack. Whoever has their lunch at 10.30? Life wasn’t meant to be easy for horse watchers.

And so it proves. Not pretty. The horses are held back in the birdcage until the last minute and then rushed up to the mounting yard where the jock hops on and straight out onto the track. I only have half a second to look at each horse and some I miss altogether. No time for photography. And I even missed a mares race altogether. I was spitting chips as I was quite keen on Louisville Dancer after backing it last start at Sandown in a mid-weeker. But no see, no bet. It won in a breeze.

In the end three bets for two placed horses, Kasane and Chasse, and a loser, Crafty Cruiser. Not too bad a start.

Happy New Year.

2 Responses to “ Flemington New Year’s Race Day ”

  1. Jared says:

    Hi Geoff, Happy New Year and good punting. I was wondering do certain trainers present better behaved horses than others? I.e my gf used to ride track work and she reckons Jolly horses in SA are more likely to be poorly behaved.

  2. geoffrey says:

    most definitely yes. my favourite used to be brian mayfield-smith. such a shame he gave it away. his horses were always beautifully relaxed. a pleasure to watch him saddle a horse. current favourite is peter snowden. some trainers seem to specialise in angry horses – no names – but look out for orange winkers!

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