I’m not looking forward to it. The 30-minute trial that is. Nine races are hard enough for me as it is, but 30 minutes between each race? If you wait say five minutes for correct weight and the horses have to be in the mounting yard some 20 minutes prior, that leaves just five minutes to dash around the stalls and check out say 20 or 30 horses and then have time to cast an eye over the parade ring. It’s obviously the first step towards a ten race program for armchair punters at home. Soon they will be ghost meetings! I don’t like it. Not happy Jan.
I struggled again with the two-year-olds. The Chris Waller filly Gretna looked terrific in the yard and led them up to the 200 before totally compounding. Another weak filly. I got my money back on Pat Carey’s Dan Zephyr on the short back-up, but with absolutely no faults. I celebrated by ordering my free drink in the Medallion Bar. The barman couldn’t believe me when I asked for a Diet Coke, but took pity on me and searched around for the biggest glass he could find. Only three more weeks of Febfast to go!
I’m not happy with the 30-minute change either. I’m a Sydney punter who likes to watch the Melbourne parade ring on Racing.com. The reduced gap between races means the parade ring broadcast now starts a few minutes later and the second half of the field is now shown with jockeys mounted. My personal preference is to watch the horses walking freely without the jockey up. If I’d been able to get a good look at Dan Zephyr in the parade ring perhaps I might have backed him too. Instead, all I got was a lovely but useless view of jockey and horse backsides disappearing down the straight. By the way, Melbourne punters might not know that Sydney tracks don’t show Racing.com, only the race itself on Sky 1. The reason, I’ve heard, is because of some contractual requirement from Sky, plus a degree of petulance at Melbourne’s going it alone attitude. On track, I watch Racing.com on my iPhone 6s. Whoever thought the day would come when a punter had to supply his own TV coverage on course?