The Darrel Graham Decision
21.11.12 APL229-19 Reasons
The Black Horse – Or is it the Dark Knight? – The UK’s Leading Racing Independent Racing Writer Puts the Hard Questions to Aiden O’Brien – But Don’t Expect a Response Anytime Soon
Our friend and colleague in the United Kingdom, the highly respected racing writer and anti-drugs in racing advocate Will Jones, has released the 3rd edition of his hard hitting newsletter The Black Horse. It is compulsory reading for anyone interested in the big issues in racing. This is the lead story. You can read the […]
Free at Last! Free at Last! – Darrel Graham is Innocent! – He Always Was
The decision in the appeal that everyone in racing has been waiting for has just been handed down. It is Darrel Graham’s appeal against his conviction for a cobalt presentation offence, his first and only substance breach in almost four decades of training pacers. Darrel didn’t do it. I’ve always known that. I have known […]
More on the Cobalt Stacie Case
A reader has made an excellent observation about the Cobalt Stacie case. If, as the alleged rumour goes, Stacie Elliott was indeed on holidays at the time her horses racked up two trifectas at Newcastle last month, why has no other licensed person been charged in relation to the two tested horses who threw positive […]
Run Too Fast, Fly Too High – What’s Going on Here?
The information at the top is an extract from a questions and answers document published by Harness Racing Australia on its website at https://www.harness.org.au/hra/papers/TC02Q-A.HTM The information is accurate, albeit with the natural TCO2 levels being if anything a little on the high side. Evidence from a study of 231 horses tested by the New Jersey […]
Anatomy of a Modern Harness Racing Miracle – Part 1 – The Muddler Miss Serena
Miss Serena is a four-year-old mare who started her racing life in Western Australia. She had sixteen starts there for just one win and two placings. That sole win was in a lowly late season 2-year-old affair at Northam in a time of 2.01.5. The horses Miss Serena beat in that race have gone on […]
Anatomy of a Modern Harness Racing Miracle – Part 2 The Marvellous Miss Serena
Sometime after her gross flop at Bankstown on the 6th of September, Miss Serena was transferred to the stable of Andrew Ison, who is based in the tiny isolated locale of Warral, located to the south-west of Tamworth. Andrew Ison used to be just a battler, but in recent times had transformed into a miracle […]
Why Aren’t the Vic Trot Stewards Swabbing Poorly Performing Favourites?
In recent months there has been a rash of poorly performing favourites in harness races in Victoria. I don’t mean favourites just being beaten, I am referring to short priced runners that are putting in runs so far below their usual standard of form that it jumps out off the page at you, and makes […]
The Madness of the Zero Cocaine Threshold in Swabs Rule
A lot has written and said about racehorses, pacers and greyhound returning positive swabs to the insidious human drugs cocaine and methamphetamine (Ice), two illegal substances that’s use and abuse has become so widespread at all levels of our society that we are now seeing suburban housewives, footballers, high-profile lawyers, millionaire eastern suburbs housewives, politicians […]
When the Drugs Don’t Work Anymore the Mask Gets Shed
Ellmers Image is a top class pacer trained by Amanda Turnbull that has won the 2019 Inter Dominion consolation. It has also won the Group 2 Treur Memorial and the Renshaw Cups, the Group 3 Ilsley Memorial and Mount Eden Stakes, and was runner-up in the Group 1 Bohemia Crystal Mile. Three starts ago it […]