Always back the horse named self-interest, son. It'll be the only one trying
Here’s the rub. In any ‘normal’ race, it’s naturally expected that every combatant is there to win. That’s not so natural here. The goal, you see, is based on accumulation; point accumulation. Blazing out on night one, showing all your cards and playing all your aces may sound fun; but it’s equally likely to prove […]
Mr Adams initially studied law before following his heart into racing and taking up a cadetship in Sydney. He then moved to South Australia and was promoted to Regional Deputy Chief Steward Thoroughbreds in 2012, before arriving in Queensland in 2019 – Chris Reid, QRIC Spin Doctor in Chief Isn’t that weird? I always thought that […]
There are a lot of qualities that are required to be a top shelf Steward. Consistency is chief among them. If licensees aren’t treated equitably, and like punishments aren’t handed down for like offences, confidence in the system becomes eroded. Once that happens, integrity becomes a slippery slope, and all fall down. Cody Collis is […]
So this Central Queensland horse trainer named Ricky Gudge rocks up to the races at Mackay with a syringe and needle in his kit, and uses them to shoot his horse up with a prohibited substance just before the races. Someone dobs him in the Stewards and he gets sprung, red handed. They charge him […]
Noel Callow has just copped 3 months for betting on races, in total breach of the rules and his own obligations. Usually such an offence is a minimum 1 year disqualification – remember J-Mac copping it? – but in this case in it’s wisdom the Victorian Racing Tribunal has seen fit to give Callow only […]
At no time was my application to include the jogging or pre-training of horses. It was solely for permission to break in yearlings with strict guidelines prepared by the CEO of HRNZ relating to numbers and stage of yearling preparation before they were to be passed to a trainer. Given this opportunity, my intentions were […]
The harness racing industry is in uproar over a dispensation granted to former high-profile trainer Nigel McGrath who was banned for eight years for cheating in 2020. But in a surprise move on Tuesday night, McGrath, speaking publicly for the first time in five years, said he had withdrawn his application to break in yearlings on a restricted […]
Another great Irishman with a bit of Ernie in his name So what do you make of the Birdsville jigger inquiry? My view is this. Ric McMahon is lying like fuck, and then lying some more when he claims not to know what a jigger is, or how to use it. That’s bollocks. McMahon moved […]
The recent article written by former staff member Brad Reid outlining some of the deep, underlying problems with NZ harness racing has struck a real cord with participants in the sport, so much so that I am led to believe that within days it has become one of the most read stories ever on the […]
Jockey Ric McMahon has delivered bombshell evidence in the first day of the Birdsville Cup jigger stewards’ inquiry, claiming trainer Todd Austin handed him the electrical device and told him to use it on a horse’s neck during track work. McMahon told the Doomben hearing that Austin handed him a jigger to use on one […]
