Always back the horse named self-interest, son. It'll be the only one trying
This picture was taken at trackwork at Birdsville this morning. The horse in the picture is ridden by Ric McMahon and trained by Todd Austin. I don’t know which horse it is, but it won’t be hard to identify, for the brand is clear. Look closely at McMahon’s hand, just above where he is holding […]
The horse that Ric McMahon is riding with a jigger in his hand is Hemmerle. Todd Austin is the trainer. It is the topweight in the Birdsville Cup. Or was. All Todd Austin’s horses must be scratched from the meeting, and stood down from racing until the Stewards sort this whole thing out. Hemmerle is […]
See that thing in the US jockey’s hand? It is the same thing that was in Ric McMahon’s at Birdsville trackwork yesterday. It is a jigger. This is disgraceful conduct that brings shame to our sport.’ Everyone involved should be banned for life.
A jigger is a battery powered electric shock device, similar to a taser. Long used in the Australian racing industry as a means of pushing horses to run faster, their use was curbed during race meets once stewards vision of races improved with the introduction of video surveillance. Illegal under the Prevention of Cruelty to […]
There were three judges in the box at Eagle Farm yesterday, which you would have thought was plenty to make sure that they got the photo finishes right, especially with the aid of modern digital technology that if calibrated properly could do their job for them. The equipment worked fine, it was the people who […]
The word coming out of Central QLD is that the holders of slots in The Archer, the new race that kicked off earlier this year, are up in arms about changes to the conditions of the race, or – to me more precise – increases to the amount they pay for their slot. You might […]
We’ve just been told that Ahooshu, the galloper that was the subject of our earlier story, did a suspensory ligament in the race at Mackay yesterday, and has been euthanised. This of course is not the kid who rode the other horse’s fault. It is just one of those tragic accidents that sometimes occur on […]
What the hell happened here in race 6 at Mackay yesterday? The favourite was Ahooshu, the best horse in the race. It always races forward, usually in the lead, and that’s exactly where it’s rider Chris Whiteley took it, which must have been a great relief to the punters who’d backed it and then watched […]
Bowen It was a great day out at the mango capital of QLD on Saturday afternoon, with a card of good fields and competitive racing. The spoils were shared equally with no one trainer or jockey winning more than a single race. Garry Dickson – the man known the length and breadth of the land […]
A couple of weeks back a race meeting was abandoned at Emerald in controversial circumstances. Trainers were driving from near and far to come and race at the meeting, most from far. If they had been provided with early notice of the meet being called off they could have stayed home. Instead many of them […]
