Man v Spida in a Battle For the Fly
Have you ever seen these videos on the Neds blog? This is one above. They are an absolute cracker. You can find them all here www.neds.com.au/blog/
The Phoenix Still Soars in Ireland
We started writing about Phoenix Thoroughbreds and telling you that they were money launderers 14 months ago. You can read those stories here. The brilliant UK racing writer William Jones – who I met and spoke to last night after reading his work – does it a whole lot better. His books about drug use […]
Same Jockey, Different Horse – Just Another Day in Queensland Racing – But it Still Seems Like Undue Harassment to Me
Quick Verse is a beautifully bred 7-year-old mare who was sold for $140 000 at the 2015 Gold Coast Magic Millions sale and sent to David Hayes to train. Sadly she couldn’t go a yard, and after 5 flops the owners gave up and she was sold on an online auction to clients of Johnny Manzelmann’s […]
Snowfall in Spring – I Reckon the Little Irish Filly is a Bird in the Arc
Three-year-olds have had a great record in the Arc in the 21st century, and have won eleven of the past twenty editions of the race run since 2001. Eight of those eleven winners were fillies. Four-year-olds have won the race on seven occasions, but it is important to note that two of those winners – […]
A Weighty Question
The NSW Stewards allowed four jockeys, including the rider of the winner Reegan Bayliss, to ride overweight. No explanation was given in the official report as to why. It is a disgrace that makes an absolute mockery of the whole idea of handicaps, and flies in the face of a century of custom and practice. […]
The Big Umbrella – He Could Have Been the Champion of the World
Now No. 23 is a very high-class trap which is patronized only by the better element of rumpots in New York, and what I am doing in these unusual surroundings with Spider McCoy, the fight manager, is something that requires a job of telling. This No. 23 is a spot where wealthy characters assemble on […]
Earthquake – A Damon Runyon Tale About Redemption, and the Good in Us All
Personally, I do not care for coppers, but I believe in being courteous to them at all times, so when Johnny Brannigan comes into Mindy’s restaurant one Friday evening and sits down in the same booth with me, because there are no other vacant seats in the joint, I give him a huge hello. Furthermore, […]
The Andrew Golota of the Downs Racing Scene
Toowoomba is abuzz with talk about the main event at Clifford Park on Saturday afternoon, which wasn’t the Weetwood or the Cup, but rather an unfortunate incident that occurred not long after the runners passed the post in the last. It seems that a trainer’s wife with a well known surname wasn’t happy that her […]
A Tale of Two Viruses – And Two Different Ways to Bet
I’m quite sure that Queenslanders and Western Australians have never been happier happier with their political representatives in the entire history of Federation that we are right now. While we see and read of the havoc and carnage that the coronavirus is wreaking in NSW and Victoria, it all seems so far away, almost as […]
The Death of Freedom – Why Racing Licensees Should Be Outraged About the Persecution of Norm Loy
I do not agree with NSW trainer Norm Loy’s abuse of the State’s Premier – or at least not in full; I do think Gladys is a moron, but would never call a woman a ‘mole’ – but I support his rights as a citizen to express his views regarding the most public figure in […]