Chief Stipe

Well that IS a lunatic answer.....

Hold up there. Why are the unvaccinated a "lunatic fringe"? Are you saying every child under the age of 12 is a lunatic? Or that everyone who has had Covid-19 and recovered is a lunatic?

I wish I had recorded my conversation with the bus driver who wasn't wearing a mask - he waved in my face a letter yelling at me "I'M EXEMPT, I'M EXEMPT, I'M EXEMPT!" So much for following the science - with the Ashburton example the Trainer should have been told that he couldn't go indoors without wearing a mask. That is the rule that everyone else has to adhere to. I didn't realise that not only is Covid-19 more likely to come out after dark but it also goes to the races!!

They will have to make it a condition of license renewal surely if they want any grounds to enforce it.

Race 1 Bun In the Oven Miss -$2 Trifolium 4th -$2 Romeo Foxtrot 3rd +$0.40 Sly Punter Miss -$2 Race 2 Doctor Steve 1st +$0.60 Pacing Hope 2nd +0.70 Heza Player Miss -$2 Victor Bravo 3rd +$3.10 Race 3 Courage Of Montana 3rd -$1 Margot 4th -$2 Watch And Learn Miss -$2 Bad Medicine 1st +$9.30 BARBAROSSA 2nd $0 Race 4 Obsession Miss -$2 Harder Than Diamonds 1st $3.80 Waitforever Miss -$2 Be My Rose Miss -$2 STARRY STAR 2nd +$1 Race 5 Private Eye 2nd -$0.70 Girls Are Best 1st +$1.90 Wet Flipflops 3rd -$2 Riverman Sam 4th -$2 Race 6 Jasinova Miss -$2 Safrakova 2nd +$0.60 I Got Music 3rd +$0.70 Phoebe Majestic Miss -$2 Race 7 Whooshka Miss -$2 Murphys Reward 3rd +$0.10 Chablis 1st +$2 Arden Velocity 2nd +$0.10 Race 8 Major Jellis 1st +$1.20 Settle Petal Miss -$2 Brookies Jaffa 3rd +$1.70 Hooray Henry 2nd +$0.50 Race 9 Call Me Trouble 1st +$1.30 In Sequence 3rd -$2 Majestic Harry 2nd +$1.70 Presidential Jewel 4th -$2 TOTAL BET: $76 Return: $33.70 PROFIT/LOSS: -$42.30

Perhaps a better measure would be to use $1 units and record return. For exotic's you have the choice of using the order of the selections or boxing them.

Yes it is a bit dangerous of Australian Racing to force this in terms of future liability if vaccine long term safety issues emerge.

Racing on path to 'no vax, no entry' Paul Tatnell@PaulTatnell 6 September, 2021 Picture: Racing Photos Racing is heading towards a “no vaccination, no entry” for participants according to the Australian Trainers Association, who see it as a crucial step to protect the industry and its workforce. ATA CEO Andrew Nicholl told Racing.com that the sport is “walking down the path” of locking out those who choose not to vaccinate, with discussions ongoing with Racing Victoria and key industry groups. It follows strong rhetoric from the State Government on Sunday, with Premier Dan Andrews saying Victoria is heading towards a 'vaccine economy', where those who choose not to vaccinate will lose certain privileges. The Melbourne Racing Club first floated the idea of a vaccinated only crowd for the Caulfield Cup and the Valley too pitched a similar idea for a vaccinated only crowd at this year’s Cox Plate. Nicholl said the idea of racing having vaccination rules is “gathering momentum” and believes that the industry must “do whatever it can to protect racing and the 25,000 people” it employs. The issue is discussed at weekly meetings with Racing Victoria and a number of stakeholders. “The narrative is changing now given the dialogue out of the state government has evolved,” he said. “The idea is starting to gather momentum. It’s a conversation at the moment, but it is gathering momentum. “The concept is used overseas … and lots of industries are going down this path and I think the racing industry is walking down the same path too. I honestly do. “I think it’s a strong push and I think it will continue to gather some momentum. Racing wants to protect its jewel in the crown, the Spring Carnival, and do whatever it can to protect racing and future proof it as well. Nicholl said that racing must do whatever necessary to keep the industry thriving. “I think [the vaccination concept] is a sensible approach to future proof the industry so we can carry on, it’s so important we keep the industry going, we employ 25,000 people … in Victoria and it’s crucial to these people that we do everything we can to ensure that they can continue to [work] and for the community that love the racing it’s important it continues too, it’s given something to people to watch, to have entertainment and have an outlet “What we don’t want is to fall over in the most important time of year. “So if this [mandatory vaccination] is the mechanism to do that, then this is something racing might well promote.” Nicholl believes his members will support tough vaccine measures to ensure they can continue to operate. “I think they will, these guys are self-employed, they live and die from racing functioning, so if the industry ceases to so does their revenue and they are suffering enough financial hardship as it is,” he said. “Our message so far has been to support people getting vaccinated and to follow sensible health advice with a simple vaccination. It’s not the sledgehammer approach saying, hey get Pfizer or Astra Zeneca, just listen to experts and get vaccinated “From our view, we’ve been moderate in our approach and we will take the lead from Racing Victoria.” Racing.com has been told its increasingly likely that participants will have to be vaccinated in order to enter Racing Victoria licensed premises, with changes possible before the end of the year. Supply issues and eligibility for young Victorians had initially meant that such rules were likely to be visited in 2022. Nicholl wouldn’t be drawn on when such rules might be introduced. Racing Victoria is currently leading a strong push for its participants and wider communities to get vaccinated, with a number of campaigns underway.

Well that supports my theory that the Queensland fields are pretty even and if the pace is on and even then it makes it very hard for any horse with a bad draw. Now NZ horses in my opinion are more used to putting in a quick sectional during a race to improve a position AND the good NZ Drivers can read pace and know when to go forward. The issue is further accentuated by tight tracks.

@Gammalite in Queensland do they still have the minimum pace rule? i.e. you can't lead a quarter in less than x seconds?

FFS can't you post about anything else?

I just love Bart's wit.

Opinion Spending Father’s Day with the late, great Les Carlyon By Bruce Clark 05:38pm • 06 September 2021 0 Comments Pandemic lockdowns offer opportunities that are sometimes ignored in the previously swift movements of a life around racing, perhaps “stop and smell the flowers” type moments, even if those have to be within 5km of your home base. As does Father’s Day, which is why another collection of the writings of the late great Les Carlyon – “A Life In Words” – is more than just a thoughtful present, but a powerfully remindful treasure of the power of writings and observations from one of Australia’s greatest ever journalists and writers. Carlyon, who dismissed his unique storytelling and writings as merely “pushing words around a page” was as comfortable and ridiculously detailed in the fields of War, “Gallipoli” and “The Great War”, as he was at his favourite place, the racetrack, regaling his meetings with the likes of Vic Rail, of Vo Rogue fame, and Bart Cummings, who he would write a mightily personalised memoir “The Master”. Les Carlyon with then Prime Minister John Howard at the launch of Carlyon's book ‘The Great War' in 2004. Picture: AAP – Alan Porritt He loved them both, as they were racing people, unique and good copy. Of Victory Robert Rail, he once described his face as alike to “an aerial shot of the channel country in flood”. Match that! Of Bart, he thought those familiar eyebrows could be observed as “creepers looking for a trellis”. Neither of those selections when written appear in this collated book from the vastness of his trove of work across history, war, politics, satire, sport, literature, business and of course racing, but if you sometimes seek inspiration or simply a good read, Les is timeless and your man. So, I could wake up with a blank word document (for him it was a page), wondering how to fill a weekly column that might be of some vague interest to you the reader. I could muse if I indeed could have got Zaaki home on Saturday as J-Mac suggested anyone could, then consider that the training wheels and seatbelt required, not to mention the utter fear flowing through the reins may have even slowed him down a touch before the worry of weighing in is over. Or if I should push Portland Sky again for a slot in The Everest, as I have done here many times before (though I haven’t sought asylum just yet), only to watch a Singapore sleuth ‘The’ Inferno, perhaps burn that dream and ignite his own reality on a similar path. Maybe, is there any more life in that Airbnb fallout story, as the judicial system fallout drags the headlines further into spring focus, and it was wondered “they were reading the room” and I wonder what Les would have made of an Airbnb, as he would have been chugging away on an always handy cigarette in consideration. Or why would you call your horse Nervous Witness when you knew there was never a moment to worry about on debut in Hong Kong and think I’ve got another Sacred Witness right here. (Mmmm, maybe I could have won on it?) Or should I follow up and find out if anything was happening at Racing Australia, knowing the answer was exactly the same as last time I checked, and even so, that basically you couldn’t care less and prefer some banter as to where the next winner may come from. Herald Sun Senior Writer and columnist Patrick Carlyon with his father Les at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne. Both wrote books on Gallipoli. One thing Les would have cared about though was “The Pattern”, a stickler for tradition, or what had made racing tick, as much as a champion for change and a new audience by the various characters that made it interesting to him and then to us. And so no point me giving you my pontifications on who was good and bad from Saturday or who is the best three-year-old prospect, or if our weight-for-age ranks are thin or thick. You already have your thoughts on such. In these immediate social media days scribblers and dribblers already abound, some hidden in anonymity, some serial assassins, and glad to have all aboard, so let me take you back, via Les, to what matters to all of us and where this all starts, racing, the sport, the industry. But just let me drop one in first from a simple two paragraph piece from the book called “Brilliant and Original” stemming from a Carbine Club revelation that Andrew Peacock regaled against himself about some interaction with Sir Robert Menzies. On delivering a parliamentary speech, Menzies was said to have told Peacock it was “brilliant and original”, the only trouble was “the brilliant bits weren’t original, and the original bits weren’t brilliant.” It was followed up with Peacock’s maiden parliamentary speech having taken over Menzies seat of Kooyong, to which the former PM told his young suitor that it was too long – “The English is very good. I’d cut it in half – and it doesn’t matter which half.” I hope you can see here where I am coming from re Carlyon’s writings. It’s sharp, precise, involved and takes you to the real story and reveals much more, through relationships and craftsmanship. No click-bait nonsense from a man who loved not just the sport but for those who were part of it. Les once wrote re then modern journalism the observation on the news of a mass shooting in Melbourne, the reporters were more likely to head to a seminar on gun control than the scene of the crime. ***** So in “The horse as prose” Carlyon writes: “They call it an industry, but we shouldn’t take them seriously. Industries are rational and ordered. Racing is neither,” he wrote. “That’s why it’s interesting. Whoever saw a piece of share scrip maim itself on a fence, then stand bewildered as a vet pushes stitches through with bloodied fingers and says, yeah there might be a chance?” And then adds, written in 2007: “Who could imagine the Sydney Futures Exchange being locked down because of an outbreak of influenza.” Les Carlyon was awarded a companion AC “for eminent service to literature through the promotion of the national identity as an author, editor and journalist, to the understanding and appreciation of Australia's war history, and to the horse racing industry.” Picture: David Caird. He nods to local ghosts like Banjo Patterson and Adam Lindsay Gordon and American literary giants Red Smith or Joe Palmer and storytellers like Damon Runyon, but Les was simply himself. “There is the beauty of the thoroughbred itself, the nearness of death on the track and the hint of larceny in the betting ring. Aesthetics and grubbiness, tycoons and deros, sport and commerce, life and death, losers, lots of losers, a way of life that doesn’t make much sense but keeps calling people back, the hunger for one good horse or one big killing. All of this is sweet ground for writers.” ***** So to some snapshots.First back to Vic Rail in “The Vic And Vo show comes to town” – October 1987: “In financial terms, the game has never been kind to him, but it is the only game he knows, and he refuses to let it grind him down. He just looks worn. He has a mop of curly hair, crow’s feet around the eyes like a middle aged jackaroo, and a bulging midriff that he refers to as a dropped chest and blames entirely on his decision to give up cigarettes.” Vic Rail with his champion Vo Rogue. You didn’t have to be there did you and here is the lyrical reverse of a picture painting a thousand words.Or on a Hong Kong meeting with David Christensen, a part-owner of the then unknown Schillaci in “Why we came to love Schillaci” – October 1995: “Dragging on a fag, he first looks around for hidden cameras, then leans forward and intones – ‘I think I’ve got a really good horse back home.’“Yep it is the big one. And me thinking it would merely be some tittle tattle about Macau acquiring a nuclear arsenal. He looks again and takes another drag. Before I suggest we use the show phone, he goes on, ‘they say he could be something special.’ Why do ‘they’ always say these things?” Or on champions of their era in “Black Caviar: Unbeaten “– March 2013: “Each champion is famous for a different reason, a singular achievement that sets them apart from other horse and puts them in a different category of their own. Black Caviar has won 23 in a row, nearly all of them high class events and never been beaten. No horse has ever done that here before. Maybe no horse ever will. Bart Cummings was right: we should recognise and celebrate champions, not compare them.” ***** Can I pick out some of his Bart witticisms from “A Eulogy For Bart Cummings” – September 2015 when his wife Valmae noticed a cobweb in the Brisbane stables. “Look Bart, there’s two spiders fighting.” “Probably means they’re married,” said Bart and walked on. Noting Bart’s shyness or not liking to give things away, he recalls his biographer Malcolm Knox in a conversation starter asked Bart: “What did your father look like?” “Normal,” said Bart. “That was it, no-one could create dead air like Bart.” Those familiar eyebrows could be observed as “creepers looking for a trellis”. Les Carlyon’s The Master: A Personal Portrait of Bart Cummings. Or in later years when Bart arrived at the trainer’s hut in the middle of Flemington with a copy of the Herald Sun and suggested to his fellow trainers to try the paper’s daily quiz. “As the questions were read out, Bart always seemed to know the answers. “Everyone knows that Richard II was the last of the Plantagent kings,” he’d say. “Didn’t you blokes go to school. “What Bart was doing of course was picking up the Herald Sun at Crown Towers at 4am, memorising the answers which were printed upside down, then pretending to be Barry Jones.” And if you are talking Bart, you are talking The Cup, as Les does in “The Cup at 150” – October 2010. “The Pope usually turns up. For the rest of the year he works as a plumber in Yarraville.” “How do you explain to an outsider that the Cup nods towards egalitarianism, that its Shakespearean, a saga about horses and human conditions, about dreamers and schemers, well bred horses and urchins with legs of steel, toffs and desperate and ordinary people who are encouraged to that they are part of it all.” There is much more that runs in true Carlyon style across the full gamut of society through his writings, or dare I say, words deftly pushed like no other. IN these lockdown times or any other times the prose of highly recommended.

NSWStewards Trainer to fight ban for ‘highly inappropriate’ posts about NSW premier Norm Loy. Photo: Norm Loy Racing Website By Mitch Cohen 04:57pm • 06 September 2021 5 Comments A prominent NSW border trainer plans to appeal a three month ban handed down for ‘highly inappropriate’ social media posts attacking NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian and her handling of the state’s Covid outbreak. Albury’s Norm Loy was hit with a lengthy suspension last Friday following investigations by Racing NSW Stewards into a pair of posts he made on Facebook. Stewards found Loy made “two highly inappropriate comments in respect of a person who holds a high public office” on his personal page in August. In one expletive-laden post Loy labelled the premier a ‘moron’ and a ‘mole’ while he also questioned the state’s decision making behind extended Covid lockdowns across country NSW. Loy was found guilty of a charge under AR 228 (a) for conduct prejudicial to the interests of racing after fronting a Stewards’ inquiry last Friday before being hit with a lengthy ban. The rule states participants must not engage in conduct prejudicial to the image, interests, integrity, or welfare of racing, whether or not that conduct takes place within a racecourse or elsewhere. Loy confirmed on Monday that he intends to appeal the ruling, insisting the comments were a personal opinion. “It‘s my opinion, other people have different opinions but I’ve shared this on my own personal Facebook page,” he said. “Someone else has screenshotted it and then shared it with a bunch of other people who weren't on my page. If anything that person has breached my privacy. “I might rant something on Facebook after a couple of beers but it‘s my opinion and if you don’t like it you don’t have to be on my page. “I didn't put it on Twitter or post it anywhere other than my personal account. “It’s not about racing, it’s my frustration about everything else that’s going on.” Loy has one prior social media breach to his name and that was considered when stewards handed down his penalty. Meanwhile, Loy was also required to attend a second inquiry last week that saw trainer Gordon Yorke suspended for 4-1/2 months. The ban stems from a confrontation with Loy on July 31 this year that saw Yorke plead guilty to a misconduct charge by NSW stewards. Yorke aggressively confronted Loy at a property at 28 Racecourse Road, Albury while the latter was in a walker with a number of horses. He was found to slam shut the walker gate on Loy as he attempted to remove four-year-old mare Funky Bella. “Such actions having the potential to cause serious injury to Mr Loy and Funky Bella,” the report read. “As a result of becoming fractious Funk Bella kicked out on a number of occasions resulting in the mare dislodging the walker gate and sustaining injuries to her near hind leg including a fracture to the lateral splint bone.” Yorke was handed a six month ban, which was reduced to 4-1/2 months Read all news by Mitch Cohen

Of course I know why he calls me a tosser but let's be realistic here there are TWO training partners in that team and I don't believe Matthew gets all the credit he deserves. I can imagine who is doing all the hard yards early in the morning.

That's all a bit rich coming from you Michael. For a start you haven't seen half of what Whiplash posts. Now if the only contribution you want to make online is to take pot shots at me or any particular poster then resign yourself to the fact that the moment you do your post will be transferred to here. Especially if it has no relevance or adds to the topic in question. Your choice.

Yep Matthew does seem to do quite well.

Posts off topic have been moved to this topic in The Vent.

Oh so you weren't the fall guy?

Who were you sitting beside when you sat the exam?

Yep I remember that post. What is your point? Actually I can't remember have you actually posted anything about the topic Saginaw?

Which post was that? With regard to your Pokie convictions are you referencing that as evidence that you are good with numbers? Why bother doing such pointless analysis. I don't have a fixation on Brodie. However I do object to people who are only motivated to post so they can have a dig at someone.

Have you checked some of the Stewards head-on vision? Still a few flailing unbalanced seagulls......but I try to be harsher on administrators and their tracks than those that have to ride on them.

You aren't very good at keeping track of numbers are you Michael?

But that apparently ISN'T the case as @JTeaz and a number of posters tell us they are there for the sole benefit of punters. BTW it isn't the Stipes role to monitor betting activity on behalf of punters - they monitor Driver/Trainer betting activity in relation to the rules of racing.