Freda

I can't answer that in detail; however, the three good horses you mentioned have all had significant issues. Catalyst had ongoing joint issues, Aegon bled, Noverre broke down. The lack of depth [ numbers] however, means that there aren't too many that can step up and fill the gaps.

As well as this contretemps, there is the not so minor matter of the proposed demerger of Tabcorp's combined operations. Interesting times.

Waverly Friday

Or are we...and at what cost?

Fair comment and, with your experience, quite justified. It is possible that a more skilled rider may, just may, be able to galvanize the mare without offending her. But for now, her current rider does the best she can. You will know that old saying ' ask a filly, tell a gelding, and negotiate with a stallion'.

I liked much of Thomass' input, too.

More to the point, it will be interesting to se what the mare chooses to do.

Agree completely. Will make no difference whatsoever for the once-a-year party goer, and it might be possible to get a more co-ordinated and balanced flow of races throughout the season.

Outstanding. Young Jamie must be the best trainer around by a country mile.

What a great story.

Ridden by Shane Laming.......!

Yes, agree, great to see. A good rider and thoroughly nice bloke as well. They are a close-knit group, the southern lads, I'm pretty sure everyone will get a great thrill from the win, and for him.

Sorry, no..although I remember it being done. Used to have jumping races there, too, back in the day.

Well, I backed her. Not because I am a clever punter, or anything remotely approaching that. But, because I know, like and respect her trainers, they do a great job,and the mare has some real ability. She has won at Ashburton before coming from miles back, so didn't consider that an impossible task. But, horses are horses, not bicycles. This is, clearly, a horse, and a girl one at that, and as bitchy, independant and contrary as it chooses to be. Yesterday, she surprised her connections and her rider, by deciding to fly the gates and gallop with enthusiasm. Have we forgotten that Chautauqua had his own input into his retirement?

That's true enough. But, the Couplands Mile replaces the Churchill Stakes ....a limited handicap of - wait for it - a mile. On the other side of the coin, we do have a Canterbury Belle Stakes.

And, I am getting a tad off topic here...but I was, along with many, in favour of 'rationalising ' the 3 year old Classics to a more suitable time of the year for immature horses. So Guineas went to the spring, Derby to summer, and St Leger to autumn. But I later read a discourse about the classics being the benchmark of quality in the 3 year old crop. It went on to argue that, rather than being appropriate to ease the competition up over distance for the young horses, in actual fact the real benchmark of a class horse was its ability to perform outside its comfort zone. Good article I thought.

Oh, absolutely. I recall the 2 year old parade that used to be run at National time, a scamper up the straight for the babies. Two divisions in that, too, often. And, the interesting thing, the leading 2 year old frequently came from that early parade....as did the best 3 year olds perform well in the NZ Derby and Oaks run at Riccarton, Cup time.

Won by some bloody good horses too. Pretty sure Princess Mellay was one.

I didn't recall it either, although I guess we aren't really to know, there are a large number of jockeys in Australia, a pretty big fishpond. Unless you had local knowledge, hard to ascertain. One thing though, at the time of the various 'lockdowns' we [ in NZ ] seemed to enjoy pointing the finger over the Tasman and crowing over how well we had done containing the earlier variants, and comparing the spiralling number of cases compared to us. It may well be that exposure to those earlier variants have produced a degree of herd immunity that we don't have. Yet. Just saying.....and, while I am 'just saying', what is the point of isolating folk who are not unwell and who are perfectly capable of doing their job?

I did indeed. Good bloke, although he could be a handful! Mouse used to ride Short Stops. Country Manners came south as a 30- something start maiden, and went on to do very well.

Great post. My dad used to say, if I got critical or dined out upon someone's supposed inadequacy ' the man who never made a mistake never made anything '.

I remember all those horses, such great days, used to stay at Bill Kennedys when campaigning on the Coast. Bill and the O'Malleys shared a horse truck, which got a lot of use, based as both trainers were, at Ikamatua. The old flatdeck Bedford would get backed under the horsebox, which was bolted on to the deck. I recall going with Bill one day, following the truck driven by one of the O'Malley team, when Bill said, that bloody box isn't bolted down. Sure enough, you could see the box lifting as the truck cornered. Luckily nothing untoward transpired and the horses arrived safely! Thoreau will always have a special place for me, he was the sire of my first winner as a trainer in my own right, a tough little gelding called Hooray Henry owned by Penny Hargreaves.

You live in a monastery?

I'm not in favour of completely banning whips. There will always be the odd smarty pants who has worked out that they can cruise home untouched, without so much as a flick to say, wake up!

I think we got our indication. But good on them for having a go.