Winter racing, aargh. More long shots and only a hand full of winning favourites at the major tracks this weekend. It’s hard to get excited by any of the winners at Flemington, Rosehill and Eagle Farm.
Thank God the good racing kicks off in a fortnight.
The good news is the country trainers scored at all the big meetings. Well done to Donna Scott, Craig Widdison, Pat Carey, Jason Deamer ,Tom Smith, Brett Robb, and Greg Cornish and Rex Lipp all coming to the big smoke and winning the chocolates.
It’s their time in the sun.
Congratulations to Tyler Leslight for being crowned Queensland Country Apprenticeship winner. It’s been well documented that Tyler – who spent time at Toowoomba and is now based out of Moranbah – is our first transgender jockey. Riding apprenticeships are never easy, but Tyler also had to be a trail blazer for the transgender community – well done. With the jockey shortage all entrants to the riding ranks are most welcome.
Jamie Kah is back in the saddle this week, first time since her fall in March. May she shine!
Country riding legend Ron Goltz has retired after a career spanning almost 40 years. A renowned heavy weight and big money rider he rode 1400 winners in his career. A little known fact is that Goltz, a Barry Baldwin favourite from their time together in Toowoomba, rode Stradbroke winner and 2006 Queensland horse of the year, La Montagna for two of her seven wins. He famously sacked himself off the filly, when he declared he wasn’t good enough to ride her – what a horseman.
Great to see former South Burnett Mayor Wayne Kratzman going from strength to strength with his latest business venture Kratzie Racing based out of Ballarat. Wayne’s stock has been winning races everywhere, many of them owned by Queenslanders. He has been a success at everything he has
tried – Deputy CEO of the Wondai Shire, publican, radio station owner, mayor and tourism operator in the Bunyas. Man with the Midas touch. Thirty seven winners for the year to be exact.
Big spread of racing across Queensland again this week. Small communities like Morven, Muttaburra and Richmond enjoyed their annual big day of racing. Can’t beat a big day at the sports.
Horse training partnerships continue to grow. We’ve had Waterhouse and Bott, Maher and Eustace, Price and Kent , Ryan and Alexiou, O’Dea and Hoysted. Then there are the family affairs In the 23-24 season you can add Moody and Coleman, Kennewell and Yeomans and the Hayes boys add another brother Will to become Ben, Will and JD Hayes, father, son, father, daughter combinations; Hawkes family, Anthony and Sam Freedman, Richard and Will Freedman, Tony and Trent Edmonds, Tony and Maddy Sears and Stewart and Taylah MacKinnon. It’s obviously working for the trainers.
Irish horse Paddington, possibly the best horse in the world, may finish his career in the Cox Plate. Aiden O’Brien has been talking up Paddington suggesting he can really “turn it on.” Apparently, every race the horse gets heavier, and they are aiming for the Cox Plate in late October. Well, we will have to wait and see what’s next and if Paddington makes it down under.
The racing industry has nothing on cricket for rorts. Just a week after the Ashes series finished it’s now become public that the cricket ball that the the umpires selected to replace the so called damaged ball was five years old. The original ball was 37 overs old. The Pommie cricket players convinced the umpires that ball was misshaped and not swinging. The 2023 manufactured Dukes balls were known to be docile, whereas the 2018 variety swung like a dunny door. Needless to say, the ball performed magic tricks and resulted in six Aussie wickets falling for just a few runs. The killer
is every test cricket ball is date stamped. Shame.
Mick walks into Paddy’s barn to see Paddy dancing naked in front of his tractor. Mick says “Oh no, Paddy what ya doing” Paddy says ”well me and Mary haven’t been getting on too well in the bedroom and the therapist recommended I do something sexy to a tractor”.
