Brisbane Cup winner Crossthestart is out of the spring carnival after bowing a tendon. Trainer Bevan Laming says: 'I have no idea how serious it is and whether he'll ever race on. Only time will tell.'Grahame Begg is not getting carried away by Iluvethecity's Randwick win on Wednesday. he intends to avoid the top-line three-year-old races with him. he says: 'We'll look at the second-tier races at this point in time...He is in the Golden Rose but I'll probably run him in the Heritage Stakes and a
Brisbane Cup winner Crossthestart is out of the spring carnival after bowing a tendon. Trainer Bevan Laming says: 'I have no idea how serious it is and whether he'll ever race on. Only time will tell.'
Grahame Begg is not getting carried away by Iluvethecity's Randwick win on Wednesday. he intends to avoid the top-line three-year-old races with him. he says: 'We'll look at the second-tier races at this point in time...He is in the Golden Rose but I'll probably run him in the Heritage Stakes and a race like the Stan Fox.'
I never quite understand what stewards are getting at when they ban a jockey for not giving a horse every chance to win. The latest case involves Robyn Freeman. She's been outed for a month for failing to take all reasonable and permissible measures aboard a mount at a recent Wyong meeting. Officially, stewards found Robyn guilty of the charge relating to her ride on the Gary Portelli-trained Reigning Rhythm in the Entires & Geldings Class 1 Handicap (1350m) at Wyong on July 16. Now are they saying she deliberelty pulled up the horse, or just that she had a shocker of a ride? I suppose it's the latter because there is no evidence of any skulduggery in regard to other runners, no betting plunges and so on.
So where did Robyn go wrong according to the official grandstand riders, the stewards? These are the details:
(1) Freeman failed to improve her position from the 400m behind Le Gaze to be closer to that runner at the entrance to the straight where it was reasonable and permissible to do so;
(2) That from the entrance to the straight to approximately the 100-metres, Freeman failed to position Reigning Rhythm to take a run that was available between Spin Ball and Le Gaze which would have afforded her a clear and unimpeded run to the finish and the opportunity to place her mount under full vigour; and
(3) In all the circumstances from the 400-metres to the finish, Freeman rode her mount with insufficient vigour.
Reigning Rhythm, a $6 chance, finished sixth beaten 2.6 lengths and at his next start at Wyong on August 13, again finished sixth, beaten 6 lengths. Maybe it's time for the stewards to clearly define what they are getting at when they lay these sorts of charges. A statement to the effect that the rider is not accused of 'hooking' a horse would be helpful. The stewards can simply brand it a 'pooor ride' or something like that. As it is now, the odious 'hooking' smear hangs over the whole thing.