Claire Power MIDWEEK racing returned to Ipswich today after a host of weekend and public holiday meetings to start 2021. Conditions were superb with the track rated a soft 6 despite receiving 25mm of rainfall yesterday and over 45mm for the past seven days. Winners came from all sections of the track, always a good test of the running surface and a tribute to track manager Sean Tou and his team. Big odds come up trumps THE first winner for the day saw connections of Brief Sojourn keen to celebrate after collecting the Maiden Handicap 1350m at odds of $66.80 for the win.
David Vandyke tells clients no runners at Eagle Farm because of unacceptable surface
Horses by National Racing Newsroom 27th Jan 2021 8:12 AM | Updated: 11:51 AM David Vandyke has become the first trainer to publicly black ban the maligned Eagle Farm surface, telling clients on Tuesday he would no longer be starting any stable runners there. After feature meetings on December 26 and January 2, Eagle Farm came under fire from trainers and jockeys for being too hard and also for the top layer chopping out. The Queensland branch of the Australian Trainers Association called for submissions from trainers, who were almost universal in their condemnation of the current state of the track.
2:55PM29 December 2020
Two plus two generally equals four, but it doesn t seem to when you look at the history of jockey betting bans.
SOMETHING DOESN’T ADD UP
Ben Melham was disqualified for five months for betting offences and giving false evidence, Damien Oliver was outed for eight months for backing a rival horse while Adam Hyeronimus was thrown out for three years for betting offences and providing false evidence. His appeal will be handed down in the new year.
I was only fair at mathematics but the numbers don’t seem to add up to me.
I realise each case is different but it’s a case of either two of the sentences are ridiculously light or one is very harsh or a mixture of both.
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The first two progeny of Australian sire I Am Invincible to race in Japan made winning debuts last weekend for Northern Farm owner Katsumi Yoshida.
Yoshida, who purchased three yearlings from the 2020 Gold Coast Magic Millions Yearling Sale, had Jazz Etude and Top Star Sun succeed during the final week of 2020.
Jazz Etude defeated 15 rivals, including five colts, in her two-year-old race over 1600 metres at Nakayama on Saturday while Top Star Sun won his 1400-metre juvenile newcomer race at Hanshin on Sunday.
The races were held under weight-for-age conditions and as both horses were bred to Southern Hemisphere time gained a 3kg allowance on their Japanese-bred rivals.
Brett Kitching AFTER the rain last week, the Ipswich track was not even in the heavy range this morning. There was however a further 10 millimetres of rain midmorning prior to the racing commencement and this rain pushed the track rating back to the heavy range. There was an upgrade after race 4 back to a soft 7 giving further clear evidence of the newly free-draining Ipswich surface of 2020. Despite being rated in the heavy range, the times of the early races were more like good to soft ratings as the first was run in 1.10.4 for the 1200 metre journey - less than half a second outside of the class record. These times continued and hence the track reverted back to the soft range.