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There was no shortage of finger pointing after the races at the big annual Rocky Amateurs Race Day were called off on Saturday in controversial circumstances.
After the races were abandoned following the running of just one event due to a wet patch on the track, the Rockhampton Jockey Club sent out a message to trainers notifying that barrier trials and jump-outs on Monday (May 10) “will proceed as normal.”
That led to Rockhampton’s former premier trainer Tom Button, now based at the Sunshine Coast, to comment on Facebook: “How can it be ok Monday if they called off today..Strange stuff.”
Jockey Matthew McGillivray, owner-trainer Mary Hassam and Phill Gattenby with Daunting Queen.
Horses Tony McMahon
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The rapport that coexists between horse and rider has been documented down through time.
It was on display at Rockhampton’s Callaghan Park racecourse last Friday when a little bay
thoroughbred mare and her sprightly trainer greeted each other in the winners’ stall.
There was the six-year-old mare Daunting Queen a model of consistency and her 72-year-old trainer Mary Hassam basking, albeit humbly in the sense of achievement a race win evokes.
Mary, of slender build and looking as fit as a fiddle would have fooled me if she divulged being 10 years younger.