It certainly has been an eventful week for the sport, starting off on Friday night with a brilliant night of Group 1 action at Gloucester Park for Interdominion Night.
The highest of highs was then followed by the lowest of the lows, with the sport banning the whip from September 1 2017. Is that the final nail in the coffin?
Let’s start with the good, which was Interdominion night at Gloucester Park. The 2936m final, worth over $1 Million, was won by kiwi star Smolda in an epic finish, holding out the hot favourite Hectorjayjay by a half neck in a 400m stirring struggle that certainly will go down as one of the best editions of the race that we have seen for many years.
The race, the series, the night itself should have got more media attention, and as it panned out, it deserved it. What I find baffling is that for a sport that was once upon a time one of the biggest in Australia, to have the showpiece event of your sport run at 12.30am AEST doesn’t make sense.
Betting turnover on the tote of around $20,000 tells you that it failed from a punting perspective.
You only have to rewind to last year when the final was run during the day. Turnover was strong, the ratings TV wise were great, a near record crowd trackside. That’s what should be happening if the series is to be conducted at Gloucester Park. It either has to be run during the day, or scrap it entirely and save it for the Eastern States.
Now to the bad news – the whip ban from September 1 next year. I think most would agree that limiting whip use for harness racing is a tick, because while on one hand the whip is vital for some horses, visually, it looks very ugly, especially with some drivers who are very aggressive in their whip use and to the naked eye, it looks like a person flogging an animal that isn’t going any faster.
But to ban it all together? Nope. Completely wrong. The image of the sport does need to improve, nobody is disputing that. But banning the whip can lead to some very dangerous scenarios.
For example, when a horse breaking stride and starts bucking. The driver is pretty much helpless in trying to get it back into stride and the punters do their money just like that.
And again, back to the image of the sport. Putting your hard earned on a trotter who finishes the race with a couple of flicks of the reins.
To the eye, it will look bad and it will only just add more fire to the term ‘Red Hots’, something that the sport desperately needs to be removed from the industry given what has transpired over the past few years. If this ban remains in place, there will be a lot of opportunities for certain drivers and trainers to earn a quick quid via “obliging” by the rules.
Have you ever tried your skills in a Racing daily fantasy competition? Put your best picks to the test for one day and see if you can scoop the pot with Draftstars. Looking for great odds on racing and sport? PlayUp is your best bet. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.
Without a Fight completed the rare Caulfield Cup-Melbourne Cup double on Tuesday as star jockey Mark Zahra went back-to-back in the big one after…
The race that stops the nation is upon us again. Every horse in the Melbourne Cup has reasons they can win, and reasons they…
Those who want to have a really big collect on Australia’s greatest race, without risking too much, have to look at the exotic bets.
While most of the attention is on Ciaron Maher and David Eustace's Gold Trip, there's no reason why stablemate Future History cannot upstage him.
Champion jockey Damien Oliver is quietly confident his Melbourne Cup mount Alenquer will be passed fit to give him a farewell ride in the…
Melbourne Cup day is here again, and it’s never anything less than exciting. The Cup itself will of course be full of drama and…
