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This week’s column was supposed to round out The Nitespots XI, with six further selections. However, it is difficult to improve on the readers’ suggestions.
These included The Church (Wayne Bennett reading the riot act), The Sapphire Lounge (Jarryd Hayne getting shot at, inter alia), Wests Leagues Club (a story featuring Dallas Donnelly is an automatic selection), The Kingston Hotel (unspecified misdeeds by Raiders), the Beach Palace (unspecified misdeeds by Roosters) and the Clovelly Hotel (Sonny Bill gets a timely French lesson).
Rumours niteclub, Antigua, might be twelfth man, thanks to Freddie Flintoff’s Fredalo incident at the World Cup 2000.
It, along with incompetence, cost him the England captaincy. Thanks to all for your suggestions.
Now on to this week’s Top 5.
To commemorate the Nags’ Birthday, I present My 5 Favourite Horses, a suspicious number of whom are from the 1980s.
1. Kingston Town (c)
I am still reeling from his Melbourne Cup defeat in 1982. 19 consecutive wins, three Cox Plates and the Tooheys ad with Malcolm Johnston ease the pain. But only slightly. Incidentally, it took me years to work out that the line in the jingle “Big ride today, for TJ” was not, “Big ride today, forty J”, whatever that meant.
2. Bonecrusher
My love of overdogs and good horse names coalesced in the 1986 Cox Plate. As far as I’m concerned, the big chestnut might have been racing Our Great Satan down the straight instead of Our Waverley Star. Victory!
3. Vintage Crop
I backed this one in the 1993 Melbourne Cup simply because my parents are Irish. It came in at 14-1 and paid for dinner that night with three very glamorous girls. Hats off, Dermot Weld.
4. Strawberry Road
Apart from the evocative name, I loved the idea that this colt left Australia to take on the world. He couldn’t hang on in the Prix de l’Arc Triomphe, but still picked up a Group 1 win in France and went on to become a very successful stallion. (Beat that, Sonny Bill!)
5. Vo Rogue
The Rogue was loved by many others more than me, especially its battling trainer Vic Rail. However, its superb frontrunning victories could only be admired and have not been replicated. Well, possibly by Tiger Woods, but he is not a horse.