The Good
With magnetic hands and a hoof like a rocket launcher Joel Amartey, promising to be just another Swan superstar, was so good in the vintage week.
Perhaps the final score indicated a demolition of Adelaide last Saturday but Amartey’s nine goals and one behind from six kicks was exceptional. During a key period, too, when the Swans were in the doldrums, he kicked two goals to keep them in touch as their rivals had a 21-point advantage.
Just how the Bloods can be so scintillating yet lapse is frustrating. Of course, it is a team game. Usually, Brodie Grundy does the heavy lifting up front putting the operation on the front foot.
But again, like the previous Geelong clash, the Swans were slow out to begin (comatose) for more than a quarter. Amartey got the machine rolling last week and what a function it is: Issac Heeney, Chad Warner, Errol Gulden and the pocket rocket Tom Papley, plus the bevy of supporting talent.
(While today was a pledged Latrell free zone, Amartey mentioned that Rugby League’s biggest boom colt has been “crucial” to his development. I live in hope that Mitchell will produce a performance for the Rabbitohs as good as Amartey did against Adelaide.)
Amartey, 24, has been a presence but currently indicates a new level of excellence although 9.1 will be hard to top but enough to exceed Zac Lloyd, only 20, superb taking the Group one Stradbroke on Stefi Magnetica at Eagle Farm on Saturday. Again, hands and head played a significant role.
Stefi Magnetica drew barrier 19, a major negative considering Lloyd’s big game time in comparison to runner-up Craig Williams although outside him in 21 handling the outstanding, Bella Nipotina.
Williams is big race seasoned, capable of weaving his way through a mass of heaving horseflesh on one of the best and most experienced sprinters in Australia.
Lloyd was handling a three-year-old, wayward at the end, having only her 13th start, and his navigation won the big sprint for trainer Bjorn Baker, also responsible for an outstanding Saturday.
Apart from Stefi Magnetica, who he transformed from a Wellington Maiden (NSW) to Group one status, Baker also triumphed in the Brisbane Cup with Alegron, purchased from Godolphin for $40,000 with a breathing problem.
However, Dubbo’s Dar Lunn featured in my trifecta of the week’s “Good” due to Elson Boy at Rosehill Gardens on Saturday achieving his sixth consecutive success: hardly elite grade but the sequence’s testimony to skill.
And in this era where millions are sprayed like confetti on horses and major outfits produce the best of everything for them. I’m giving precedence to a trainer with a horse that the legendary Tommy Smith would have described as a “penny dreadful”, worth little in the sale ring.
Watching Lunn buzz around the toey Elson Boy at Rosehill indicated he is old school; closer to picking up the droppings (manure) than a champagne glass. No doubt the greats these days are as good as ever, but the hands-on exponent still gets me.
With Dubbo training tracks restricted due to renovations Lunn had to improvise with Elson Boy, incidentally purchased for $(NZ)6000 and later $(NZ)20,000. Also coming to town he stuck with bush apprentice Chelsea Hillier who exclaimed after the success her mount “has not been tested yet”.
The Bad
Once the Sir Lucan form reversal taking Saturday’s Winter Cup at Rosehill would have been ugly. After all, the Irish bred had been beaten 13.46 lengths only a week earlier at Randwick also on heavy ground. Sure different riding tactics were employed, more patient than being hunted out of the barrier over the shorter Randwick 2000 metres and had he been downed around four lengths this would have been acceptable. Considering such a short period between races a tow track seemed a better option than an easier passage.
Sir Lucan, the $3.40 favourite at Randwick, was hardly the subject on a plunge last Saturday but racegoers these days are more acceptable than the last real Randwick outburst when Glastonbury won The Metropolitan in 1994 after being downed 15.6 lengths when favourite a week earlier.
Punters howled disapproval. Now they are mute. Maybe the bile comes out on the internet. Perhaps they are better educated now or were just bad losers.
Tommy Smith, father of Gai Waterhouse, co-trainer of Sir Lucan with Adrian Bott, was assailed by a violent Rosehill demonstration to the degree he had to take shelter under an awning, not from assailing missiles but verbal abuse from a female Sydney Turf Club member. Yes, more civilised at present but character has gone.
The Ugly
Mouth abuse by footballers, mainly Rugby League players, after a mistake or a referee decision goes against them, is an affront to the eye. They are highly paid professionals and role models viewed by thousands of youngsters. Discipline should be a premium.
If a jockey whether an apprentice or senior muttered “f –” after being beaten in a photo finish in million-dollar events before the cameras they would be hauled over the coals by stewards regarding conduct.
