A WEEKLY REVIEW

The Good

Clearly qualifying for the “c” word, James McDonald was the dominant factor from one of the best Melbourne Cup carnivals in recent decades. Hundreds are bandied around but I find “champion” hard to deliver: it’s personal.

Statistics play a role but not overwhelming, the botched measured against brilliant, the quality of the opposition, length of excellence, but it’s just more a special feeling of witnessing supreme talent. Great is a commendable cog below the “c”.

Great jockeys produce champion rides, consider Kerrin McEvoy on Pericles at Rosehill Gardens on Saturday, but clicking the cash register at a remarkable level dominates.

JMac on Via Sistina, the imported mare and producer of two champion efforts down south this spring, the Cox Plate followed by Saturday’s Champion Stakes, was more arm chair than inspired.

“I ride for some brilliant trainers,” JMac commented. “I get the best horses and I’m lucky to drive them, basically. I steer them around a white rail and hope for the best and they do the rest.”

Maybe Via Sistina qualified in this category but his navigation, bobbing and weaving amongst turmoil, on Sunshine in Paris to take the Champion Sprint was outstanding. Being only 32, on the George Moore scale of age improvement, he will get even better. Horse players are lucky to have him emphasised by his other two Flemington Saturday successes Hinged (Matriarch) and Pisanello (Grand Handicap), who required all the assistance he could must muster to make up 11 winners for Cup week. His previous best being 10 in 2021.

“It means a lot,” he divulged. “It should have been 15 because I butchered four.”

Contributing to a vintage chapter, the superbly tuned Chris Waller’s Switzerland, under the champ, dominated in the Coolmore Stud on Derby Day. The colt, too, was special.

In winning, the Rating Bureau’s Dan O’Sullivan, assessing him at 106.3, decreed it was “the best sprinting performance of any horse of any age in Australia this season” exceeding Bella Nipotina’s 103.5 to take The Everest at Royal Randwick.

Waller later told me he is striving to keep Switzerland on ground level for The Everest next year and not the stud where he promises to be equine gold of the highest carat.

Amongst the many major features of the Melbourne Cup week the Hayes boys Ben, Will and J.D. of Euroa, get credit for keeping the family name to the fore, father David and grandfather Colin, playing major roles since my first Cup carnival in 1965.

The way the brothers handled Mr Brightside, the vital blinker switch, to triumph in the Champions Mile, would have had Colin beaming and so, too, their debut win with Tycoon Star in the Maribyrnong Plate on Cup Day.

The Bad

BAD came readily to mind with three-year-old Broadsiding chasing the ill-fated front-runner Pride Of Jenni, in the Champions Mile.

To date Broadsiding does best from back in the field and previously beat Mr Brightside home in the Cox Plate at Moonee Valley from a rearward position.

Mr Brightside, getting a Craig Williams pearl, ended over six lengths ahead of Broadsiding, with Michael Dee atop, last Saturday.

Unsteady at $8 in the market Broadsiding would have been considerably longer had the up-forward tactics been publicised before the start. Later stewards questioned Dee who said he had the option, if the colt began well, to be closer in the run. Trainer James Cummings confirmed this. Thus he jumped quick and went forward and those on him grimaced unlike Territory Express, the highly talented barrier slug, an eyecatcher for the wrong reasons in the Five Diamond, the Rosehill Gardens feature.

Even with the comfort of a barrier blanket Territory Express was slow out, not three lengths as previous, but hardly on terms.

The Ugly

Still with the clear air in the straight he would have scored instead of ending a chequered 1.5 length fifth, an affront to the eye but at least viewable unlike the finish of Hot Danish Stakes, taken by Belclare which was indeed UGLY.

Unfortunately, grand standing has come into play: mugs wanting to impede the view of anybody sitting behind them by remaining upright during a race, hoping to be picked up on camera, recording of their joy, to the frustration of others.

Now I’m a notable rider in the stand and can get a trifle high in the seat due to age but hopefully not interference those behind. Once this would have necessitated a clout on the ear from nearby binoculars.

Live race watchers are becoming extinct. Last Saturday at Rosehill there were rows to spare. Those who wanted to jump could do so to their heart’s content with no problems for anyone else.

Perhaps the Australian Turf Club could erect a stage in front of the main section where they can jive and gyrate to their heart’s content but still a minor issue compared with coming Australian Turf Club election vital at a period when Sydney racing, is prizemoney rich but race club impoverished.

Vice chairman, barrister Tim Hales, very much a playmaker against the Rosehill disposal, is seeking re-election and should be in the winning quinella with impeccably qualified Lindsay Murphy for the two vacancies.

Those seeking the position should list how often they actually go to the races, also a major consideration regarding appointees to Racing NSW. Once Australian Jockey Club and Sydney Turf Club directors were notable on ground level, in the betting ring and enclosure, hardly sitting solid near the buckshee feed outlets.

Murphy is a genuine turf enthusiast being with the STC since 1977 and rising to the Australian Turf Club Racecourse Manager. If he’s not at a Sydney track he will be at Kembla Grange or Mudgee. Recently he visited the Flemington Melbourne Cup carnival where Victoria Racing Club CEO, Kerry Rogers, announced there was “something for everybody”, including 1,000 children on Derby Day. Comparing the recent Flemington experience with those at Randwick and Rosehill attention should be sparked: would I go back next year? Flemington definitely.

The Everest and Rosehill Shemozzle two weeks back, another featuring grandstanders I’m informed being in Melbourne, get the same reaction?

Hales has produced figures emphasising the folly of putting Rosehill on the market but the able tongue, skilled with defamation and libel learning, has been tied to ATC director’s obligations.