Reflections around the whip breach by champion jockey James McDonald at Royal Randwick gave UGLY the edge over the equine GOOD of Godolphin last Saturday.
Godolphin produced a super smooth Temptet the three-year-old, who promises to be better than her excellent previous due to improved temperament while Victoria Derby winner Observer showed surprising pace to take Caulfield’s Autumn Stakes over the unsuitable 1400 metre journey.
Now a five-year-old, Tom Kitten has topped the $6 million prizemoney and looks set for another lucrative campaign tuned by Anthony and Sam Freedman.
The Godolphin three are spread with Observer and Tempted, once flighty but now more on ground level, are prepared by Ciaron Maher.
Previously they had the benefit of James Cummings. Wise guys snigger he was a “pre trainer”. My view is Cummings, headed to Hong Kong, left the Godolphin army prime and ready to conquer.
However J-Mac and Fireball had controversy. No doubt, the promising two-year-old required J-Mac’s expertise, with a strong vigour component, to take the $ 2 million Inglis Millenium.
Alas the hoop later pleaded guilty to excessive whip use: 20 occasions in total, including nine prior to the 100 metres for which he was suspended from February 15 to February 26, plus $20,000 fine.
Like Ninja, Fireball won by three quarters of length but didn’t create the havoc of Torque To Be Sure at the Gold Coast.
With such a breach and penalty, should a protest by runner-up Ghana’s Akan, ironically ridden by Berry, been mounted against Fireball?
Anyway I am “comfortably satisfied”, the puny explanation given by steward’s to avoid a controversial decision, that the persuasion applied by J-Mac didn’t affect the result, and always in control. No wayward running by his mount. But then I had my money on Fireball.
“It just seems, a careless riding charge gets less days and that’s the welfare of a participant and then you whack this, a significant fine as well as 10 days at this time of the year for the welfare of a horse,” J-Mac told the Sunday Telegraph’s inimitable Clinton Payne.
Sympathy to the champ but had he made such an outburst under the previous Australian Jockey Club rule he would have received a further fine because if a jockey had a grievance he had the right of appeal. It did not take kindly to licensed persons questioning turf law.
It was mentioned here on television Dettori was the “best ever”. No, Lester Piggot was better, and I won’t be parochial, mentioning our greats. Still there is no query on Dettori’s effervescence, the star jump and rating elsewhere, particularly in Europe, but not in Australia. Well BAD comes to mind.
Certainly his navigaation in Michelle Payne’s chapter in 2015 on Prince Of Penzance influenced the result.
Horse-sense: “Nor are there many jockeys,” is a negative reaction to their membership in the Royal Melbourne Golf Club. “The problem there, so the rumour goes, that there’s too high a chance the jockey will have recently ridden another member’s horse in a way that did not please them.”
Apparently cricket great Ricky Ponting, in a Sydney Morning Herald report, had his application knocked back to join because 27 members voted against it. Ponting is known as “punter”.
