A WEEKLY REVIEW: The Good The Bad The Ugly

Amid the buffoonery aimed at the Australian Turf Club and a tottery start, Autumn Glow made Saturday at Royal Randwick a memory to savour.

Transported on the 10.18 am cattle-truck special from Woy Woy to Central was again demanding presenting the consideration of why go to the races instead of television comfort: lounge chaired in a club, pub or in private?

Standing room only in the 10-carriage conveyance was a challenge. The swing and sway between the departure and the first stop, Hornsby, after 20 minutes presented stability similar to a boxer requiring an eight second compulsory count on his feet.

Fortunately, an angel of mercy, a carer with nursing experience accompanying a subject who required a walker, noticed my plight and squeezed seating room. Perhaps she figured I would come down and require mouth to mouth. Getting me to the corner was the best option. But she saved the day, one I would not have missed due to being up close and personal to a special force, Autumn Glow, premature possibly for the “c” rating.

Once I sought the definition of a champion. The most memorable came from Arthur Ward, a jockey who had ridden Redcraze and Tulloch. Ward rated Redcraze superior.

“A champion is a horse that not only beats other topliners but donkey licks them,” Ward opined. And that’s what Autumn Glow, now unbeaten in nine attempts, did to strong rivals, particularly stablemates Group one accomplished Aeliana and Lindermann in the Apollo Stakes.

Being present beats vision off-course. Bert Lillye, the great turf writer, went AWOL in World War 2 to see the mighty Bernborough then on the rise.

A mare, Autumn Glow is no Bernborough and one performance doesn’t make a champion but I am going along for the ride.

Autumn Glow and Aeliana again emphasised the expertise of trainer Chris Waller with fillies and mares. Earlier on the Randwick program Joliestar, the five-year-old mare prepared by him, notched the Expressway Stakes confirming her rating as one of the Australia’s best sprinters.

However the Randwick field was dwarfed by the presence and appearance of Tentyris at Flemington, awesome in the Black Caviar Lightning. An imposing Street Boss colt he filled the eye, even viewed afar in the Carol Williamson Media Room at Randwick.

Only Autumn Glow matched the Tentyris spectacle emphasising just how GOOD the horses and those that make them are at present.

Alas malcontents, resurrected in the main to support the Racing NSW takeover bid, continue to whinge.

Alleged pilfering by the ATC staff?

Let me take you back to the great days of Sydney Turf Club largesse. With aplomb Dave the Barman handled the Director’s Room with Bob Percy and the inimitable “Bruce”.

At the end of the day Dave would pick up the leftover sandwiches, half empty bottles of plonk and even the flowers for outside distribution. Actually I would ferry Dave to the Squash Club at Bondi Junction with a boot full of pelf for the consumption of the sweaty athletes. Tom Kennedy, the STC chairman, would joke that Dave had a truck with refrigeration waiting at the gate. But then Kennedy had no qualms entertaining “Jungle Jim” a Redfern garbo in the Director’s room.

How much of the current pilfering is headed to the garbage bin? Hardly BAD but the Randwick final event was UGLY. Just when I figured even the eternal pessimist, Peter Mair, would be satisfied, it was not to be. Mair wrote:

“There does not seem to have been much of a reaction to the Wallered last race at Randwick on Saturday — Movin Out, at 40/1, got under the punters radar while Althoff, at 4/1, did not perform as well as punters were led to expect.”

Long ago I claimed a world record for the Waller outsider beating the better-favoured stablemate, but intended to go off at a different tangent.

Getafix, a member of the O’Shea – Charlton team, eased from $7 to $17, a blow that once would have instituted stewards ringing the barrier so the starter would warn the jockey he was under close surveillance, particularly as his stablemate, Polymnia, was very firm at $4.80.

Alas Getafix was knocked over by Ash Morgan (Sunshineinmypocket) who received a lengthy suspension. Getafix was beaten three lengths in ninth place. Without the interference I doubt whether he would have won but certainly finished in front of Polymnia (1.5 length sixth).

It’s the bleat of modern-day: too many tryers.

Horse-sense: “I co-chair the Parliamentary Friends of Thoroughbred Racing and was officially invited,” Dan Tehan,” defended when questioned about being a guest at the Australian Open in the Sydney Morning Herald CBD column. Just when I figured the turf had very few friends in any parliament. Gambling is a “dog with flees” according to the column. Not in the era of Bob Hawke and Andrew Peacock, weight-for-age performers when it came to the turf. Hawke, for one, was the recipient of STC hospitality handed a glass and sambo by Dave in the Rosehill Director’s room.