The Rabbits, hanging onto the mighty tag with an excruciating final minute against Newcastle, recollections of Derryn Hinch and a sure-fire winner take precedence over a solid, if not stimulating, Royal Randwick winter meeting last week.
A South Sydney warrior under siege of Motor Neurone Disease, Jai Arrow’s 31st birthday promotion last Sunday at Accor Stadium left visions splendid, being a credit to the club, and the players producing the spirit for which the red and is renowned.
Notorious for many media facets, Hinch comes up because I worked under him many decades ago when he was editor of the “The Sun”, the Sydney afternoon newspaper then in the circulation wars when racing was a major seller.
Hinch was one of the best, in the trifecta with Lindsay Clinch my first and John Benaud, the last. Sydney Morning Herald editors that followed my tabloid stint were a different class, perhaps more civilised under less demanding circumstances.
What made Hinch so good? He read every line in his paper, and the opposition. If he didn’t understand, questions were fired. Hinch was not a racing enthusiast but he adapted.
A New Zealander, freshly back from New York, my Aussie slang and turf patois puzzled him.
Expressions including “the swish of oars” (boat-race, one goer), “ridden upside down” (leader getting back in the field), “honey tongue” (a sweet talker), and “wild duck” – (a defaulter who would not settle) were beyond him. Mind you some others had the same difficulty.
But he cut me special space. Before his time, our employers, John Fairfax, would not allow the staff to work for outside organisations. Supported by him, I sought special permission to start Turf Time, a radio program for 2KY with Ian Craig. It lasted 25 years.
During this period, too, Hinch started a radio spot with an outside station, 2UE, on restaurants and food, gaining him the title of the “Hungry Hinch”. The “Human Headline” followed. Hinch was always going to be too good for newspapers. He advanced into television, radio, and politics.
Since Robin Oakley’s departure from “The Spectator,” the written word in print outside of racing publications has become difficult to find. That said, I admire the “Winning Post” and those that write for it.
However last week I came across a story in “The Monthly”, outstanding on yearlings and sales that turf eyes may miss.
“Late Georgian match racing was never entirely about the horse. The horse mattered, obviously. It could win lose, break down, refuse, bleed, collapse or immortalise a blood line. But the social function of the thing extended well beyond the athletics. Match racing was aristocratic theatre: gambling, reputation, masculine competition and dynastic signalling conducted through horseflesh.
“Two centuries later not much has changed…” by Paul MacLeman.
GOOD but BAD arose with personal blood pressure soaring to around 175- 115, with considerable medication, when Kalyn Ponga was cutting a swathe through the Rabbits over the latter stages. Even with a 26-6 lead it was a nervous situation. Ponga was always dangerous.
Was it three seasons back when I said to Kris Lees, the Broadmeadow trainer and Knights supporter, that I would freely swap Latrell Mitchell for Ponga?
Anyway, a loose pass saw justice done but our Jai Gray was coming across in cover defence. Diminutive, but Gray gives it his all. Matt Dufty, selected in favour over Gray at fullback, is good, proving his worth on Sunday, but I would not have had him over the non-stop dynamo.
Wayne Bennett, one of the great Rugby League minds, preferred Dufty. And probably would go for Mitchell over Ponga so a tabloid hack should keep a mug’s place.
UGLY goes to The Swans against Freemantle in Perth. Again so many top players but a team that folded under pressure but still front-runners for second place come the finals when special grit is required.
Horse-sense: “Is the turnover so significant we do not want to race at other venues during the dead of winter as opposed to highlighting the Grafton carnival? Wyong is track which I wouldn’t rate in the high end of big bucks. But it gets a Saturday.
“As a late 60’s something person we survived with meetings at Canterbury and Warwick Farm in the 70’s and 80’s which further helped grass regeneration at our premier tracks. I used to watch the battler punter over the fence at these places. I used to enjoy the August pipe opening meetings at Warwick Farm – horses like Shaftesbury Avenue, Might And Power ect. Are things better? No.”
– John Stewart
Coffs Harbour
There was nothing better than the hobartville and warwick stakes meetings at the farm in august on those beautiful lawns and under the liverpool bar when the sunshine dripped down like honey. They were my favourite meetings bar none. There were 11 saturdays a year at the farm in the 1970s. Now none.