MY CALL - THE GLORIOUS UNCERTAINTY OF RACING

By David Fowler | Tuesday, November 29, 2011

David Fowler is the principal thoroughbred caller for Radio TAB. David, who is a keen form student and punter, has enjoyed a lifetime involvement in the racing media. His personal blog, ‘My Call’, appears exclusively on HRO.

The glorious uncertainty of racing.

It's an expression I used in the race broadcast when the New Zealand pacer Auckland Reactor was controversially beaten in an Inter-Dominion heat at the Gold Coast in 2009.

He was considered a put-in, take-out proposition, but rather being in or near the lead, he was near last. How could this happen?

We can apply the same phrase to Listen Son winning the Keith Noud Quality at Eagle Farm on Saturday.

Those who purely follow the form would be up in arms after Listen Son turned around a 31.1 length defeat at Flemington to winning Saturday's Listed race. How could this happen?

‘But's ... happens. It serves the point well that they are animals not machines.

I'm a form student and love analysing races and, sure, I get cranky when I end up on the wrong side of the ledger.

How did it improve that much? How could it go backwards in a week? Why didn't he lead? Why did he go back? Etc, etc.

No-one can explain what happened to Listen Son that day at Flemington. Trainer Tony Gollan outlined publicly that numerous vet checks failed to shed any light on the matter.

And he was the first to admit he was the most nervous man on the track before the race on Saturday but, fortunately, Listen Son delivered as we know he can.

One question lingers with me regarding Listen Son. Is he Chief De Beers in reverse?

By that I mean Listen Son seems to excel at Eagle Farm (six wins) and is still a Doomben maiden. It's well documented Chief De Beers grew a leg at Doomben and couldn't strike across the road.

Maybe it's just been circumstances because he led to the last hop before nailed by Woorim in this year's BTC Sprint at Doomben in May.

Maybe he'll never win a race at Doomben and then it will be another to file away in the ‘Glorious Uncertainty Of Racing’ casebook!

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There were some ordinary runs in the Quality considering some of the reputations that went into the race.

The knives were out for Belltone before they went to the post. The grapevine tip was a poor midweek trial and some average track gallops.

The run wasn't bad, but it didn't have a "be on me next time" ring about it.

Kelso Wood did a fantastic job will Belltone last campaign, but he met the A grade on Saturday and might have scraped in with a pass mark.

He deserves another chance.

Spirit Of Boom and Ready to Rip didn't put in and, unfortunately for them, nothing gets any easier as we move into the Summer Carnival.

Ready To Rip might gain an advantage on a wet track, but Spirit Of Boom needs it dry.

On the upside, Essington's run was a beauty. I was surprised to see him so far back considering it was an average on-pace tempo yet, despite the pace of the race being against him, he hit the line powerfully.

Certainly the one to follow out of the race.

Excellantes was good, but we expect that. He never runs a bad race.

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I got a real buzz when I called my first Keith Noud Quality and it was the same feeling this year.

A true gentleman and a patriarch of the Queensland racing media and Queensland race broadcasting, he played a very important role in advancing my journalistic and race broadcasting career as far back as my schoolboy days.

Like many, my respect for him was always sky high and he was always referred to as "Mr Noud". You simply never dreamed of calling him "Keith" or "Noudy".

It's wonderful that the memory is perpetuated once a year.

I believe another broadcasting icon - Vince Curry - should be afforded the same honour.

Vince probably had a wider audience Australia-wide and was considered the voice of Queensland racing during the sixties, seventies and early eighties.

These were great men for Queensland racing. I'm probably being selfish because it's my line of work but a race name is not a lot to ask, is it?

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Grapevine tip one: Expect to hear more from the Larry Cassidy stand-down at Ipswich on Friday.

Grapevine tip two: Fireworks between Racing Queensland and Queensland bookies are just around the corner.

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