MY CALL - 'MUM' KEEPS GETTING THE JOB DONE
By David Fowler | Tuesday, April 24, 2012
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.
Cheering home More Joyous is like cheering your mum on.
I know she's only five years of age but it seems like she has been around longer and being the eldest of the "dream team" (Black Caviar and Atlantic Jewel), the
matriarch status sits fairly well.
While Black Caviar has the aura and Atlantic Jewel has the wow factor, "mum" is expected to turn up and get the job done as mums do. And she does it on a regular basis with 18 wins from 25 starts.
These are unprecedented times in modern day racing and it’s not only for their wonderful racetrack performances but the raw emotion that comes with it.
Tears from hardheads like Moody and Kavanagh and Rawiller simply add to the rich theatre that is being played out.
And isn't a great feeling to cheer a horse on without having had a bet.
P.S. My mum loves More Joyous and a start doesn't go by without her backing her. See, even mums like "mum"
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The heavily-backed Better Than Ready, who flew at Eagle Farm on the weekend, certainly brought out the conspiracy theorists.
Everyone puts a badge on and becomes a detective. Who backed it? Who tipped it? How much money went on and how much was won? They must have all the facts!
From what I can gather (now my badge is on!), money was invested at the $26 and $21 dollars which, being a first starter and untrialled, brought its price in swifter than normal to the $7 mark on Thursday night when another wave of cash brought it into $3 by Friday.
That's where it dried up. Unlayable at the track and returning a respectable $3.50 on Tattsbet.
There are a thousand stories in the naked city I could tell you regarding this horse, but I won't give anyone up.
Suffice to say, many trainers know more about other horses than their own!
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Track ratings are a hobby horse of mine, so here we go.
Bouquets to the Randwick track and its staff for presenting such an effective surface after the week's deluge.
Brickbats to those who rated it a heavy eight. Even the first couple of races showed the track was nowhere near heavy. It was a slow 6 to a dead 5 track and the times proved it.
Rating a track is not a perfect science and these graded ratings (i.e slow 6, slow 7 etc etc) are putting more pressure on the track raters and giving more mileage to critics like me.
Drop the numbers and go back to fast, good, dead, slow and heavy for everyone's sake.
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Even the RSPCA might have given Rob Heathcote a leave pass if he had "kicked the cat" on Saturday.
The day started out fairly when Heza Jetsetter flashed home for fourth in the opener. Watch for him at the Gold Coast in a fortnight over 1200m.
Solzhenitsyn was a good thing beaten in the third; Gundy Son and Fillydelphia were the closest of thirds and fourths; Funtantes was pipped on the post and Triple Honour had to play second fiddle in the last.
There's been better days for the trainer.
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What a disgrace Toowoomba is racing tomorrow.
Six races with small fields and Queensland's flag-bearer meeting on Anzac Day.
An embarrassment!
Racing should be at Eagle Farm or Doomben primarily, then Gold Coast, then Ipswich, then Sunshine Coast and Toowomba would be fifth banana.
Oh, where are they racing interstate you might ask … Randwick and Flemington!
Until next week.
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