MY CALL - THOUGHTS ARE WITH THE OGILVIE FAMILY
By David Fowler | Tuesday, July 16, 2013
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.
Queensland's best known bookmaker Brian Ogilvie is battling ill health.
Family members have gathered at the Gold Coast after Brian suffered a stroke last week.
Ogilvie, 75, has not enjoyed the best of health since his retirement from "the rails" in 2006.
A product of the old school style of bookmaking, Ogilvie might not have known if it was Eagle Farm or Doomben he was heading to but he sure knew who the favourite was in the last.
Hell or high-water, he would be laying it to the hilt.
His huge betting over almost five decades ensured Queensland secured a piece of the jigsaw of Australian's love affair with gambling.
Like Tommy Smith, he actively sought publicity and racing was so often the back page in the 70's and 80's screaming an Ogilvie headline penned by Keith Noud or Jim Anderson in The Telegraph or Courier-Mail.
The Stradbroke Handicap was his love child. He relished the parry and thrust with punters who descended on Eagle Farm for that long weekend in June.
Divide And Rule was considered a wipe-out result for bookies in 1970 but Ogilvie confided to me once that Grey Ghost's win in 1959 was worse.
This blogger got to know "the Brian off the track" through his daughter Jai.
If you were a friend of the family, you became part of the family and many parties and many drinks.
Certainly, he had his detractors and rivals. It's the world of bookmaking, after all.
But when the final settling was done, his contribution to Queensland racing over almost five decades far and away outweighed any negativity.
Our thoughts and prayers are with his family.
***************************************************************************************************
Sometimes it's better to say nothing than something.
Visiting trainer Grant Allard seems a decent bloke and pretty handy horse trainer but he infuriated many a punter with his statement at a post-race stewards’ inquiry into Style's win at Doomben on the weekend.
Style produced a form reversal within seven days.
Simple as that.
Beaten six lengths with every chance in running in a 1200m Class 6 at Eagle Farm seven days earlier.
Any horse is entitled to one bad run. They're not machines. Yet the undisputable fact is she improved considerably.
Allard blamed the track at Eagle Farm. This was an improving slow track that later was re-assessed to dead. The race she ran in at Eagle Farm was run in 1:11.04.
The race at Doomben she won was run in a slower 1:11.51 on a slow track that was not re-assessed.
So considering all matters, one could assume the Eagle Farm track was in marginally better shape than Doomben.
Did Allard think he had to give an excuse? Why not simply say he couldn't explain the improved run.
When punters read what they did in the stewards report they become, as I said earlier, "infuriated".
***************************************************************************************************
Punters who were wiped out in the opening quadrella leg were entitled to a "please explain" when Tuskegree Hawk sprinted impressively to nose out Clangor.
But stewards didn't even bother to ask a question.
The same Tuskegee Hawk plodded into third beaten just over six lengths by Clonmacnoise on a favourable heavy track at the Sunshine Coast where it is trained as a $2.10 favourite.
There was no hard luck story. Plain as.
Yet in a harder race at Doomben, she sprinted sub 35 seconds off the back of a slow pace to win.
Again, it's not a hanging offence for her to score because we know she has the ability. Trainer Len Treloar commented post-race on BRC TV that she was finally building in fitness levels.
It's disappointing the stewards' report doesn't show that.
***************************************************************************************************
Much has been written and said about last week's midweek meeting at Eagle Farm.
I believe the track was worse than it was rated at various points of the day but that's not the main topic at hand.
The circuit is in need of urgent repair. Tendering for the operation is about to close and Racing Queensland has given the project the big tick on priority.
So it's simply a matter of Treasury releasing the purse strings on monies already approved for these such projects.
Is there a delay or are we racing folk not fully understanding of the red tape that has to be utilised in such operations?
Let's hope it's the latter.
Fixing up a worn out track mightn't look as "sexy" in a press release as showering money on a new grandstand but punters are fast losing confidence … on occasions … on a track with a premium brand that produces high turnover.
That confidence must be restored.
***************************************************************************************************
Always great to see mature apprentice Geoff Goold kick home a winner.
You can see the eyes light up every time he lands one whether it’s Doomben, Gatton or Townsville.
And he has enjoyed a good season with in excess of 70 winners on the board.
His modesty is endearing. When asked did he know Discreet was lurking behind him as he sent General Exhibit to the wire in the last, he replied,
"Mate, I haven't got eyes in the back of my head like Damian Browne. I'm just good enough to look straight ahead and hope."
Until next week.
More articles
|