THE SUNSHINE COAST NEWSPAPER COLUMN - CARNIVAL EARNS A PASS MARK ON AT LEAST TWO COUNTS

By Graham Potter | Sunday, May 31, 2015

Graham Potter writes a weekly column for the Sunshine Coast daily. Due to demand from those having trouble accessing the paper these columns are now also published on HRO courtesy of the Sunshine Coast daily.

Good riders follow good horses.

Glyn Schofield seldom heads to Brisbane but he came for Boban last week and he went away with another Group 1 win to add to his healthy collection of big race triumphs after the good looking gelding scored the tenth success of his career when saluting in the Doomben 10 000.

That victory rated as a surprise in strict betting terms as Boban started at the easy-to-back odds of $17, but it did underline the principle that top jockeys seldom travel for the scenery.

While we often wax lyrical about the boost the presence of the likes of trainers Chris Waller, Gai Waterhouse, Peter Snowden, Peter Moody and John O’Shea, to mention a few, bring to the Queensland Carnival, we perhaps don’t always give credit to the riders that the horses from these top stables lure to town.

It has been well documented that Sydney trained runners won eight of the nine races on the 10 000 card. All but two of those winners were ridden by visiting jockeys making up a part list of a ‘who’s who’ from the top level of Australian riding ranks.

James McDonald, Zac Purton (now a Hong Kong champion), Kerrin McEvoy, Blake Shinn, Glyn Schofield, Tommy Berry all paid a visit to the winner’s enclosure while those visiting riders who missed out on the lion’s share of the prize included Glen Boss, Tye Angland, Hugh Bowman, Brad Rawiller and last, but certainly not least, the highly decorated Robert Thompson.

Carnival’s can be rated as a success or otherwise on many sets of criteria.

We know, from day one of the Queensland Carnival, that visiting trainers have shown their support for this prime racing period of the Queensland season by nominating in numbers.

That was tick one for the carnival.

Have a look at the names of those ten visiting jockeys again. Add in the names of Craig Williams and Craig Newitt ... and there can be no doubt that the carnival gets another tick of approval for the high quality of riders it has been able to attract this year.

It’s just a pity from Queensland’s participants point of view that the visitors pocket so much of the prize-money on offer, but if Racing Queensland and its associate race-clubs want the best trainers to bring their horses to the Sunshine state and have them ridden mostly by top, visiting jockeys that is the price they are always likely going to have to pay.

They can’t have it both ways.

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Sunshine Coast based Luke Tarrant was one of the local riders (With Tim Bell and Ryan Wiggins) to have success on 10 000 day ... but it was also a day which got him into serious strife with stewards.

Tarrant, for so long the leader in the Brisbane Jockey’s Premiership, before Jim Byrne slipped past him two weeks ago, was handed two suspensions ... one for six weeks after he was found guilty of the serious charge of reckless riding.

Tarrant will appeal that particular outcome, but this incident may well have brought a premature end to his Brisbane title chase which appeared to be so firmly in his grasp when he was a runaway leader earlier this year.

Even in a jockey’s title chase, there is no such thing as a certainty in racing!

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