MY CALL: HARSH REVIEWS OF HOUTZEN'S RUN MISS THE MARK BUT A REALITY CALL DOES BECKON
By David Fowler | Tuesday, September 12, 2017
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.
Houtzen's first-up performance is being judged on a false premise.
That's if you think her McEwen Stakes third at Moonee Valley was ordinary or below par. I certainly didn't .
But her performance is largely being judged in the prism of the $10million The Everest where she is slotted to run.
If there was no Everest on the horizon, I think many would be more generous in their appraisal.
Let's face it, she was taking that often precarious step, carrying a boom two-year-old reputation to race against some of the best short coursers in the land.
She drew the outside gate and for the first time was out of her comfort zone, left wide and stranded on an unfamiliar track.
And the supposed "weight advantage" is tosh. Weight means nothing in short distance races like the McEwen.
She stuck to her task gamely and I thought it was an excellent performance, not using The Everest as a yardstick.
The 1200m race against her own her own age and sex at Moonee Valley on September 29 is a far more suitable assignment.
Houtzen can't win The Everest. Nor can She Will Reign.
It might have been warm and fuzzy putting their names up in lights at the time but reality just around the corner now beckons.
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This burgeoning backlog of QCAT appeals is ridiculous.
Matt McGillivray rode in a race at Townsville in June which incurred a 10 meeting suspension later internally reviewed by QRIC and increased to 11.
He is riding on a stay of proceedings and a date for his QCAT appeal is yet to be set.
That is simply not good enough and something has to change.
And soon.
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When will administration man up and admit their cobalt argument is wrong?
Their cries that cobalt is the greatest scourge since the plague and cheats will be disqualified is now being treated as a whimper by more and more, day by day.
Sure, there were some who directly administered cobalt. No argument.
But this stonewalling response that every detection of cobalt equates to drug cheat which will equate to disqualification is laughable.
Well, not laughable to the innocent parties caught up in it.
Highly respected Sydney trainer Ron Quinton is the latest "victim"
As Peter Moody, a previous "victim", remarked to me on the weekend in referring to Quinton, "Bambi has been shot"
It's nothing short of a national disgrace.
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I'll be closely following the performances of last Friday's Beaudesert winners Brains and Harold Victor.
Brains was accredited with running the 1400m in 1:21.5 and Harold Victor smashed the 1300m track record by nearly a full second running 1:15.04.
The electronic times are correct with the hindsight of subsequent hand-timing.
These extraordinarily fast times were in stark contrast to more conventional winning times on the day for other distances of 1100m 1200m and 1650m.
And what is wrong with the timing system at Doomben that has seen the electronic system fail seven times at the last three meetings ?
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