Opinion

There is a belief that pedigrees don’t run races – horses do, and it’s true that certain pedigrees have an affinity for certain people. We’ve seen it with famous horse-jockey combinations as well as famous horse-trainer combinations. Similarly, certain owner-trainer combinations are also known to create a successful alchemy. The horses and their stories thread themselves through yards and lives and histories and draw people and events together in interesting and complicated ways. It’s fascinating to follow the threads and see how seemingly trivial events, slotted into place at just the right time and just the right place, conspire to produce quite extraordinary results.

If you weren’t among the 50 000 fortunate on-course spectators to have witnessed Past Master’s brilliant win in Saturday’s J&B Met, then you would have been one of the minority couple of million who would have had to sit through surely one of the worst feature race broadcasts ever. A bored looking panel dominated by foreign bodies and a distinctly disinterested Darren Scott, coupled with technical issues, made for a forgettable day on the couch. If only Gone With The Wind was showing on the classic channel, I would have switched allegiances, without hesitating.

Sarah Whitelaw on Tribute to a Champion, Met-day presenters, big weekend for Trippi, plans for top mares, NZ Premier Sale, 3yo fillies, and Jet Master’s great week

What a fantastic whirl of non stop activity all the breeders have put on for everyone this past week. I made it to the gym this morning, but I think I was alcohol pouring out of my skin not sweat!

My recently rejuvenated interest in the brilliant fare being dished up by the Western Cape’s Sizzling Summer Season took a sobering knock on Saturday afternoon. Treating one’s customers like desperado intellectually challenged palukas is a one-way ticket to oblivion and no amount of internationalisation and foreign investment is going to change anything until the right genuinely passionate horseracing people are placed in the key positions. We desperately need some input from the old school guys who really loved their jobs and the game, and even took their clothes off when the moment demanded it.

Sarah Whitelaw’s take on the thoroughbred world

Clockwatcher’s column to 16 Jan

If you really want to do something, you’ll find a way. If you don’t, you’ll find an excuse. From what I hear, everybody out there wants change. So in that case we’re out of excuses, folks. All those in favour say ‘aye’.