Var flyer Quicksilver
Every horse that arrives to race in Singapore is given an ID number. It consists of the letter being used at the time, currently W, and starts with 1 and goes all the way to 999. This number is freeze branded onto the horse’s near side shoulder and the ID number is also embedded on a saddle cloth that the respective horse must wear at all times when working. We film the track work on Saturday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, writes Gareth Pepper.
Following on from last week’s article on the trials, which pleasingly garnered some interesting feedback, I would like to believe that another vital tool for many punters in Singapore is the show that I produce – it’s called, ‘Winning Workouts’.
I attend track work on Tuesday and Wednesdays. By Tuesday the nominations have come out so I have an idea of which horses to look out for and record the vision as well as hand time the final workouts on the various tracks.
We then spend Tuesday and Wednesday mornings sifting through the sixteen 2 hour long tapes, logging the respective runners’ track work and package it into the Winning Workouts show.
We go through each race, show the horse’s best piece of work from the past week and give our thoughts and comments.
Matt joins me to assess Friday’s work and Craig for Sunday. It is another vital tool for punters, owners, trainers and jockeys and also includes the 600m- finish times which I personally time from upstairs.
I would say we do very well at obtaining the majority of the track work, but we do not always get every runner and hazarding a guess I’d say we get 95% of the runners final workouts. It is a wonderful system and I may sound like a stuck record, but I do not know how I studied my form before – as this genuine value added service just takes it all to the next level.
Equus
I was keen to look at the winner’s list published on the Sporting Post website shortly after the awards dinner.
It really came as no surprise that Futura was named horse of the year. What he was able to achieve in the Cape at the beginning of the year was simply amazing and I must commend Brett Crawford for an outstanding job yet again.
Brett Crawford
Brett is one of the best trainers I have had the pleasure of working with and I look forward to see what he still has to offer in the future. He is a gentleman and a top class trainer and I cannot begin to imagine what he went through when his star was moved from him. Justin has also done a fantastic job with him and well done to him and his team for keeping the champ rolling at the highest level.
Well done to Sean Tarry too. I believe his acceptance speech was out of the top drawer and I am very happy that he can now add the champion trainer’s title to his already glowing CV. We have not always seen eye to eye but he is another talented trainer as he keeps on showing and I am sure will be fighting out the top spot in the country for many a year to come.
Mike Bass
I was very saddened to hear that Mike Bass has fallen ill.
I have had the pleasure of many a chat and laugh with Mike, Carol and Mark and I wish the entire Bass family strength at this tough time. Mike is a legend who always had time for me and I hope you recover soon my friend.
The entire Bass family are in my thoughts and prayers.
Until next time.
