I don’t know why but somehow having a weekend winner always makes one feel good for the week ahead. Sadly that was not to be this past weekend. However, we pulled out some very nice two year olds this past Tuesday and things are looking very good, indeed, writes Joey Ramsden.
The weather has turned down here and we have had our traditional cold and wet Easter. We have not had enough rain to make a huge difference but at least it is starting.
I have had some lovely comeback regarding some of the things I said about Peter Moody and his situation.
Racing, I feel, has the most wonderful way of shooting itself in the foot or kicking itself up the butt.
On his farm in Victoria Bruce Akers, who is a restricted-licence trainer, has been discovered with multiple dead horses (23)and even more emaciated horses on the verge of euthanasia.
However, the Victorian racing authorities choose rather to persecute Peter Moody, the one man who is doing a huge amount of good for racing, globe-trotting around the world with his star filly, Black Caviar. He has one minor transgression that he almost certainly was not directly responsible for.
However, as the person responsible for the care of the horse, he was punished severely by the racing authorities. The end result of that has been a huge loss of income and jobs for his staff as well as a huge loss to racing. Let’s not forget Peter Moody trained a group one winner just before handing his license in.
Peter Moody – got some great feedback
Mr Akers has been on the radar of the turf authorities for a number of years and they have chosen to do nothing about him. The level of neglect and abuse on these poor horses over a period of time was criminal.
I was sickened just looking at the pictures. How much worse was it for the people who were actually there and in charge of the rescue? However, the authorities seem to feel that one positive for cobalt is a far more serious offense.
This is certainly a good example of the way certain people in racing think, their ridiculous attitudes towards positives and what those positives actually mean. Yes, some people are desperados but others certainly don’t need to be for success to come their way. I will leave it up to you to decide where you stand on this issue.
Since the departure of Smart Call, the Met-winning filly, Legal Eagle looks to be the best horse in the country with an extremely impressive performance in the Horse Chestnut Stakes. He looks like being the horse we all have to chase in Johannesburg and Natal.
Who knows: perhaps an international campaign beckons for him? He certainly looks good enough.
Mike Bass had an impressive Querari (GER) colt win the Juvenile race on Saturday. Mike looks to have a couple of smart youngsters and this one looks destined for the tops. While he is my competitor, I cannot be happier for the man.
Maybe there really is someone up there shining a light down on us all.
Just when I thought we were going forwards with our racing, we are back to once a week.
Our fields are filling up and our juvenile races are full. I feel a drastic overhaul of our programme and the timing of the races is needed.
It is again sales time and catalogues are piling up on my desk. The CTS Johannesburg one looks of particular interest. Plenty of hard work ahead for me.
On the sporting front, Formula One continues to bore the socks off us all and there looks to be big ructions ahead. The drivers claim they have no pull or say whatsoever but I feel this space needs to be watched.
As for the soccer, Spurs look a tremendous side. it is great to see someone playing the youngsters and the fact that they are mostly English makes it even better. The postman is doing a wonderful job as is the Tinkerman at Leicester City who keeps on producing one nil wins. Long may it last and long may they be champions. It really is a true fairy tale.
Roy Hodgson managed to put out a winning team. It is quite amazing: one of the leading goal scorers only comes on the final twenty minutes in the game against Germany. What does he do? Score!
Sadly Roy is clueless but again it is too late for them to forge ahead and get someone fresh and exciting for the European Championships.
England managed to throw away, in the last over, what was a really exciting game against the West Indies. Who would ever want to bowl those final six balls? It really is a game of the toss of the coin but what exciting television. I think the whole tournament has been a success all round and helped to revive the tainted name of cricket – even if you are, like me, not a great fan of the shortened game.
It would be remiss of me not to put my five cents worth into the bringing down of Jacob Zuma.
Please, Dear God, that it happens as soon as possible for all our sakes in this country.
His reign of corruption and self-enrichment simply cannot go on any longer nor can we survive as an economy because of it.
Hopefully good news will follow in the week ahead.
