Events that occurred at both the 2015 July and the 2016 L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate have left me asking questions about the various rules that govern the sport which have a negative effect on punters, writes SP reader FJC.
July – Tellina would have just about won it
- Without taking anything away from Legal Eagles brilliant performance on Saturday, the switching of the jockeys in the days leading up to the race would surely have left a poor taste in the mouths of all punters who backed “Act of War” anti-post.
Anton Marcus – jumped ship to ride Legal Eagle
While Act of War would have needed to find an extra leg to win a WFA Group 1 like the QP, many punters believe that Marcus (Superman) can actually get horses to run faster than the likes of Khumalo, Lerena, Forbes, Fortune and thus would have backed this horse based on him riding it even though on the ratings it had little chance of winning.
Ed – for interest, we queried why this ‘change’ of rider was not reflected in the Stipes Report. The NHA advised that Anton Marcus was carded in the official race card as the rider of Legal Eagle . The Stipes report will only reflect any changes to this publication.
While Futura clearly ran below his rating (I make him running to about a 109 or 110 which is well below his official rating), the rules that allow for the changing of jockeys must be reviewed especially for Group1’s that have an anti-post betting market or this it will lead to many suspicions.
- Continuing on the subject of actions that negatively affect punters, how could the Woodruff stable and the owners allow the jockey to ride Tellina over 1kg overweight over 2200 metres in the country’s biggest race when the likes of Richard Fourie were sitting in the jockey room. By my calculation Tellina would have just about won the July for the connections if he had been carrying the allocated weight.
Strangely enough the first I read / heard about this very unprofessional behaviour was when reading the Stipes report on the Tuesday after the race.
The punishment for actions like this must be so severe that those involved will never consider repeating them.
- During June 2015 when Legal Eagle was rated the best horse in the country, many amateur handicappers like myself were very sceptical about this assessment but the handicappers have been proved to be spot on, well done to them.
