March 27, 2015
by Ross Stanley
Nanango Race Club’s most popular meeting – the Easter Saturday fixture – is just a week away.
The meeting is as much a signature event for the South Burnett as Wondai’s Anzac Day meeting, the annual Burrandowan Picnic Races or Kumbia’s Melbourne Cup..
On these dates many once-a-year patrons pop out for a social day during which they catch up with other occasional patrons.
It is also a great outing for those hosting visitors, particularly the city slickers.
Given the four day Easter break, many of the area’s expatriates also get a chance to come back to their old stamping grounds and cross paths with familiar faces.
This race day provides the ideal opportunity to mix and mingle.
It is also a great place for newcomers to get to know other locals.
And since it’s also the start of the school holidays, children will get a chance to sample some favourite Easter treats.
Patrons are reminded that spot judging will apply for the fashion contests this time. The main theme is “Floaty Frocks and Polka Dots”, but I’m told that eye catching Easter bonnets or bunnies will be in line for a reward as well!
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Remember The Russells
Saturday’s Monto card features the annual memorial race that honours the well known father and son team of Gordon and Ken Russell.
The former passed away at age 93 in 2011 while the later was killed at age 42 when Tuig crashed at Rosehill on October 9, 1993.
Gordon was an amateur jockey in his dairy farming days before the Second World War.
A later riding highlight was his victory on Gayndah Boy in the 1958 Central Queensland Derby at Rockhampton.
He switched to training after a serious fall in 1964, and among his thrills was the family’s triumph with Panard in the 1980 Rockhampton Cup when elder son Bill was the strapper and Ken was the pilot.
Bill also wanted to be a jockey but he broke both of his legs in a trackwork mishap at home and that put paid to his aspirations.
Ken, who worked as a compositor at the Monto Herald, did not undertake a formal jockey’s apprenticeship.
Instead he rode around Central Queensland before Lloyd Hickmott, well known in the South Burnett for his training and breeding feats, enticed Ken to join him at the Gold Coast in 1979.
Ken Russell has a unique spot in Gold Coast history.
He not only secured five successive premierships. but also collected a staggering seven (of 12 possible) Golden Nuggets and two Magic Millions.
Then the “king of the kids” went on to capture a swag of Australia’s feature events through his associations with the stables of Jack Denham, Dr Geoff Chapman and Brian Mayfield-Smith.
Visitors to Monto can reflect on the wonderful career of Ken Russell by checking out his Lions Park statue.
Fittingly, he is attired in the white and purple livery of key owner-breeders Geoff and Beryl White.
And appropriately, the Gold Coast’s Ken Russell Classic is a black-type contest for two-year-olds.
A full length feature article on the Russells is in the January 2013 edition of RACE Magazine, and you can read it by clicking here.
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Yearling Sales Take A Statistical Stride Forward
Figures published by the Magic Millions group indicate that the recent two day auction at the Gold Coast returned significantly improved outcomes for the vendors when compared with recent trends.
The 2015 numbers are shown by category below, with the relevant 2014 and 2013 data shown in brackets.
- Catalogue: 396 Lots (401,450)
- Lots Sold: 303 (258,293)
- Lots Withdrawn: 25 (27,35)
- Lots Passed In: 67 (116,122)
- Top Price: $170,000 ($105,000,$170,000)
- Average: $28,899 ($21,447, $21,193)
- Median: $22,000 (Not available)
- Gross For Whole Sale: $8,756,500 ($5,541,000; $6,209,500)
- Clearance Rate: 81.89% (69%,71%)
The eyes of the nation’s breeders and buyers will now turn to the pivotal Easter Yearling Sales in Sydney.
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Some Fine Print Around Online Betting
Having a bet was once a simple task. In days of yore, punters flocked to the track, stood in the ring and waited for the price they wanted in what was a “cheeseless” game of cat and mouse with the bookmakers.
The broadcasts of price fluctuations from the betting rings of the “away” tracks were monitored closely so the firmers, drifters and shakers were part of the final reckoning. In the pre-computer age, what you saw was what you got.
The following item is an example of how things have changed.
On 5 March The ABC’s online news service (www.abc.net.au) reported on a crucial case involving a leading overseas betting operator.
The item, sure to be of interest to punters, is quoted in full below.
| A UK online gambling giant has been taken to court by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), which says it breached consumer law and made “misleading representations” to customers.The case, which began with a pre-trial hearing in the Federal Court in Darwin, pits the consumer watchdog against the Bet365 group, the UK’s self described “biggest online betting provider… with over 14 million customers in 200 different countries”.
The ACCC alleges Bet365 made “misleading representations” in breach of Australian consumer law with its free bet or deposit bonus offers. The case was initiated after a complaint that originated in Darwin. The offers, it was alleged, “conveyed the general thrust or dominant message that new customers of Bet365 would be entitled to up to $200 in bets without limitation or restriction. In fact, the offers were subject to a number of such conditions that were not prominently displayed”. The ACCC said Bet365 customers “must first risk their own deposit to receive a free bet or deposit bonus, so that consumers would only receive a $200 free bet or deposit bonus if they paid and gambled $200 of their own money first” and in order to be eligible for the offers, customers must have gambled three times the value of their deposit and bonus within 90 days before being able to withdraw any winnings. “As a result, a consumer who made an initial deposit of $200 and received $200 in bets was required to then gamble $1,200 before being able to withdraw any money,” it said. “To meet the free bet or deposit bonus terms and conditions, consumers were required to bet at odds of no less than 1.5, meaning that they were required to bet on higher risk transactions.” The ACCC said it was seeking “declarations, injunctions, pecuniary penalties, corrective advertising, a compliance program and costs from Bet365” in relation to the case. |
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Bits And Bridles
- Split travel is very much the agenda for Wondai trainer Norma King. Her son Joshua will partner her runners at Charleville on Saturday while Deagon apprentice Mel Cox will do the honours with her entrants at Monto. Hannah Phillips will also compete at the northern venue as will a shaven-headed Lyall Appo. Among the Deception Bay veteran’s engagements is Zarmoney for Roma trainer Craig Smith.
- Pat Duff’s apprentice Jed Hodge, fresh from landing four winners and a second on Bundaberg’s five race program last Saturday, will also ride at Monto. The New Zealander, who did not see a horse in the flesh until he was 17, has enjoyed a phenomenal burst since his Nanango debut in January. His scorecard now reads as 26:9-5-3, a strike rate better than a winner every three rides.
- At the other end of the spectrum, Nyngan apprentice Kazu Nakata will be hoping his saddle life begins at 40. His winless 39 rides to date have yielded four seconds and five thirds. The rookie was runner-up at his most recent outing at Dubbo, having made his first appearance at Cobar last May. Along the way, he has ridden at some 17 different north western New South Wales tracks as well as Cunnamulla and Chareleville in Queensland. Mounts number 40 and 41 are bookings for Barcaldine trainer Todd Austin this weekend at Charleville.
- Sarah Eilbeck, the British lass who kicked off in the SEQ country district, has a very healthy form line of 156:30-23-16. That translates into a winning average of one in five and a podium placed success rate of 44%.
- Although the James Curtain trained I Am Mclovin is a gelding and therefore of no stud value, the camp must have been pleased that Vancouver won last Saturday’s Golden Slipper. The Sydney colt is a son of Skates, the half sister to Bradbury’s Luck and I Am McLovin’s sire Murtajill.
- South Burnett trainers Tony Williams and Glenn Richardson and apprentice Rhiannon Payne missed out on working on Friday when a fatal road accident near the Kilcoy racecourse forced the abandonment of the TAB meeting before it started.
