I'm just curious as to how many e-Blahers follow the Spring Carnival and in particular the Melbourne Cup. I gave up years ago and have picked a few winners in my time. I have gotten to the point now where I do not even watch it. I am however very taken with the winner of the Cox Plate, Makybe Diva. She is one heck of a horse. She has won the Melbourne Cup in 2003 and 2004. I hope she backs up for a try at 3 in a row. Any thought or tips. Are you doing anything special on Melbourne Cup Day?
This post contains attachments; to download them you must login.
The Melbourne Cup is tomorrow. The Race that stops a Nation. I hope that Makybe Diva with Glen Boss on board can make it three in a row on Tuesday the 1st November 2005.
This post contains attachments; to download them you must login.
I Loathe horse racing, being subjected to it endlessly by grandparents whom gambled away all therir money on the "Ponies" as I grew up, old Grandad with the transistor radio glued to his ear all day, the only activity being being strange 2 to 2 1/2 minute sessions with him yelling comon comon and rocking in the chair followed by 15 minutes of inactivity....then th ecycle would repeat itself.
When I am El Presidente of Australia there will be no prize money allowed for horse racing, no broadcasting of horse racing, no registration of race horses.... oh stuff it - just all off to the knackers........
You brought back some not so great memories for me BB. My Pop listened every Saturday afternoon to the G-Gs with his ear glued to the wireless (as I recall we called them) and woe betide anyone who made a noise when the race was being run or the betting odds being announced! He and my granny were very successful punters. They worked hard 5 days a week, sometimes 6 & 7 days depending on the seasons. When I think about it, punting was their only activity outside of work. They also went to the races if they were on locally. When I think about how hard they worked and how much they did for their family I don't suppose I can begrudge them their weekly flutters. On the other hand my ex husband wasted around $50-$80 per week betting, on anything, in any form. Pokies and Card machines were his biggest downfall with The Races next in line. He did win big sometimes but that hardly made up for all the losses. The biggest win he had was when he had a 'Half Trifecta' because we didn't have enough money for a full one... and he won $4000.00. We bought our very first PC with a good portion of the money and have never been without at least 2 Computers in the house ever since.
She did it, she has written herself well and truly into the history books. Now she has a year of leasure and rest before they begin to breed from her a new line of champions.
And then, when the story could not get any better, Makybe Diva's owner, Tony Santic, wrote a stunning epilogue. In the mounting yard, with the adulation almost tangible, Santic looked at Freedman and two minds met as one: "It's over."
The mare a nation had fallen in love with would race no more.
When Santic got around to telling the crowd, they roared even louder. "To ask anything more of this wonderful mare would not be fair," he announced before calling three cheers for the Diva. The hip-hip hoorays rang in farewell, an old-fashioned thank-you on a day in which Australia's past and its present melded seamlessly together.
This post contains attachments; to download them you must login.
The racing industry is split, but mostly really phobic about cloning technology, on one side the "breeding" game is worth an absolute squillion, imagine how that will fair when you could just sneak a quick skin scrapping of a horse in a stable, and 3 years later be racing the same horse only younger - bang goes their breeding industry!
On the other hand the owners of geldings whom do really well on the track want to be able to clone the gelding so they can then breed from it.
Delta Blues won the Melbourne Cup from stablemate Pop Rock in an historic one-two for Japanese-trained horses at Flemington this afternoon.
Yasunari Iwata pushed the winner Delta Blues into the lead approaching the 300-metre mark.
He then punched his mount out to win by a half-head after being joined by his stablemate Pop Rock, ridden by dual Melbourne Cup-winning hoop Damien Oliver for Katsuhiko Sumii, inside the final 100 metres.
"I'm so happy," Iwata said before returning to the winner's enclosure in tears, overcome with joy at winning the 'race that stops the nation'.
"This is my biggest win ever."
Iwata said later through an interpreter: "I rode in a very positive way so I would never have any regrets."
Sumii, too, was overcome after the race.
"To win this race is unbelievable. This will be felt in Japan."
Oliver said the result was terrific for Japanese racing.
"I had a couple of seasons there and I was pleased to be offered this ride," he said.
"They have very good horses over there.
"It's a fantastic feat for the Japanese to come here and do that."
Oliver played down the effects of the fighting finish in which the two Japanese horses appeared to bump.
"My horse had every chance but the winner deserved it," he said.
"If there was any shifting my horse shifted."
Maybe Better, who finished lame, as did Tawqeet, finished third under Chris Munce, the 1998 Cup-winning partner of Jezabeel.
Munce was riding in Australia despite facing bribery charges in Hong Kong.
Zipping was fourth for Glen Boss, the partner of the remarkable Makybe Diva for the past three years she won the race.
Iwata gave Delta Blues a brilliant ride, using a little gas early to claim a prominent position on the rails despite his No.11 barrier, and the pair was galloping cosilyy behind early pacesetter Zabeat, passing the winning post on the first circuit.
French jockey Olivier Doleuze backed the speed right off in the back straight, at which point much of the field, including Caulfield Cup winner Tawqeet, lost any winning chance they had - as they would prove unable to quicken past rivals with plenty still to give in the home straight.
Kieren Fallon, allowed to ride in Australia despite being banned in Britain, where he faces fraud charges, moved Yeats through the field down the back straight, giving him an aggressive ride after missing the start to sit second at the 1200-metre mark, from where he forced Doleuze to increase the pace.
Yeats moved into the lead at the 800 metres as Zabeat began to weaken on the home turn, but his famed strength had been weakened after having to recover the ground lost in a tardy start.
Delta Blues, on whom Iwata had sat fourth on rounding the home turn, moved up towards the lead as Craig Williams hit the front entering the home straight, and the Japanese pairing claimed the lead approaching the 300-metre mark.
Maybe Better loomed up to challenge at with 200 metres to run, and looked a likely winner.
But he was simply unable to match the superior staying power of Delta Blues and Pop Rock, whom Oliver produced on the outside after making stealthy progress from mid-division.
The Japanese runners, nose to nose in a driving finish through the final 100 metres, pulled four-and-a-half lengths clear of Maybe Better at the finish line, and their performances are sure to promote a flood of future Cup challenges from Japan.
Land 'N Stars, last in the Caulfield Cup two weeks ago, where he looked dreadfully slow, boxed on valiantly to finish fifth behind Zipping, with Mahtoum, another despised long shot, sixth ahead of Yeats.
Trainers who did not fare well in the Cup paid tribute to the Japanese.
"Good on them, they put so much money into their racing and breeding and I take my hat off to them," Zipping's trainer, Graeme Rogerson, said.
John Hawkes, whose three runners Railings, Headturner and Dizelle finished in the second half of the field, agreed.
"It's a great job to do what they've done," Hawkes said.
The best thing is you get to watch it at school. In yr 8 and 9 I was in HPE so we watched it in the auditiorium but this year I was in maths so we had the radio on. Confusing as on the radio.
I guess the same thing could be said for motor racing...
MC isn't a sporting event. Its all about betting and fashion. Whats so special about Motor Racing? The girls, the cars, the noise, the skill, the crashes (I don't like seeing people hurt or killed because of a crash) and the racing!
If melbourne cup isn't a sporting event because of fashion and betting then motor racing isn't a sport because of quote " the girls, the crashes, the noise" Sounds the same as MC to me bar the crashes
Logged
