FRUSTRATING DAY AT THE TRACK

It sure can be a frustrating game this racing caper. Last weekend we took our biggest team for many years to the races and on form and what they were showing at home, all runners had a real chance to finish in the money. Probably ROYALE HARVEST was the only one which looked a bit out of her depth.

My two year old filly SCENIC SPREE, ran a mighty race in the first in a race not run to suit. Had there been plenty of pace on as you would expect in a 1000m two year old race, I have no doubt that she would have been hard to beat. FAIREST AND BEST ran a top race in the next, a race which always looked to short for him. He will improve when we step him out over a bit further.

OUTSIDE EDGE disappointed in the third however he has pulled up with soreness in his heals which would have effected his performance. Hopefully we can get him right quickly as I was hoping to run him in the Perth Cup. He will not continue along that path if he is not 100% by the time he is due to run again next weekend.

KING OF THE STALLS, who won well the previous weekend looked a big chance to repeat the performance and I was happy with how he was travelling before the corner. Although the winner won well in the end, I have no doubt my horse was going to let down with his usual dash when he pulled out at the top of the straight and would have finished in the money. That was until he was nearly put on the deck by what the Stewards have deemed a "racing incident" with no rider to blame. Amazing! The favourite is stopped in his tracks 250m from the finish and nearly comes to grief and nobody is to blame. I hope we are not heading back to the style of riding we saw earlier this year.

Four down, two to go with the next one SALE TOPPER looking a real chance on his latest form. Wrong. Barrier one looked like an ideal barrier for this little horse but the slow pace soon wiped out that advantage then interference took care of the rest. At the end of the day we didn't have a place getter amongst our runners yet some very nice runs amongst them.

I can only hope that there are no more races (or very few) run during the carnival which are decided by the amount of interference that other runners in the race may suffer due to "a racing incident". There appears to be this perception by our stewards in this state that if a horse has received interference from more than one runner that it is a racing incident. No rider could be blamed. What a bloody joke! I say what it actually means is that there was more than one rider not keeping their horse straight. That being the case, punish ALL those involved. Then we may finally see riders taking all due care in a race instead of knowing that they can avoid punishment because they are only partly to blame!!!