Trotting down near Antarctica ...

 

A moment back in the 21st century, on behalf of our little girl .... she goes to the races again tomorrow!

So I popped in to see against who she was racing and ... what a muddle .. I gulped a large whisky and had a wee rant. No one will listen, but I enjoyed the whisky and got it off my (what passes for) a chest.

Something Rotten in trotten in the State of Southland

 

What is happening in the trotting world in Southland? And who is responsible?

 

On Wednesday Invercargill HRC has a meeting. Nine races scheduled of which two are trots: a maiden worth $12,000 and an everybody-else worth $11,000. Anomaly?

 

There are 96 nominations for the combined nine races. so .. about 10 horses per race? Oh no. The maiden trot has 6. The rest-of-them race has 19. 

 

The pacers? The maiden pace -- to be run in two heats -- has, guess, twelve horses racing -- ie six per heat. Oh and $12,000 per half. They can't be topped up from the 1-win heat, ($10,000!!) because that's only got nine nominations ..  

 

There are three more pacing events with a total of 36 nominations. Three ... to share a number of horses not even twice as large as the poor 'all-the-rest' trot.  Who'd be a trotter?

 

It seems to me that whoever is responsible for framing the programmes down Antarctica way is out of touch with reality.

 

But that isn't all in the way of anomalies. The race conditions for 'our' trot (yes, we have a horse nominated) states 'front 35-40; 10m 41-50; 20m 51-57; 30m 58-65'. But the noms include Aveross Majesty (53) off the front? A horse that has won $84,000 in stakes and is nominated for the Green Mile. Its fellow 8 year-old, Cody Banner, which has won a deserved $147K, is off 20. And we? We are on 10, as we were last start. We have won $66K. As for the back marker, the likely favourite, Missile, he has just $43K in the bank ... What's up?

 

Another anomaly. Four of the six maidens are rated 'unruly' and three of the 'bottom' five grown-ups -- who will, doubtless, be dumped into the maiden race, are also 'unruly'. I can see a race like a maiden at Taranaki developing!

 

Right. Fields will be out shortly. Let's see how Invercargill have resolved this mess -- whether it was they or HRNZ who created it ...

 

SO ...

 

Withdrawals. Phil Williamson has, understandably, taken two of his out, leaving 17. Aveross Majesty is still off the front ...  and there are still just six maidens ...  Oh no! the best race of pacing day, the 2yo race, is going to be split ... bah!

 

Still waiting. Less than 48hrs from the meeting and no fields yet. What are they toiling and troubling over down there? Trying to make a race meeting out of ...  Or at HRNZ. Auckland has its fields for Friday up at 3.45. 

 

OK, here we finally are. Three trotters removed from the 'free-for all', down, to the maiden. Which is no longer, thus, a maiden, but an old-style C0 and faster. Why only three? Still fourteen left, in the grownups' race. Ah, I see Aveross Majesty is back to its proper rating ... duuhhhhhh. 

 

Well, they've done amazingly well in making up a decent programme. Nine puntable races. Even if not necessarily the races that were advertised in Programmes.

Sad, that they chose to split the 2yo race (for sexist reasons) instead of the trot. But hey ... you can't fight Town Hall. And definitely HRNZ ....

 

Now we have to wait till race day. Best race, by miles: the grown-up trot. $11K. Well, maybe we'll get a slice of it. Behind MISSILE or CODY BANNER or SHANDON BELLS ... Fingers crossed ...

 

(To be continued, after the race)

I'm a lousy picker.

But it was a queer race.

First shock. Our EMILY was hot (and I mean hot) favourite. I have no idea why. CODY BANNER misbehaved horribly. MISSILE was sabotaged by its own stablemate, a beast named DWINDLE STAR. This creature, which had got in our road in little Em's first Southland race, didn't seem to have learned anything from that experience. It shot to the front, imprinted a fast tempo -- with the result that Em was forced to race parked for the whole race, but also that MISSILE could never make up its 30 metre handicap! Team racing ... NOT!  Em did her damnedest, but as so often in cases of this kind a horse which had sat quietly mid-field bombed them all in the last metres. And a good solid mare which had had a perfect run on the rails ran on for second. EMILY fought womanfully for third ... which is about what I'd looked for, before the gambling world went crazy ....

Meanwhile, up at Addington the magical McClymonts -- RATA and STYRAX -- added two striking metropolitan wins to the Southland total ...  the former beat Emily half a length at her previous start, with the latter down the track. 

No, we are NOT going to Addington. Ever again. EMILY is a Southland girl now and forever!