Right let’s get this clear. Tom Marquand is not going to feature in Good, Bad & Ugly this week – and neither is Hollie Doyle – as it’s just lazy journalism now as they are on everything!
Whoops, they already have. Oh my…let’s see who else is involved!
GOOD
I’m turning Down Under a little bit this week as two events have very much taken my notice.
Firstly, congratulations to Kerrin McEvoy who just banged in his 2000th career success. Some effort man.
McEvoy is an absolute class act from a class family. Not only is he a three-time Melbourne Cup hero, having scored on Brew, Almandin and Cross Counter, but of course he spent plenty of time in the UK when riding for Godolphin.
His agent, back, then, was Hugh Taylor who is now a big part of the Attheraces team, and landed the 2004 St Leger on Rule of Law.
Horses run for McEvoy. He has that gift. And I’ve never heard a bad word said about the bloke.
Well done on the 2000 to a thoroughly good egg.
BAD
Hugh Bowman, the rider who played a pivotal role in the success story of the legendary Winx, was banned recently for 20 days by stewards in Australia, who determined he failed to give Farnan, the 7-5 favourite for a Group 2 at Rosehill on Saturday, the “full opportunity to win or to obtain the best possible place”.
Bowman was aboard the colt for Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott in the 6f De Bortoli Wines Run To The Rose and guided him to a fifth-placed finish after a prominent ride Racing NSW officials deemed too fast.
They reasoned: “He failed to make sufficient endeavour to restrain Farnan between approximately the 900 metres and 500 metres in an attempt to set a slower and more sustainable pace, when it was both reasonable and permissible to do so, which ultimately resulted in Farnan continuing to set a very fast pace through that section of the race.”
I’ve watched the race many times, and a furlong and a half out Farnan appears to be going to hack up before falling in a hole. It might be Bowman did go too quick, but it would be very hard to be sure and even harder to to certain it was either incompetence or a deliberate act.
We all know it’s much harder to get a horse beat from off the pace than going too quick, but what motive could Bowman have had to lose a Group 2? If we ban people in their work for mistakes made along the way we will all be banned all the time.
The Australian draconian rules are a nonsense.
UGLY
Clearly the latest Covid-19 announcements are a worry to all of us, and we are all in for another tough six months.
One thing that struck me after today’s medical officer speeches is that outdoors the virus is clearly doing much less harm.
That bodes well for horse racing carrying on even if lockdown rules come into place even more severely than they have already.
The problem the sport has is that if crowds are not allowed back in numbers shortly there won’t be many racecourses left for horses to strut their stuff.
That is no exaggeration. You can’t keep a restaurant open with no customers. You can’t keep a racecourse open with no racegoers. Scary times for those of us who love this sport and rely on it for our livelihoods.
Did you miss our previous article…
https://www.sportingexcitement.com/horse-racing/benbatl-set-to-make-belated-reappearance-at-newmarket-on-friday-in-the-joel-stakes
