The racing headlines you WILL … and WON’T … read in 2024
Racing doesn’t need The Everest or the Melbourne Cup to make headlines. From the good to the bad and the ugly, here’s some that we can’t wait for in 2024 … and some we can.
Racing doesn’t need The Everest or the Melbourne Cup to make headlines. From the good to the bad and the ugly, here’s some that we can’t wait for in 2024 … and some we can.
Racing headlines you WON’T see in 2024
PETER V’LANDYS WINS NOBEL PEACE PRIZE
Each to their own – but I reckon PVL is great for racing.
Well, certainly for racing in NSW.
If you were a participant in NSW, you surely wouldn’t hear a bad word against him.
• ‘Dinosaurs, self-entitled’: Peter V’landys lets rip on Everest Eve
In my opinion, the cold war and hostile competition between NSW and Victoria has been generally good for racing as a whole.
It has lifted the efforts of both states and driven them forward.
But the chances of PVL smoking the peace pipe with anyone from Racing Victoria or the Victoria Racing Club seems about as forlorn as the Loch Ness monster raising her head to say hello.
GAI SHOCK: RACING’S FIRST LADY QUITS RACING AND TAKES UP KNITTING
Hand on heart, I love Gai.
I think she’s the best thing since sliced bread and racing will probably never see another Gai.
She’s a straight-shooter, even to the point of calling out ‘woke’ racing activists, most of whom she says are on the dole and don’t even know what they are protesting against.
She also fired a few missiles at race clubs over charging entry and the inflated prices of beer.
And then there’s the small matter of her outstanding training partnership with Adrian Bott which churns out winner after winner.
• Gai Waterhouse officially a legend of Australian racing
Gai turns 70 in 2024 but don’t expect her to be retiring any time soon – if ever.
“Once you retire, I don’t care if you are a journalist or a doctor or a judge or a horse trainer, the phone stops ringing,” Waterhouse told me recently.
“No-one wants to ring you up, because what have you got to offer?
“You need to be working at the coalface.”
God bless Gai, she’s a national treasure.
WEIR MAKES SHOCK RETURN TO TRAINING
Prince Of Penzance was $101 when famously scoring the Melbourne Cup, but you can add a zero on the odds of Darren Weir returning to training anytime in the foreseeable future.
The alleged jigger case drags on and on.
• EXCLUSIVE: ‘The first couple of years were very tough’, Weir says of disqualification
No matter what the conclusion, it’s hard to imagine racing authorities giving him the green light to resume training.
Racing is full of second-chance and comeback stories, but it’s hard to see this one taking flight.
RACE TRACKS MORPH INTO MARVEL STADIUM
Racing is an outdoor sport.
That means it’s susceptible to the weather.
It is part of the glorious uncertainty of racing and it adds to the colour and movement of the sport we love.
So, unless there is obvious curator error, or a blatant track stuff-up, let’s stop whingeing about track bias.
Track curators generally do a fabulous job, but they aren’t David Copperfield and can’t perform magic tricks.
There sure as hell isn’t a roof about to be erected over any racetrack, any time soon.
So let’s just get on with life.
When was the last time you heard a punter complain about a winning bet, when the winning horse was aided by track bias?
Racing headlines you WILL see in 2024
J-MAC AND ZAC PERFORM STUNNING SWAP
Going out on a limb here, but to my eye James McDonald looks like he is testing the waters in Hong Kong with a short-term riding stint.
Surely he is dipping his toe in, with a view to making a permanent international move in the future?
He has nothing left to prove in Australian racing and the bigger paydays and less workload in Hong Kong – now he has a young family – would surely appeal.
• In-form J-Mac has sights set on Hong Kong
Asian riding king Zac Purton has spoken openly about heading back to Australia to ride at some stage, with Sydney the logical base as he owns property there.
Don’t rule out the prospect of a riding swap that would be good for fresh horizons for both gun jockeys and be a tantalising prospect for racing fans in both jurisdictions.
JAMIE KAH TAKES UP TRAINING
As Mick Price likes to say, Australia’s best female rider is, at heart, a “horsey girl”.
In the last few years, Kah has been through an Airbnb scandal, a terrible fall, a traumatic brain injury and a white powder drama.
It wouldn’t be the shock of the century if she tried her hand at training, perhaps going back to the pure love and care for the horses which she obviously adores.
• Jamie Kah responds as judge dismisses ‘white powder’ case
Perhaps, like gal pal Michelle Payne, she might try her hand as a dual license holder to see what she thinks of the caper.
The Kah name would open plenty of doors and surely there would be plenty of owners who would love to have a horse with her.
SOULCOMBE FORGETS TO STAND LIKE A STATUE
It’s like having a Ferrari in the garage, yet it takes three tries to turn the ignition and start her up.
If this Chris Waller galloper ever learns to jump away cleanly (or even if it only misses the start by a length, rather than the customary five lengths) he will be a world-beater.
• Punters who think Soulcombe should have won Melbourne Cup are clueless
Without A Fight was a deserved Melbourne Cup winner this year, but Waller will work wonders at the barriers with Soulcombe in the next 12 months and he will be winning the 2024 Melbourne Cup.
ELON MUSK BANS RACING TROLLS
Anyone else had enough of these morons on social media who abuse jockeys, trainers, stewards, owners and anyone else they can think of?
We are all entitled to blow off steam and have strong opinions in a reasonable manner, but some of the vulgar diatribe that is levelled at racing participants is beyond the pale.
Yes, it happens in all sports, but that doesn’t make it right.
• Racing trolls need to quit it with the Chris Waller conspiracies
It often seems to be worse in racing, as punters are talking through their kicks and some want someone else to abuse for losing their money.
Many of these types probably still live at home with their Mum and their only way of getting cheap thrills is to try to get inside someone else’s head.
FRANKIE CHANGES HIS NAME TO B. BUTTON
Frankie Dettori has had more false starts than an Olympic sprinter at this retirement caper.
He was retiring, then he wasn’t, then he was, then he wasn’t.
It’s like Johnny Farnham all over again, and just as smooth.
• Frankie Dettori’s Melbourne Cup quest ends in heartbreak
Benjamin Button got younger in the movie and Frankie appears to be as well.
We aren’t taking the mickey, Frankie, we love you.
We can’t wait to see you come back for your 57th crack at a Melbourne Cup next year.
Originally published as The racing headlines you WILL … and WON’T … read in 2024
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