Punters left out in cold

UNDER The Sun was on the nose in the betting ring at Rosehill on Saturday long before Thomas Huet turned in a ride that can only be labelled a shocker.

Under The Sun

UNDER The Sun was on the nose in the betting ring at Rosehill on Saturday long before Thomas Huet turned in a ride that can only be labelled a shocker.

In the betting ring it was a race between bookies in the last five minutes of betting to get Under The Sun's price out. That Under The Sun eased from $2.80 to $4.80 was not the main talking point between punters, it was the "late mail" that saw him get from $3.80 to $4.80 in the last few minutes of betting that had tongues wagging.

Huet's ride was incredible. At his previous start, when he won, he had no trouble in leading Kinnersley on Under The Sun, but this time he let Kinnersley and Bold Glance cross him and then, inexplicably, he gave up his rails spot to ease across their heels and race three deep outside the lead.Gai Waterhouse might not have thought there was much wrong with the ride but everybody else at Rosehill thought it a good idea if Huet hopped on the next plane back to Paris.

Under The Sun's previous start win was on a slow track, but of his previous six wins, three were on good tracks and three on dead tracks.

The stewards gave Huet a double- barrel blast for the ride and rightly so, but was much established? What happens next time, does Under The Sun lead, does he sit three deep outside the leaders or does he drop out and come from last?

IF you haven't seen a replay of the Winter Challenge from Rosehill try and do so. Forget Under The Sun's run that is done and dusted and watch the ride by Jason Collett on the winner Coup Ay Tee.

Talk about a daredevil and having nerves of steel, the kid took a run between horses that Evel Knievel would have baulked at. As for the favourite Bayrir don't forget he hadn't raced at shorter than 1800m before Saturday and will come into his own in middle-distance races.

BRIAN Ogilvie, who died on the Gold Coast yesterday morning, was probably the biggest bookie in Queensland's history and a more dominant figure at Eagle Farm and Doomben than Terry Page, Dominic Beirne or Bill Waterhouse were in Sydney or John Griffiths, Albert Smith or Mark Read were in Melbourne.

Brian held more money in his bag for a period of over 30 years than the rest of the Brisbane rails bookies combined. He was a larger-than-life figure who enjoyed the good times and the lean times and he was sought out by every big punter that travelled north from the south for the Brisbane carnivals.

He bet the likes of Frank Duval and Felipe Ysmael, but loved to tell the stories of his clashes in his early days with John Wren Jr, son of the legendary John Wren of Power Without Glory fame. He was a terrific bloke and to his wife Judy and six kids, my sincere sympathy.

THE only racing premierships that count in Sydney racing are the trainer and jockey premierships won countless times by Tommy Smith and George Moore and Chris Waller and Nash Rawiller deserve fabulous congratulations for their efforts in taking out the titles this year.

TONY McEvoy is getting a good team together at his new Hawkesbury base and he is going to be the big mover in the trainers' title in the new season.

McEvoy will have no trouble in attracting NSW clients if he pulls out more advertisements like Saturday's Rosehill winner Harmonic.

I KNOW racing is an industry and not a sport, but the Australian Turf Club seems to have bent over backwards in giving Peter Moody and John Sargent first-rate complexes of 24 boxes each at Randwick and I only hope the two trainers produce the Sydney runners and winners to justify the generosity.