Well Sydneyracing's David Clarkson is doing it tough over at Royal Ascot currently. Poor bugger, he went all the way over there and the Aussie horses are going like crippled soldier crabs. To that end, he asked some beauties that were in attendance at the Royal Ascot meeting if they would like to get the lead gig on Justracing - and naturally he was nearly knocked over with young fillies throwing themselves in front of the camera. David has always had a good eye for a filly and settled on this young lady for the lead role. She is Ellie deFreitas and David advised she is wearing "Ilda Di Vico". To me it seems such a shame that Ilda may have run out of material just near the end of making the garment, but I suppose that happens when making clothes. Thanks Ellie, look me up if you ever make it to the former convict colony - and don't get a chill darlin', as truly the website's not worth it. I was going to put jockey Shaun Bayliss' photo here tonight, as he is the only jockey to have a full book at Kilcoy tomorrow, but I had to make an executive decision, so Shaun is now on Sydneyracing tonight.

The Ipswich Cup meeting tomorrow serves up eight races over a four hour and 22 minute timeframe and all up some $725,000 in prizemoney is up for grabs.

The eight race meeting only boasts three black type races – the Ipswich Cup, Eye Liner Stakes and the Gai Waterhouse Classic – and all three of those races are only run at Listed level.

The Ipswich Cup used to be a Group 3 race until 2006, but unfortunately due to a stack of scrubbers winning the race, the likes of Bozeman (1999), I Reign Supreme (2000), Henderson Bay (2001), Awesome Weather (2002), Mowerman (2003), Portland Singa (2004) and the enigmatic Forest Jim (2005) meant that the Pattern Committee had no option but to correctly downgrade the race. Tomorrow’s field isn’t too bad and my opinion is that it is one of the most wide open Cup’s I’ve seen in the 34 years we’ve lived in the joint, but irrespective of who wins the race, they are unlikely to do anything to inspire any upgrade back to Group 3 status. In fact this year’s short priced Cup favourite Our Lukas, currently at 2/1 in fixed odds markets, hasn’t exactly set the world on fire since he entered the winner’s circle after winning the 2009 Ipswich Cup, as he’s only won two races since, both of them being at Listed level.

It is also my considered opinion that the Ipswich Turf Club and Queensland Racing are wasting $100,000 prizemoney annually at this meeting, as Races 2 and 5 on tomorrow’s program clearly are not up to Saturday Winter Carnival standard and each has $50,000 wasted on it.

That $100,000 could be used to have another one race, such that the Ipswich Cup card need only have seven decent races, instead of the current eight where two are what I’d call “crappy”. There’s the old argument that you need eight races to keep the TAB happy on the day, well someone could put in another $100,000 then. In fact the club could do that from their considerable profits on the day.

Lifting the prizemoney for the 2YO race (Race 2) to $100,000 may ensure a much better field than we have been blessed with tomorrow, as the first three horses that will lead the field out onto the track have won one race each, even though the 2YO season is due to finish in six weeks – and by the handicapping, they are the “class” runners, so what does that tell us about the rest of the field? Additionally, this race features more Maidens than you’d find at a nunnery anywhere around the globe.

The other race that has major problems and should be totally banned from a Brisbane Winter Carnival race day is Race 5 – a stupid “Provincial Cup” worth $50,000. Fancy these legless things going around on a Carnival race day? Surely someone can come up with a smarter idea than this bunch of slow horses all competing with each other? You may recall that they used to formerly run this race as the last race of the day, on Ipswich Cup day - and annually the SES would go out on Saturday night and find the disorientated stragglers over the back of the track, but now the SES have complained that there are too many drunks around Ipswich after the last, so the club has reprogrammed it to Race 5. Brilliant – what a wonderful initiative, now they just need to move it a bit further – like totally off the program. To show how pathetic they are cumulatively as a group, the topweight Yield Curve has 5.5 kilos more than any other runner, due to his “class”, yet he couldn’t run a place in the Beaudesert Cup last Saturday and prior to that he’d run ninth of 10 in Toowoomba and tenth of 12 at the Gold Coast – so thank God he’s the “class” runner. Furthermore seven of the 16 runners that have been assured a start in the race should their owners so desire, feature in their form a duck egg at their last start, so that means they ran tenth, or worse, at their most recent start. Earth to Ipswich Turf Club and Queensland Racing - are we trying to put on a good eight race card, or are we just filling in the day with any rubbish. To be balanced, I think six races are good tomorrow, but two need fixing.

Naturally Ipswich Turf Club will tell everyone after tomorrow that “the crowd was a record” – again – it’s an annual event. Even if Cyclone Tracey was happening on the day, they’d have “a record crowd.” That will be followed no doubt by the usual chorus of backslapping, but it’s just a pity someone didn’t do something constructive and change the program slightly for next year. Will they do that? Don’t be stupid – we are talking about “the incestuous world of thoroughbred racing” here.

Queensland Racing Chief Handicapper Lester Grimmett advised there are scaled weights on two races tomorrow at Ipswich and they are: Race 1 = MO + 1.5 kilos and Race 5 = IMW (MO = metropolitan Open Handicap and IMW = one metropolitan win).

Brad Tamer from Unitab advised there are three decent sized jackpots happening tomorrow. The biggest jackpot is one of $120,147 which is a Quadrella jackpot on the Ipswich (BR) Quadrella, which is on Races 5, 6, 7 and 8. Then there is a First 4 jackpot of $58,009 going on to the Eye Liner Stakes (BR7). There is also a First 4 jackpot of $15,806 on the opening race (BT1) at the Albion Park harness meeting tomorrow night.

The apprentice jockey weights for tomorrow at Ipswich should be:

Today on www.brisbaneracing.com.au I preview Race 7, the Eye Liner Stakes, on www.sydneyracing.com.au I preview Race 3, the Ipswich Dash, whilst on www.melbourneracing.com.au Tim Hickman looks at Sandown Lakeside. I can’t preview the Ipswich Cup, as Horsewinners clients are betting on the race.

Galilee sent this report through on Adelaide racing tomorrow, which reads:

Sivo Soko was good for us last week. I must admit that the track had me worried. It would be accepted by most that there was, to quote the experts; ‘a fast lane’ in action at Morphettville last week. We should be thankfully Matt Neilson new where it was. I also made the bold statement runners would find it hard to win from back in the field, but that appeared to be incorrect, as horses were running on, albeit in the ‘fast lane’.

At the time of going to print we have a Dead 4 track and the rail is out 11m from 1200 to winning post – 6m the rest. This could impact on backmarkers. Take my advice and watch a few earlier races, as once again I am going to a race late in the day.

I have gone to race 8 again this week, as I have found one in it that I am pretty keen on, as I feel that it is knocking on the door and I refer to the Phillip Stokes trained 4YO Scenic gelding Fastizio.

Some of you will recall his very good run back on 5 June behind Dubai Dawn, when he was running on strongly from back in the field. He meets Dubai Dawn better at the weights in this.

I must admit that Fastizio really caught my eye that day, out wide and coming home hard; going two to the others one I felt. He will probably ease back early, I expect about mid field the fence. The pace should be genuine; Cape Clinton and Rollins usually run on the pace and from their draws you would expect them to push forward early along with Gold Lens. I am sure our mate, Matthew Neilson [Sivo Soko] on Dubai Dawn will be watching apprentice Claudia Lions closely on Fastizio in this. I feel sure he would be aware of the run of Fastizio behind him last start. Claudia Lions will have to be at her best in this, as the other danger is Magnificat to be ridden by Simon Price. (Editor’s note is there something we should note from this little darling’s name Galilee - could it just be a “magnificent cat”?) Claudia rides well and I am sure she will hold her own in this race.

Fastizio has reasonable form at this track and distance winning two of his four attempts. His trainer, Phillip Stokes, is very astute and I am sure that all of the variables facing Fastizio in this will be sorted. All he has to do in this is replicate his last run to be in the callers binoculars at the business end of the race.

Selection:   3

Good Luck.