Who can count? Would Scott Seamer (pictured) have had a protest upheld against him last Saturday for excessive whip use had he won the Ipswich Cup by a nose on Frozone, instead of getting beaten a nose? Did Seamer's whip use fall anywhere within cooee of the parameters of the new whip rules when he appears to hit the horse Frozone 27 times in the last 200 and 13 times in the last 100? I guess it must have - and stewards must have thought it was okay, as there is no mention of it in their report.

Much has been written and said since Our Lukas won the Ipswich Cup last Saturday. It’s history of course now that the Rob Heathcote trained, Stathi Katsidis ridden Our Lukas won his second consecutive Ipswich Cup last Saturday – and as such he has been reported as being “the first galloper since World War 2 to win two Ipswich cups in a row.”

To set the record straight on that score, the Ipswich Cup was first run in 1935 - according to the historical bible of Australian thoroughbred racing Millers Guide - and in fact no horse has ever won the race twice, whether it be in two consecutive years, three years apart, or anything else anyone can come up with. Therefore it is taken as read that Our Lukas is in rarefied air, being the only horse ever in the history of the race to win it twice.

Then “they” all turn around and say “Oh all the stats were against Our Lukas, as only one horse has won the Ipswich Cup with more than 56.0 kilos since Sharply in 1961 and that was Golden Rhapsody in 1981”.

Now at that point, we all need to stand back and smell the roses – and think that statement through, for whilst in the strict sense of the wording that is true, it is also nothing more than what I’d call “garbage”, as what everyone is forgetting through this whole episode is that the limit weight - that is the weight the bottom weight must carry in racing - has constantly changed over the years to the point when for the 2010 Ipswich Cup, the minimum weight was 53 kilos, so in essence, this year’s winner, Our Lukas, when only carrying 56 kilos to victory, was asked to carry just three kilos over the limit, so people who don’t take the limit weight into account are simply not comparing apples with apples, for they are comparing apples with either custard apples or oranges.

So what I did to try to educate both myself and readers on limit weights, was I contacted Queensland Racing Chief Handicapper Lester Grimmett to see if he could shed some light on when the limit weights have changed over the last 30 or 40 years in Queensland thoroughbred racing, so we could compare how much weight, over the limit, some of these winners of yesteryear were asked to carry and to that end Lester Grimmett came up with this reply, which he was happy to have reproduced publicly. It reads “I have checked with the Australian Turf Registrars and the 1981 Ipswich Cup is listed as having a minimum of 47 kilos (that’s the year Golden Rhapsody won, so in other words Golden Rhapsody carried 56.5 kilos, or 9.5 kilos over the limit when he won the Ipswich Cup – recall Our Lukas had 3 kilos over the limit).

Lester went on to say “I was working at the Ipswich Cup as Clerk of the Scales/Assistant Judge in 1981 when Golden Rhapsody won the Ipswich Cup with Peter Cook and again the following year when In Luck (51.5 kgs) won, and as I recall, Gary Murphy rode the second horse Blitzed at 49.5 kilos, but he had problems making the weight and Blitzed, originally weighted at 47.5, carried two kilos overweight and Murphy was fined accordingly. The Stradbroke limit at the time was 46.5 kgs, so I would imagine the Ipswich Cup limit would have been 47 kgs or 47.5 kgs. I noticed Dalriada carried 7 stone (44.5 kgs) when he won (the Ipswich Cup) in 1962, which I presume would be the limit back then. In 1985 Ballyman’s Boy carried 48 kilos to win, so I would also assume that 49 kilos was the limit weight when he won in 1985.”

Lester Grimmett also advised that the current limit weights that are in force today have been in effect since 1/9/2002 in Queensland - and they are as follows: Metropolitan (53 kgs), Metropolitan Mid Week (53 kgs), Provincial (54 kgs), Country 1 (55 kgs) and Country 2 (56 kgs).

In his final summation of the Ipswich Cup limit weight, Lester Grimmett stated “so, in point of fact, the limit has been raised by 6 kgs, or nearly a stone, since the early (19)80’s.”

Therefore using that information, it is safe to say that whilst Our Lukas winning two Ipswich Cups is creditworthy, it should be noted that the following Ipswich Cup winners since 1957 have all carried much more than three kilos over the limit, like My Lukas did last Saturday.

So by a bit of simple investigation, it is easy to see that Our Lukas’ effort to win an Ipswich Cup with three kilograms over the limit is very ordinary – and certainly nothing to write home to Mother about.

I also wish to state publicly that whilst it is all academic now - had Frozone won the Ipswich Cup by a nose last Saturday, instead of getting beaten a nose, that he would have deserved to lose the race in the stewards room had any one of the beaten jockey, owners and trainer fired in a protest against the excessive whip use of jockey Scott Seamer on Frozone. It didn’t make the stewards report, but Seamer started hitting Frozone even before the home turn and as for the “consecutive strides” business, well what’s that? Whether anyone agrees with the whip rules or not matters little, but the jockeys should at least be seen to be trying to do something pro-active towards doing the right thing. When reviewing the replays of the race, any fair minded person can see Stathi Katsidis is doing the right thing with his whip, whilst the jockey to his inside may not have been doing the right thing - if anybody bothered noticing – but then again why bother noticing, it’s easier if everyone can just turn a blind eye.