Congratulations must go to this man, Garry Legg, for his wonderful effort in securing Chris Munce a history making 100 winners in the current racing season, via Garry getting Chris his rides in his capacity as a Jockey Manager. Garry was flicked from The Sunday Mail a couple of years ago, which was a shame, given readers liked his no nonsense approach to his journalism role. Some may not have been happy with what he wrote from time to time as the truth sometimes hurts, but for instance when they eventually rip up the Eagle Farm course proper, I hope he takes the time to have a little smile to himself and say "I told you so - what took you all so long". Garry and Chris are obviousy an astute team at assessing form and it also helps that Garry used to be a good jockey in his own right in his younger days. As an apprentice, he was talented enough to run fourth in the Brisbane overall jockeys premiership in the 1975/76 season to then senior riders of the ilk of Graham Cook, Mick Dittman and Tony Erhart. I guess some people are just achievers right throughout their entire life - and at least if he had an opinion, he expressed it publicly - and didn't hide behind his mother's skirt, which is a terrific attribute in any humanoid.

The curtain came down on the 2012 Brisbane Winter Carnival with the running of the Caloundra meeting last Saturday and amazingly the two feature race winners of the day – Belltone and Shenzhou Steeds – also won the two feature races at the Ipswich Cup meeting 14 days earlier, probably reflective of the poor quality of horses that lined up cumulatively in the four events, albeit Shenzhou Steeds in winning the Caloundra Cup by seven lengths may develop into a Melbourne Spring Carnival contender if he could encounter slow or heavy tracks, as whilst he only beat a bunch of non-winners last Saturday at Caloundra - his effort under 58kgs on a heavy 10 track was at least meritorious.

Last Friday night I highlighted how pathetic Tattsbet were as an entity and they didn’t take long to again endorse my thoughts about them. They are so ordinary in their overall performance that it would be in everyone’s interests if they were simply sold off to a rival who may have some idea of what is required to run a TAB in 2012. Tattsbet yet again cost all racing industry participants a veritable fortune last Saturday when their totally useless computer system broke down again for some hours during the busiest time slot of the week - Saturday afternoon. Emails to the website arrived thick and fast on Saturday afternoon and evening from punters who couldn’t get on with Tattsbet. It’s just not good enough. As stated here last Friday night, Tattsbet couldn’t even get one Caloundra fixed odds market up for the following feature race day, then when they eventually got around to attending to their core business, which is simply betting prices to punters, their computer crashed. “Hopeless” would be the most apt and clean word that I would use to describe them.

Today around the four websites, as usual, there is something for everyone. On www.brisbaneracing.com.au there are a stack of stories about many interesting matters including has Racing Queensland's new regime given up on all their dramatic post election media hype that they carried on with, about trying to claw back big payouts paid to senior Bentley staffers in the last month of his office? On that same website, it is intersting that during the early part of this year, the Bentley Board suggested sprint races as a way of improving harness racing turnover. Most people in harness racing thought they had totally lost the plot, but interestingly Harness Racing New South Wales Board picked up on the idea, and this afternoon at Menangle for the first time in Australian harness racing history seven 1000-metre races will be run at a TAB meeting. On www.sydneyracing.com.au there's the story of three under $10,000 thoroughbred service fee stallions, whilst on www.melbourneracing.com.au Matt Nicholls writes about this garbage some Einstein has raised about female jockeys getting an allowance. As Matt so correctly puts it, you would have to question the IQ of some at the top of the sport.

From the Sunshine Coast betting ring last Saturday, leading rails bookmaker Lindsay Gallagher reported:

Race 1 – Neriani $10.00, Comahni $11.00 and Cathay Lady $7.00
The first at Caloundra on the heavy track was won by Neriani, but there was no money for her.
Vipera Gold was an easing favourite. She got out to $2.80 and even $3 in places at the jump, even though the SP was $2.80. There was some money about the ring for her.
Mossriver eased out when no money arrived for her.
Miss Barwang wasn’t fancied to any major degree.
We got a small result in the first race.

Race 2 – Grey Assignment $3.60, Topping $5.50 and Ausworld $5.50
Grey Assignment won Race 2 and he’s in a purple patch of form and ran up to his previous win at Ipswich. He got out to $3.60 when money came for Telesto Warrior who was $5 into $3.80. You could only lay the two horses, as there was no money for Toping or Ausworld.
It was a losing race.

Race 3 – The Ringmaster $2.50, Tornadoes $16.00 and Nickiera $15.00
The Ringmaster opened up short and that was probably his right price. I laid him well at $2.70 and actually $2.80 was given at the finish.
Pattie’s Mate was specked at $10.
Jopa got to $5 and was specked at that price.
It was another losing race.

Race 4 – Fusil De Eve $5.00, Holey Gadoley $3.00 and On The Deck $7.50
There was cash money for this winner Fusil De Eve at $5.
Holey Gadoley got to $3 and there was some money for him at that quote.
On The Deck was specked at $7.50 and he would be the one to follow out of the race as he ran a nice race.
There was some money for Canningly at long odds and money arrived for Ain’t She Sweet during betting.
It was a race you could have won or lost one.

Race 5 – Tuskegee Hawk $12.00, Double Impact $4.20 and Gold Slick $17.00
There was money about for the opening favourite Double Impact as he drifted, but the same can’t be said for opening second favourite Venture On who got out to $5 at the end and was unlayable.
There was no money for either Playtime or for Matabrahma and Victorian filly Ametsis was only specked.
I laid last start Ipswich winner Diet quite well at $8.
The winner Tuskegee Hawk wasn’t fancied to any major degree and gave us a good result.

Race 6 – Belltone $3.80, Jetset Lad $3.40 and Varenna Miss $7.50
This winner Belltone got out to $4 and there was general cash money for the Eye Liner Stakes winner at that price.
Jetset Lad who had run second to Belltone in the Eye Liner was hard to lay.
Varenna Miss wasn’t fancied, but topweight Phelan Ready was specked, as was Pepperwood.
It was a losing race when the only horse you could lay for money won.

Race 7 – Shenzhou Steeds $3.80, Anudjawun $4.60 and Winmara $8.00
Shenzhou Steeds got to $4 late in betting and he was layable on the drift at $3.80.
Runner-up Anudjawun was the first horse backed and firmed from $6 to $4.60.
Winmara was well backed from a early quote of $11 into $8.
There was no money for the Sydney visitor Roi D’Jeu and Beaudesert trained Spechenka was $6 at the finish and you couldn’t lay him either.
The three horses that you could lay in the race ran the trifecta.

Race 8 – Coroner $31.00, Shadow Buster $21.00 and Darth $9.00
Bookmakers got a good result here with the win of Coroner.
The best backed runner was clearly Kiss Me Deadly who remained steady throughout betting at $4.20.
Fast Lover had some specking as did Cash ‘N’ Style.
Both Mr Orient and Somnambulist had no admirers.
Whilst we finished on a good winning note via Coroner’s win, we lost overall on the day.

Lindsay will be fielding at Doomben on Wednesday, Ipswich on Friday, then he’s off to Eagle Farm on Saturday before appearing at the Sunshine Coast on Sunday.

Don’t forget if you would like to visit Lindsay on the web you can do that by going to www.thevipclub.com.au