Justracing salutes the wonderful effort by Dan Griffin who is about to win his sixth straight riding premiership at the Gold Coast. This is Dan with his baby daughter Ayla Rose and Ayla Rose Griffin entered the world on 17/10/11, as the daughter of Dan and his partner, former jockey Jana Piper. By the look on that little girls face, she is certainly going to grow up to enjoy those beautiful Gold Coast beaches. With that breeding, I wonder will Ayla want to become a jockey in later life? Time will tell, but we wish the family well with their little bundle of joy who as at today is officially zero years of age.

Doomben staged an eight race card last Saturday afternoon and thankfully the predicted rain stayed away, as there’s nothing worse than rain falling during the course of a meeting especially when the track was already rated as a heavy 9 on race morning.

It looked as though a highlight at the Doomben meeting was going to be mighty hard to find before Race 1, due to a ridiculously large number of scratchings at the meeting - but apprentice Anthony Allen riding five winners on the day was at least a worthy highlight.

I must admit that I was totally amazed at the number of scratchings at the Doomben meeting last Saturday, as Blind Freddie - holding a white cane and accompanied by a Labrador - would have had no option but to know at acceptance time on Thursday morning that the Doomben track couldn't possibly be anything else but rated as heavy come Saturday afternoon, so how come so many owners and trainers decided on Saturday morning that they didn’t want their horses to go around later that day? The Weather Channel can give some indication as to the weather – in fact they can give a seven day picture at the push of a button, so obviously more trainers and owners ought to subscribe to Pay TV. To back up my statement, in Race 4 there were 13 acceptors on Thursday morning and yet on Saturday afternoon just five horses started. In Race 5 there were 12 acceptors Thursday, but 50% of them got scratched on race morning, meaning just six went around. Hello – are the owners and trainers of all these scratched horses here with the rest of us on Planet Earth? Maybe they listen to RadioTAB too much – as they are forever talking about what a great drying track Doomben is - as the radio station regularly infers Doomben can dry out about as quickly as a bit of blotting paper in the Sahara Desert in the middle of summer. In short, whilst no one else will say it publicly I will. “Doomben degenerated into an absolute joke last Saturday because of the absurd number of scratchings, when only four of the eight races even paid three place dividends, so I’m glad everyone else thinks thoroughbred racing in Brisbane is on the right track”.

I’ve had several emails in the last couple of weeks as to the website where Chris Munce’s weekly blog appears and I had no idea, but I can now advise that it’s on his Manager Garry Legg’s website which is www.leggup.com.au and I’m also told in one of those emails that Chris’ blog makes more sense than some of the blogs that appear around the racing industry on a weekly basis around this country, but I couldn’t comment on that as I don’t get time to scratch – let alone read blogs. Chris Munce’s blog is apparently always up on that website by Wednesday morning, then Garry Legg puts up his thoughts on the Brisbane race meeting by 11am Saturday morning on the same website. One of the email writers also asked me if Chris Munce is the only jockey that Garry Legg is the Manager for and I can advise that he’s actually Jockey Manager for three jockeys, Chris Munce and two apprentices – namely Priscilla Schmidt and Aidan Holt.

Justracing attended the Marburg harness racing meeting last Saturday afternoon under fine sunny skies, rather than waste my time taking a drive for an hour to Doomben to watch disgraceful and boring five-horse thoroughbred fields racing for $45,000 prizemoney on a bog track, and hence two huge montages of photos from Marburg, as well as Doomben last Saturday and Grafton Ramornie Handicap and Grafton Cup Day will go up on the Brisbaneracing website on Wednesday and Thursday of this week. There will be around 80 fully captioned photos across those two days for website visitors from the two codes - and that 80 may become many more if I get a chance to go and take some more at the Ipswich greyhound meeting tomorrow afternoon.

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

Race 1 – Signified $2.15, Kiss Me Deadly $5.50 and Comahni $6.00
The first at Doomben on a wet track went the way of Signified who got out to $2.15 late. There was no big money for the gelding, but there was no money for any other runner either, so we had a small loss on the first race.

Race 2 – Double Image $2.00, Jopa $6.00 and All That $6.00
$2.20 was given in places about this winner Double Image before he started at even money and won easily.
Gran Tarino was always very short on the tote and we were probably betting double the odds of the tote so she was layable.
There was no money of note for any other runner in the race, so we had another small losing race.

Race 3 – Modern Warfare $21.00, Jacaranda Avenue $5.00 and Phantom Caller $26.00
The best backed runner here was the Toowoomba trained colt Schweiz who was $12 into $7.50, but he didn’t do anything in the run.
Rockhampton visitor Rocky King met with some support during betting.
Jacaranda Avenue was hard to lay and I chased Parsnips during betting but found that filly hard to lay also.
It was not a big betting race, but nevertheless it was a winning race when a 20/1 shot arrived.

Race 4 – Cash‘N’Style $2.90, Marculoo $3.00 and Easy Lager $5.50
Money arrived on the phones for this winner Cash’N’Style.
I laid third placed Easy Lager well at $6, which made him my worst result.
There was no money for My Quilter and it was just a losing race.

Race 5 – Racing Heart $4.20, Kevejon $4.80 and Bloodhound $10.00
There was no money for the topweight and winner Racing Heart who got out to run at $4.20 at the jump.
Loves A Challenge was backed on the phones at $5 and there was some specking for proven heavy track winner Kevejon.
None of the others had any owners and it was a winning race.

Race 6 – Lucky Luna $9.00, Purettan $8.00 and Brigadoon Jack $2.50
A couple of roughies were specked well during betting here. Patties Mate I laid well during betting at double figure odds, but he didn’t put in on the day and ran fifth.
Money also arrived for Sommersea Drive at $41 but he ran last.
There was no money about for the winner Lucky Luna who eased out to start at $9 and the runner-up Purettan would have also given bookmakers a good result as he was only specked during betting.
Meet George was an easing opening favourite and there was no big money for either he or the easing opening second favourite Brigadoon Jack.
It was a winning race.

Race 7 – Shafeeq $4.40, Requested $6.00 and Grey Zeel $5.50
Shafeeq opened at $3.50 and eased to $4.60 before he was specked late in betting to run at $4.40.
Had the runner-up Requested arrived he would have been a bookmakers delight, as he opened at $3.80 but blew like a hurricane to be $6 and unwanted at the jump.
Third placed Grey Zeel was the best backed runner in the race and he was well backed on the phones at $6.
Starlin and Amber Ale were both specked late in betting.
It wasn’t a big betting race but it was a race you could have won or lost on.

Race 8 – Bradbury Chocolate $3.60, In A Storm $18.00 and Top Of The Rock $3.10
Bradbury Chocolate got out to $3.60 after opening a point shorter than that and did a marvellous job to win. Anyone who backed him won the lottery because you wouldn’t want shares in him after he came out last and he grabbed victory in the last stride to win by a head. There was cash money for him on course.
Top Of The Rock was always solid around $3.
In A Storm was specked at $19.
There was money about the ring for leader Bahsa which officially ran fifth.
The best backed runner in the race was undoubtedly Mr Favulous who firmed from $7 to run at $4.60 but he never gave a yelp.
There was nothing much in the last race result and overall we finished up just in front.

Lindsay will be fielding at Doomben on Wednesday, Ipswich on Friday, then he’s off to Eagle Farm on Saturday and 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.