Hi Fans and Punters,
Welcome to another instalment of madness with all the news I have gathered in my travels within the racing industry.
What a week it has been. The Carnival in Sydney as usual has been hampered by rain but I must say the racing itself has been great and generally, all the good horses have been winning; Winx, She Will Reign, Jameka etc.
And the Vinery yesterday was the roughest race I have seen for some time with some of the runners copping more checks than a bank teller and poor old Corey Brown nearly biting the dust. I felt a bit sorry for my brother Noel Callow though. Charged with reckless riding for something that was careless seemed a bit over the top.
But the shining light for me yesterday was at the popular little track just outside of Melbourne at Mornington. Beau Mertens. What a little gun he is.
The 19 year old son of former great jockey Peter, rode a career best 4 winners at what is deemed a feature City meeting. Great performance young fellow.
He kicked off in the first, as you would expect, leading all the way on Schism for great young trainer Ciaron Maher who had a big day also winning the Group 1 Tancred or whatever it is called these days with Jameka. What a mighty mare she is.
But back to my new brother Beau, he then rode the 2nd winner on the card, Sullivan Bay for promising old trainer, David Hayes. And what a peach it was. Settling the mare in the box seat, Beau breathed in and hugged the rails all the way getting to the lead after turning for home after the leader hung off and punched her out to win nicely. That’s two.
A few races later he produced a gem aboard the 5 year old rig (only has one nut) Hokkaido. Beau took the sexually challenged animal to the lead and led them a merry dance to win well. It was a peach.
In the very next race he won one of the features with the Mick Price trained pony, Bassett. Crossing from a wide barrier he ended up in the prime spot chasing the leader Prussian Vixen. Beau showed great vigour in the home straight to get Bassett home right on the line capping off a great day for the kid.
Beau has only been riding a few years and has kicked home about 150 winners, more than half of them in the last 12 months which shows he is improving rapidly.
Beau, I know you are only a kid and I am a broken down old has-been. But can you do me a favour and take me to the pub and buy an old fella a beer????
Until next week this has been Tommy from Campbelltown……………………signing off.
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