Busy start to year in racing

Jonny Turner
Jonny Turner mulls over an unexpectedly busy week.

Wasn't this week meant to be quiet? Were we not meant to be getting back to racing normality after four back-to-back meetings that capped our Southern summer bonanza?

Judging by Wednesday, absolutely not.

Yes, two days ago racing we saw 24 hours of emotional opposites that  only racing can produce. From highs to lows and joy to despair, Wednesday had everything.

The day didn’t start well. We had two positive swabs to cobalt, a substance that has rocked the Australian racing scene. It would be a trainer or owner’s worst nightmare to get such news — that’s one thing we can say for sure now. The rest we will have to wait for, after the Racing Integrity Unit goes through  its investigations.

Racing fans found out masterly front-running rider David Walsh wouldn’t be seen in the saddle on race day again.

The good to come of the announcement was that we all got to pause and reflect on the career of New Zealand’s most winning jockey.

For me, that brought back memories of Walsh rating a horse perfectly in front or angling his mount to the best part of the track.

He must go down in racing history as one of the ultimate tacticians.

As Wednesday went on, the Hokitika meeting  was run in conditions only the West Coast, or Roxburgh,  could produce in January.

Race 4 provided a moment of infamy for jockey Rafi Firdhaus after he miscounted the laps of the race on Locally Sauced.

Firdhaus subsequently pleaded guilty to a charge of incompetent riding  and was suspended for five weeks.

Afterwards, he got a hard time in various postings on social media.  I felt for Firdhaus, because let’s face it, we all make mistakes. I got the opportunity to interview him at Waikouaiti recently and he seemed like a good bloke.

The issue he has to contend with is that he had the misfortune of doing it on international television.

What most of those social media posts and comments failed to mention was that Firdhaus rode two winners on the programme and outsider Locally Sauced finished fourth. Thankfully there was a positive story to come out of the race.

Point Proven, the horse Rebecca Black fell from when she died at Gore, last month, won in his second start since the incident.

The emotional scenes that followed Point Proven’s win pulled on the heartstrings of the onlookers as trainer Greg Wright dedicated the win to Rebecca.

Later, the most shocking of the day’s news was delivered.

Australian police  charged four people with race-fixing. While I am not in the habit of commenting on matters before the courts, I do know the industry has no room for anyone who fixes races.

While this  drama was unfolding, I was at Oamaru trots, where its own highs and lows were playing out.

One the track, there was of a smash in the first race, from which two drivers walked away

OK, a debacle of a start to race 5 and then a driving master class from Dexter Dunn and Blair Orange.

Dunn helped lift trainer Graeme Anderson’s spirits.  He watched his speed machine, Eamon Maguire, win, some consolation after losing his Hunter Cup chances with Titan Banner  who  bumped his leg in his paddock.

All of this happened in just a 12-hour window on what was meant to be a quiet Wednesday in January. Perhaps the next time someone tells you racing is boring, refer them to this column.

Happy trails.  

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