Punting can be a tough go sometimes.
Occasionally your horse isn't good enough, sometimes you might think the jockey or driver has not done the job properly, and other times your horse might get a bad check from another.
Whatever it might be, it happens. Take the rough with the smooth, the winding with the straight, the vegetables with the roast. You get the drift.
What's not cool is calling up the office of the racing club where the races are being held, swearing your block off at the office staff, and refusing to leave your name or number so the stipendiary stewards can call you back to explain an incident. To borrow a phrase from California Chrome's owner Steve Coburn, it's the ''coward's way out''.
I know for a fact there are a couple of punters out there - they may be in Otago, they might be from around New Zealand, who knows - who have made idiotic calls in the vein I described above. If you are one of them and you are reading this, I have seven words: You shouldn't gamble if you get angry.
Have you ever seen the rain?
It's been a tough old time for racing in North Otago in recent months, with the galloping meeting at Oamaru yesterday called off at the weekend due to the rain.
I'm no Jim Hickey - heck, I'm not even a poor man's Augie Auer - but a quick glimpse at the rainfall figures for the last couple of months on MetService's website tells me that Oamaru has received more than double the average rainfall it would normally receive between April and now.
So it's no wonder the track, which is renowned for being a good winter surface, is struggling to deal with the amount of moisture it's taken on in the last few weeks.
Vincent Van Horse?
Trying to work out what to do with your horse when it's time to retire him? It appears there's now another post-racing option for our four-legged friends - art.
The Baltimore Sun reports that 11yr-old ex-galloper Metro Meteor is turning his hand - or should that be hoof - to painting ''original watercolours''.
His paintings and home decorating products have sold for a combined $US130,000 ($NZ149,000), although that is still in the shade of the $US300,000 he earned as a racehorse, mainly as a sprinter. Metro Meteor paints with a brush in his mouth and - believe it or not - his human collaborator reckons he's teaching the horse to paint flowers.
If you think that I'm making this up - and I wouldn't blame you if you did - check out his website www.paintedbymetro.com.
Lazy Fiver
Another poor effort last week. I intend to take a long hard look at myself this week. But before that, I'll tip out Magic Belle in race 8 at Tauranga on Saturday.
