<<Older    Main    Newer>>

Punting

The “Carnival” is Over

Yep, it’s all over for another year.  Unlike the media (Channel 7 especially) that has a vested interest in talking up the carnival, there have been some really disturbing signs, which will get lost in the usual hoopla and slap-on-the-back self congratulatory analysis.  Without boring you dear reader they relate to inconsistency in stewards’ decisions, non-acknowledgement of track bias by officials, the entry conditions for the Melbourne Cup and the deteriorating quality of support races on Melbourne Cup day and Oaks day.  Many problems but no one prepared to acknowledge them let alone tackle them.

Some of the racing was sublime, some was ordinary - two emerging horses Efficient (the Derby winner) and Miss Finland (the Oaks winner) look the goods.  We’ll have to wait and see if they can compete against the older horses next year.  There were a couple of good betting collects and a couple of wipe out days (not helped by track bias).  A new betting system was trialled (in a virtual environment) and shows some promise so I’ll keep monitoring it before I go live.  And yes a few more punting lessons were also learned.  Still the biggest individual race thrill remains the Melbourne Cup - the Japanese came and saw and conquered, and good ‘em if I say so.  They were gracious winners.

When you end the Carnival with more money than you started then it’s got to be an OK Carnival I guess.  I leave you with a quick and dirty and tiny colour pencil sketch of the 2006 Melbourne Cup winnner, Delta Blues (thanks to Andrea for awakening the enthusiasm to again dabble in some equestrian related subjects).