From the end of this month there will be new forms to fill in if you want to avoid the risk of someone else legally grabbing your horse.
Horse racing
Political snippets: No reason to believe the IMF’s economic prediction either
Another day and another gloomy prediction about the world economy.
Meet America’s So You Think
As Australia’s racing season comes to an end — and the people’s champion So You Think is on-sold to an Irish stable never to be seen on these shores again, meet AMerican horse Zenyatta. She is, quite possibly, the greatest female racehorse of all-time, an undefeated champion who has won all 19 races she’s entered.
So you think you’ve seen the last of this great race horse?
Is So You Think heading overseas? And have we seen the last of this great race horse on Australian soil?
Cup-winning jockey, 50 years on
A former teenage punter and Ballarat boarding school bookie, Ross Stapleton fulfills a long-time ambition to interview the jockey known as “the cups specialist” – W.A. (Billy Smith) now long retired at 82 on the Gold Coast.
The Brumby Dump: new racing commission probing misconduct
In its first eight months of operation, the Office of the Racing Integrity Commissioner has launched investigations into two separate complaints about misconduct in the Victorian racing industry, writes Swinburne University journalism student Lauren McShanag.
Melbourne Cup: the little horse that could
Little regarded Gothic Crown is just one giant step away from taking his place in the Melbourne Cup field. And if it can win Saturday’s Lexus Stakes then his trainer, Todd Balfour, could have a horse alongside sheikhs and Bart Cummings, writes the SMH’s Andrew Eddy.
Spring Racing Carnival Jockey Wrap: the Cox Plate
Crikey’s Sport tsar Leigh Josey and SmartCompany Editor James Thomson have a look at which horses have a chance at taking out the coveted Cox Plate.
Time to look at illicit drugs in racing
Racing’s attitude to illicit drugs is still reflective of how sports like AFL used to think, writes Back Page Lead’s Ralph Horowitz.
Spring Racing Carnival Jockey Wrap
This weekend is the Caulfield Cup, so join Leigh Josey and James Thomson — and occasional ramblings from First Dog on the Moon as they talk horses, Vodka Cruisers, betting and how likely it is they will actually win any money (current status: unlikely).
Horsing around in the acting game
What makes a horse a good actor? Slate asks this question as it looks at the new Disney film, Secretariat, about the 1973 Triple Crown winner. For just one horse character on screen, they used ten different horse actors.
Hats off at the races and rodeo
Brunette Downs is a huge cattle station in the heart of the Northern Territory’s Barkly Tableland and Bob Gosford was there, amongst the Akubras, for the 100th annual ABC Amateur Race Club meeting.
Guy Rundle: Rundle’s UK: Mixing with the stinking rich, in case of a Tory victory
David Cameron says he will try and form a government first off, even if he doesn’t get a majority. There could be two competing legitimacies. Anything could happen.
Why wear the fox hat at the Oaks, I asked?
When Bart’s filly swooped down that long Flemington straight to claim the Group One fillies’ prize, no wonder the Oaks Day crowd stood and cheered, writes TP Maher: They’d taken the poisonous short odds quoted by those legalised vampires in the betting ring and they were happy.
The Melbourne Cup: just a drunken school formal for grown ups
Bob Dumpling lets loose on the Melbourne Cup and the mess that happens on the other side of the track. No horses involved, just drunk D grade celebrities and fake charities funding the TAB. Time to grow up Australia.
Video of the Day: The 1896 Melbourne Cup
Footage from the 1896 Melbourne Cup: slightly fewer drunken women throwing up champagne all over their frocks, but pretty much the same as it is over 100 years later.
The powerful myth of the Melbourne Cup
Yep, get all the clichés out, today is the race that stops a nation, the sport of kings. But the Melbourne Cup is also a strong example of the distinct Australian social classes, from the supermodels in the birdcage to the country horse lovers.
My tips for tomorrow: don’t drink and don’t bet
Getting ready for tomorrow’s Melbourne Cup? Then don’t follow TP Maher’s example, as he reflects on the drinking, gambling and also the horses from Saturday’s Derby Day.
Ah, sweet mystery of life found at Cox Plate
The W S Cox Plate has been running at Moonee Valley since 1922 and is billed as “the greatest two minutes in sport”. But this year’s version took your breath away more than all the knee-tremblers you could possibly fit into 124 seconds in a month of Sundays, recounts TP Maher.
Political snippets: A gloomy outlook in Copenhagen
Gloomy news for the immediate future of racing clubs as well as the environment.
CC tips: I like the Pricer and the wog horse. Turf accountant fancies Vigor
If the new breed of online celebrity bookies had read Runyon, they might not have turned Irish Lights out to 5/2 on Wednesday for Australia’s premiere mile race for fillies, TP Maher.
Dwarf jockey fights Midget Cup criticisms: “Not tacky!”
One of the actors in the middle of the ‘Midget Cup’ scandal at Cranbourne Cup has come out against criticism of his work. ” I was hired as an actor to professionally act”, writes Jeremy Hallam.
Sheer, unadulterated Starspangled pleasure at Caulfield
Flexi boxed winnings were reclaimed by the turf accountant on an otherwise splendid day of horse racing at Caulfield racetrack, writes TP Maher.
