WOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Absolutely gun run Even though it was a non-TAB meeting, Shelly and I made the trek down to Ballina (once again) to watch both the girls run around. Results: Wins – 1, Horses nearly falling – 1. As you can see in the video, EK won quite convincingly, which is good, because we all knew she had it in her. However, in the following race, Latar Belle struck a fair bit of trouble. She had her head turned in the barrier and missed the jump by about 4 lengths, then when she settled and Neil Paine brought her back to the fence, the horse in front of her almost fell, causing her to check quite significantly. The jock on the horse in front lost his irons and reins, however regained his balance (which was a good thing, as if he fell we would have cleaned him up), however his horse made a bee-line to the outside fence, causing Neil to check LB again. By the time all this had finished, she was 10 lengths off the field………Anyways, both of them will run at Ballina on the 20th, which is a TAB meeting

If you look closely on the fence at about the 75m mark, you will see me and Shelly cheering her on!!

Apologies for the audio on the clip. The technical dudes at the race track must only work on the non-TAB meetings too, as they had heaps of problems with their audio, and the camera man follows every other horse back to the weigh-in except for ours

A few people have been asking me for some tips, so here is my crack at Gold Coast races today. I have had a look at the form and these tips are based on a Heavy8 track, and looking outside it doesnt look like getting much better. As always, they might be a bit of hit and miss Good Luck!!

Race 1 – 11. Periander

Race 2 – 10. Annamarie

Race 3 – 4. Tunes Of Gold

Race 4 – 1. Fast Lover

Race 5 – 1. Hunters Moon

Race 6 – 5. Primeval Demand

Race 7 – 2. Bitabiff

Race 8 – 5. Brilliant Prince

Happy Punting

This is the view from our new pool

I spent the late afternoon/evening yesterday trying to get some pictures of the storm that looked like it was going to hammer us, but ended up barely brushing past. You may have seen some of the video footage of the one the night before near Ipswich, which was about 2 seconds away from being a tornado!!! Anyway, having never tried to shoot lightning before, and after consuming some of the home-brewed Coronas, i had a crack, and this one was about the best (of about 65…….)

My apologies to those who have been waiting for this. Those that haven’t this is Easy Kisses (see post below) in her first ever trial at Ballina. She has had one race since this, and probably didn’t go as good as everyone was expecting, however the trainer was happy and she should be racing again soon, in a slightly longer race. Anyways, haven’t posted a video before so here goes……..

PS. I need to apologise for moving the camera when they approach the turn, as there were two blokes standing in front of me…..

Priceless Lad (Canny Lad – Beyond Price)

Got EI, resumed back in March and ran 2nd, 1st, 2nd, 4th before going for a spell again. Came back into work about 2.5 months ago, however he has ‘soft walled hooves’….apparently, and he keeps throwing a shoe on one of his feet, and it keeps taking chunks out of his hoof, exposing his flesh. Anyway, they thought they could fill it with synthetic hoof filler, which allows a shoe to be nailed to it, so that he could keep racing in this prep. Started at Rosehill the other day and had to carry 59kg (heaviest in the race), flukingly picked up Darren Beadman for the ride. He jumped well, however Beadman sat him back second last, and pushed out on the turn to make his run. He ran the quickest sectionals in the race between the 600-400m and the 400-200m, however the weight got to him and he ended up running sixth. Beadman got off him and said he felt like ‘a car with a flat tyre’. This was due to the synthetic hoof filler, which should have a bit of local anaesthetic in it, however he was still feeling the pain. Anyways, a long story cut short, he pulled up lame, has about 3 or 4 other issues relating to this hoof issue, and is out for 6 months.

Esprit D’Oiseau (Catbird – Coeur D’Etoile)

Going really well He is getting to the distances he needs in his races, and will be running at Bathurst on Monday 1st September. Should go OK too

Confessional (Red Ransom – Sontweni)

According to the way everyone is talking, this is my superannuation He is still a colt, and he is currently in pre-training, working over 1000m at about 1/2 pace. Word on the street is that they are aiming him for the 3YO Magic Millions Trophy up here in February next year…….but i’ve heard these stories before…..

Easy Kisses (Easy Rocking – Kisses)

One of the new girls her stable name is Phyllus, and she is trained by Kevin Nipperess at Ballina. She is actually in Shelly’s name as Phyllus and the following horse we are leasing a 10% share in each to watch them run around up here She will trial at Ballina on Sunday 31st August, and all things going well she will start at the Gold Coast on September 10th. I went and watched her in a jump out last Wednesday, and she is flying. Shelly and I are going to the races at Ballina on Sunday, just so we can watch her trial afterwards

Latar Belle (Latarmiss – Bee Belle)

If Confessional is supposed to be superannuation, Belle is winning the lotto She is in my name, however Shelly and I are halves in our share. Belle is a gorgeous looking filly, and we actually paid up the late nominations fee for the Magic Millions 2YO in February next year!! She is being set to trial at Eagle Farm about September 20th, then run first up in a good prizemoney race at Eagle Farm on October 11th. We are very excited about her, and the trainer keeps reminding us to dust off our suits for the Magic Millions

As you can see, more money than sense, but they are giving us a great deal of fun, and every now and then chip in for their feed bill I will keep you updated on their progress, and i’ll post some photos of them when i can.

Welcome to my new blog. I will be attempting to update this one a little more frequently than my last effort, with such things as horse updates and tips, footy tips, bowls progress and other stuff!

This picture is just to test my settings. It is what one of my utes looks like when it comes into contact with a piece of equipment it probably shouldn’t……….

David (Evolution ute) vs Goliath (Pioneer shuttle buggy)