"THEWEEK THAT WAS"...19/11/2011..
"TROT TACTICS"..19/11/2011..
"Go south young man." It wasn't the advice of famed US newspaper editor,Horace Greeley,but the directive of his employer,Clive Palmer,that sent Murray Sullivan to Menangle Park NSW with a truckload of pacers.That was about a month ago and,so far the young Lowood based trainer/driver has made it a profitable venture.Native Mountain,Incredible Ross,Bustinout Hanover and Cold Native have all saluted the judge and Eden Burst has been responsible for several impressive placed efforts.Bustinout Hanover has been the "find" of the trip.Generally considered an easybeat in Brisbane,"Buster " is going like a house on fire in the south showing both speed and stamina,two factors conspicuous by their absence from the gelding's Gold Coast and Albion Park efforts.Horses for courses they say and it's unlikely that M K Sullivan will be sighted up here while the enterprise is running in the black.
I know she doesn't live here anymore,but she grew up at Rosewood so we can claim Vicki Rasmussen as one of ours.Our reason for jumping on the bandwagon is simple.There is no harness trainer in Brisbane who is producing the results like Vicki and her partner and stable driver,Shane Graham.Owners are queing up to place horses of both gaits in VR's stable as Rasmussen continues to take tired and out of form horses and serve them up a week or two later in the best form of their careers.Vicki and Shane have combined to land five TAB track winners this past week including a race to race treble of Hey Ima Beach Girl,Weasel and Our Laughalot at Albion Park last Saturday.Making up the five were Camdon Flash and the most impressive of all,the 9yo trotter Millburn Michael,who,at his first appearance in VR's colours chewed 1.9 seconds off his previous best mile rate with a blistering 1:58.8 effort in a mile mobile at Albion Park last Tuesday.Some horse...some trainer!!
It looks like another round of the dreaded "lack of nominations" syndrome is upon us.Noms were extended for at least two meetings this week and the upshot was that Gold Coast went with a six race program last night.In the simplest terms,TAB turnover was lost,and$12,000 was lost to owners.As owners spend considerably more than they can reasonably expect to win (Harness Racing,like "The Sport Of Kings" being a chancy business),everyone on the harness food chain suffered a part of that loss.Oddly,it was a big week for trials so a lack of race nominations may not necessarily indicate a horse shortage.Maybe Racing Queensland should consider programming an event called the "divided stakes" where owners and trainers nominate the bulk of their entries into a single event and the handicappers frame races to make the best use of the available entries.This format obviously will not suit all trainers,but,at this time and in this situation,it might prove to be the least of any number of evils..
Resultsville...Gold Coast 11/11..nil...Albion Park 12/11..Well Caught Marsh (Gary Whitaker for Tommy Sanderson)...Redcliffe 12/11..Roslei Hilda (Glenn Dawson)...Albion Park 15/11Swift Stride (Ron Sallis)...Redcliffe 16/11..On The Ledge (Kelli Dawson for Mellissa Gillies)..Le Brique (Gary Whitaker for Bill Crosby)..Princess Colraine (Dan Russell for Joey Dileva)..No It Wasnt Mee (Ray Law for Al Barnes)..Gold Coast 17/11.. Iwi Trouble (Barty Cockburn for Francis Weston)..Bully Beef (Lola Weidemann for Ricky Gordon)...