AN EXTRA FROM "THE WEEK THAT WAS"..10/12/2011..
One for the "truth is stranger than fiction" department from Thursday's Gold Coast meeting concerns Marburg trainer,Francis Weston.Weston was fined the sum of $500 for communicating with one of his drivers prior to the standing start of the trot race.Apparently FW advised his driver to dismount and place a small quantity of the track surface in the horses mouth.The object of this exercise is to concentrate the animal's thinking on something other than the starting tape which often contains an element of "here be dragons" for apprehensive horses.The world turns,and what was once a well tried and totally acceptable practice has become a penalty bearing offence.We are,in 2011,a long way from the "age of the horse".