Rough tips and other bets...
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Edit: This is behind paywall sub, so I’m gonna cut&paste whole thing…
Legend encourages Kiwis to switch: ‘You Aussies have a different DNA to us'
As legendary trainer Murray Baker prepares to put his feet up in retirement and cheer on warrior stayer The Chosen One in Saturday’s Group 1 Doomben Cup, he has laid bare one regret of his grand training career.
The New Zealand training genius, 75, is enthralled by the success of Australian racing and in awe of the achievements of former Kiwis Chris Waller and James McDonald.
Baker wishes he had also made a full-time move to Australia at some point.
In retirement, Baker plans to encourage the next wave of talented New Zealand trainers and jockeys to take a chance and up stumps and move to Australia in search of greater racing opportunities and riches.
“People in New Zealand racing often say to me they are thinking of going to Australia, what do I think, I say just go,” Baker told News Corp.
“In fifteen years you can’t look over your shoulder and think I wish I had gone.
“Personally, I do wish I had given it a crack.
“There is a lot of frustration with New Zealand racing, the Government is not over-keen on it, prizemoney is bad, anyone will tell you they have to address it.
“Prizemoney is so good in Australia, even if you get an average horse you are still in front.
“I’ve got the greatest admiration for Australian racing, you are so unbelievably lucky.
“It is well managed and it seems to be at all levels.”
Baker, fresh from a visit to the dentist’s chair to fill a couple of holes in his teeth, told how his regular FIFO visits to Australian carnivals over the years had rammed home the monumental difference in attitude in racing Down Under to in his Kiwi homeland.
For instance, when Baker has often jetted into Auckland for a trip to Ellerslie races, the taxi drivers have little or no interest in racing.
It’s a very different story on the dozens of Group 1 missions that Baker has made to Australia.
“You get into a cab in Sydney or Melbourne and the cabbie finds out you are a horse trainer, they say they will pull the cab over because they want to find out what races my horses are in and if they are worth backing,” Baker laughs.
“Australians love betting and they love to own a horse, they love to be part of the action.
“You Aussies have a different (racing) DNA to us, you love to have a punt and love the fizz of it.
“People want to be involved.
“Australian racing – is there anything better? I don’t think there is.
“The number one thing in New Zealand is they have to address the prizemoney, because we now have a lot of horses going to Australia and they are raced by New Zealand owners.
“Once they get touched by Australian racing they don’t usually come back again, because of the prizemoney.”
In retirement, Baker is planning some European travels with his Swedish-born wife Marianne.
He also has a flock of 11 hungry ewes to tend to on his four-acre property.
Even as his own training career wound up, Baker continued to enjoy the success of former Kiwis Waller and McDonald.
Baker has clear early racing memories of both – and he knew almost from the first minute he saw them that they were destined for big things.
“James is a Cambridge boy and there is no-one better, I thought from day one he was destined to be a superstar,” Baker said.
“He just had such a natural talent.
“Even at a young age he was very well rounded and he had a good head on his shoulders.
“I also knew Waller from when he started off.
“I remember he was always very thorough and he knew what he was doing, I always thought he was destined to make it.
“He might become the greatest trainer ever.
“He doesn’t make mistakes does he?
“His horses are in the right races and they are winning.”
When he was in the twilight stages of his career, Baker trained in partnership with Andrew Forsman who has The Chosen One racing on Saturday as a $23 chance in the Doomben Cup.
It is hard to see The Chosen One knocking off $1.50 favourite Zaaki but Baker isn’t entirely ruling it out.
“The Chosen One is a modern-day Marco Polo, he has campaigned a bit,” Baker said.
“But he is a good quiet horse and he has performed admirably without getting that really big win.
“One thing I will say is that he does go well fresh.
“I will watch The Chosen One on Saturday and I will watch all my former horses go around.
“But I made the right decision to retire, I had a fair lick at training, 44 years.
“You can look over your shoulder and think you have some nice horses and think what about next season?
“But that just goes on and on and on.
“It was time for a new chapter in my life.”
As above, highlighted:
There are more Hungarian bred horses in this race than Australian. Mind you, there’s not even one Aussie-bred horse, which does seem a bit crazy.
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Racenet runner-by-runner guide Doomben Cup
https://www.racenet.com.au/news/racenets-runnerbyrunner-guide-for-the-doomben-cup-20220518
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@Hooroo said in Rough tips and other bets...:
Super duper exciting. Expectations are realistic but fuck a duck it’s exciting to just have a horse in the race, let alone being competitive on paper
I’ll be watching at the Auckland Casino TAB if you want a beer on me!!!
lol, wish I was there. I would be surprised to see Zaaki get beaten, but will be one hell of a party if she did. Would be a great party anyway..that would just be the icing on the cake..
Might have to quinella the hell out of this race -
@Hooroo said in Rough tips and other bets...:
Super duper exciting. Expectations are realistic but fuck a duck it’s exciting to just have a horse in the race, let alone being competitive on paper
I’ll be watching at the Auckland Casino TAB if you want a beer on me!!!
Yeah mate you know I'm keen to come join ya. Lads footy is up the coast so should be back mid arvo and will head over for a couple of jars
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@Hooroo said in Rough tips and other bets...:
Super duper exciting. Expectations are realistic but fuck a duck it’s exciting to just have a horse in the race, let alone being competitive on paper
I’ll be watching at the Auckland Casino TAB if you want a beer on me!!!
Shit. Normally I would say yes, completely impossible this weekend
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Advantage, Polly… unless they postpone…?
Group 1 Doomben Cup day under a (very wet) cloud
Racing is praying for a minor miracle to get through Group 1 Doomben Cup day with the track deteriorating to a heavy (10) on Saturday morning and more rain forecast.
Zaaki is set to be the star attraction of the day but the Group 1 Cup for which he is $1.45 favourite is not scheduled until 3.18pm.
There is 40mm of rain forecast for Brisbane on Saturday.
There has already been a change to the day with officials forced to alter the distance of the BRC Sprint from 1350m to 1200m as the 135om start is simply too wet.
The Group 3 BRC Sprint offers the winner a golden ticket into the Group 1 Stradbroke Handicap.
Last week’s Doomben 10,000 card was moved to the quick-drying Eagle Farm surface, but officials could not shift the Doomben Cup card to Eagle Farm as the next three Saturdays are Group 1 days at Eagle Farm.
There was some good news in the early hours of Saturday, with officials sending a horse for a spin around the heavy Doomben track to assess the wet conditions.
The horse was not a wet-tracker but reports were it handled the surface and there were no safety concerns.
If some of Doomben Cup day is unable to proceed, there is the option to move races to Wednesday’s midweek Doomben card or even shift some races to next Saturday’s Kingsford-Smith Cup day.
There were mass scratchings on race morning, with 39 horses coming out by the 7:30am deadline.
https://www.racenet.com.au/news/will-they-get-through-group-1-doomben-cup-day-20220520
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Doomben Cup meeting called off after deluge
“While officials are still working out when the races will be held, there is a preference to race at Doomben on Wednesday, with the possibility of racing the Doomben Cup and BRC Sprint next Saturday at Eagle Farm.
“It throws Zaaki’s quest for back-to-back Doomben Cups into doubt, with trainer Annabel Neasham already ruling out racing in The Q22 later in the winter, due to the close proximity to the spring carnival.”
Crikey, if Zaaki actually does withdraw, Polly could enter a G1 as the favourite!! (In the Racenet video preview, their two “expert” tipsters, Tony Brassel selected Zaaki as a single, with Polly as his quinella; Ben Dorries picked Polly for the boilover win.)
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Super Saturday At Eagle Farm As Doomben Cup Meeting Abandoned
Brisbane will host its own Super Saturday of racing after the already rescheduled Group 1 Doomben Cup meeting at Doomben on Wednesday was abandoned following relentless rain all weekend.
The $1m Doomben Cup will instead be moved to Saturday’s card at Eagle Farm, meaning it will host three Group 1 features on the day in the Kingsford-Smith Cup, Queensland Derby and now the Doomben Cup.
After pushing the entire nine-race card back from Saturday to Wednesday, officials were left with no choice but to call the meeting off after a further 30mm of rain hit Doomben following the call to first move the meeting.
With further rain forecasted for Monday and Tuesday, the Brisbane Racing Club, Racing Queensland and stewards all agreed to call the meeting off.
Can’t recall in living memory so many summer meets in Aus with heavy tracks and postponements, and it’s not restricted to any region, it’s north to south.
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Re-draw for Saturday sees Polly stay in the same gate position (7); Zaaki gets moved from the initial gate 3 and now draws outside to gate 10.
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Likely to scratch as track will be far too good.
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well i hope not watered down too much, I have another NZ hopeful who I also know who has a horse running to deliver on course that day and too much rain would stuff them! Currently a soft 6 which would give me a nice all up
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@Hooroo said in Rough tips and other bets...:
Likely to scratch as track will be far too good.
Track is rated a Good 4, looks firm, she’s still entered and 2nd choice in the market.
Does Waller know something we don’t??
Any slice of this is going to be fat.
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Wow, what do you make of that? Polly was leader gate to straight, had Zaaki pressing her the entire trip, and he pounced, looked a cinch. Polly faded on the firm course. But somewhere at the 100 Zaaki hit a wall, Huetor (14-1) came on the inside, Maximal (50-1) closed on the outside, they finished 1-2, Zaaki (1/9!!) in 3rd. This exacta is going to be a doozy ($2 exacta pays $570 — lower than I imagined, but still). I want to see the splits, I didn’t think Polly’s pace was too hot, but maybe she gassed the favourite.
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@Kid-Chocolate said in Rough tips and other bets...:
Wow, what do you make of that? Polly was leader gate to straight, had Zaaki pressing her the entire trip, and he pounced, looked a cinch. Polly faded on the firm course. But somewhere at the 100 Zaaki hit a wall, Huetor (14-1) came on the inside, Maximal (50-1) closed on the outside, they finished 1-2, Zaaki (1/9!!) in 3rd. This exacta is going to be a doozy ($2 exacta pays $570 — lower than I imagined, but still). I want to see the splits, I didn’t think Polly’s pace was too hot, but maybe she gassed the favourite.
Yeah I thought Zaaki would get the 250k bonus on the good track, multiples fun if you had them lol
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@bayimports said in Rough tips and other bets...:
… I have another NZ hopeful who I also know who has a horse running to deliver on course that day…
Queensland Derby G1
1st PINARELLO (NZ)
2nd PATERNAL (NZ)
3rd CABOCHE (NZ)
4th DARK DESTROYER (NZ)One of those?
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@Kid-Chocolate actually I used to work for the owner of the winner (didn't back it though), folks on here who know racing might know how rich this farker is, but I had 26-1 on Dark Destroyer from a bet way back, I know the owners of this horse very well and was set for this, a soft track I think I may have had a huge day ..alas not to be
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The prize-money the Aussies are coming up with for their purses is incredible. The inter-state rivalry makes me believe a lot more kiwibreds will be crossing the Ta$man, the lure is too attractive.
ANALYSIS: Prizemoney wars show racing is in golden era
The one-upmanship of prizemoney hikes between New South Wales and Victoria in the past 24 hours further reinforces the enviable position racing currently finds itself.
With both jurisdictions boasting soaring wagering revenue on the strength of NSW tax parity, point of consumption tax, race fields legislation and the “sugar-hit” that was Covid-19, returns to participants have never been greater.
They say confidence breeds success and in the racing industry the stocks have never been higher.
Late on Monday, Racing NSW announced that The Golden Eagle would carry a $10 million purse from 2022, usurping the Melbourne Cup as the nation’s second richest event behind the $15m The Everest.
Some took the move as a pre-emptive strike to Racing Victoria’s announcement on Tuesday morning that it would introduce three new “Champions” events on Stakes Day at Flemington totalling an eye-watering $9 million in prizemoney.
That followed further announcements from RV that the Victorian racing industry will scale record heights next season with $314 million in prizemoney and bonuses on offer, representing an increase of $140 million since 2015.
Regardless of where you sit in the state tug-of-war for national supremacy, few can argue that participants across all facets of racing are the ultimate winners.
It’s almost enough reason to turn a deaf ear to the bitter interstate rivalry which — if the past 24 hours is any indication — shows no signs of abating.
In 2012, Racing NSW returned $148 million to owners while in 2022 it is on track to shell out more than $310 million.
That is more than double in 10 years.
Racing Victoria’s ascension is similar. Just remarkable figures.
