Rides and winners still in abundance

COMING out of your apprenticeship can be a testing time for young jockeys.

Firstly, if they have been consistently riding winners, they gradually lose their claim and sometimes trainers then look to the new block of apprentices who can claim up to four kilometres.

Then, when the apprenticeship is over, jockeys are virtually on their own to survive, even though they are suddenly flushed with all the money that has been held in trust for them for some years.

That can be the undoing of some jockeys who then go on a splurge and spend their new found wealth as if there is no tomorrow.

So far, locally born apprentice Jacob Opperman is handling the very early stages of his twilight moments as an apprentice extremely well.

Although still in his apprenticeship, Opperman has lost all of his claim at provincial and country level, that being due to the large number of winners he has ridden so far in his career.

He is still able to claim 1.5 kilograms in the city and is making the most of it as witnessed last Saturday when he booted home three winners from his four rides at Morphettville..

Opperman was the punters pal as two winners – Shootoose and La Defense – were favourites, while Chipson was well in the market as a $4.40 chance.

HOT NOVEMBER

IT was not hard to back the two Limestone Coast trained winners at Morphettville last Saturday.

Trainer Sue Murphy is making November a month to remember with five winners so far and there is the likelihood of more to come with racing at her home track at Naracoorte today.

Being runner-up to the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott trained Supagirl in open company in the Horsham cup at his previous start looked good form for the Murphy trained Hasta La Fiorente in the 2500-metre BM 78 handicap.

Punters thought so too and backed the eight-year-old gelding from $3.50 to second favourite at $2.70.

Although wanting to over-race in the early stages, Hasta La Fiorente dashed clear on the home turn and went on to win his fourth city race to boost career earnings to $343,355.

Those who saw Chipson run a slashing third when starting this current campaign were confident the Jeff Searle (Bordertown) trained galloper would soon be in the winner’s stall.

But racing can be a test of patience and it took another three runs before Chipson could break through, that being in the 1539-metre class two handicap last Saturday.

From barrier seven, a ride of the day performance from Jacob Opperman helped set up Chipson’s third career win – two of those at city level – and the race was never in doubt from the 200-metre mark.

There are more than a dozen local gallopers competing in Adelaide tomorrow in the nine finals from heats conducted around South Australia.

Our best chances of a victory may come from the Rob Lepley trained Delcredere in the 1100-metre sprint and Hasta La Fiorente in the stayer’s final.

HARD GAME TO BREAK INTO

BEING a race broadcaster, above all you need the natural ability to immediately put the horse’s name to the colours of the jockey in the saddle.

It is a career for a chosen few as it takes a rare talent to make a successful career out of it.

Prior to the introduction of Sky Channel, there were ample opportunities to become a race caller, but not any more.

Back in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, up to four metropolitan radio stations would have race callers do the Saturday and public holiday meetings in Melbourne.

I well recall hearing Bill Collins (3DB), Bert Bryant (3UZ), Joe Brown (ABC) and Clem Dimsey (Channel 10) cover the city races each Saturday.

Here in South Australia, there was Bert Day (5AD/5SE), Alf Gard (ABC), and John O’Neil (5DN), and there were similar numbers for Perth and Brisbane racing.

Now, apart from Brisbane where there are two, there is just the one caller, Matthew Hill in Melbourne, Darren Flindell (Sydney), Brett Davis (Adelaide) and Darren McAulley (Perth) who do the lot, namely radio, television and on-course commentary.

Last Monday, the Kyneton Racing Club showed terrific initiative by inviting seven would-be racecallers to call the last seven races on the program.

It was an excellent chance for them to get some exposure Australia wide though radio, Racing.com and Sky Channel.

Matthew Hill called the opening race and then stayed around to give tips and answer any questions for the new brigade.

BEYOND THE CALL OF DUTY

AS any country sporting club will vouch for, getting volunteers these days is no easy task.

The Mount Gambier Harness Racing Club is extremely fortunate to have a secretary who not only fulfils that task very well, but also makes herself available for any on the spot voluntary work.

Maxine Milich has been the secretary for well over a decade and, on race night, you will see her bob up anywhere around the place to help keep the show functioning.

Take the last meeting held here earlier this month for example.

As soon as you pulled up at the gate, there was Maxine in the background helping the gate attendants.

A short time later, she was seen behind the counter of the canteen preparing sandwiches then, later in the program, was helping out at the club bar

Mind you, she does have a good backup assistant to cover for her in the office when she is out roaming around, namely Kevin “K D” Douglas.

The printing of race books can be a costly exercise and Maxine took that area under her wing some years ago by producing the race books with the help of a photocopier until Harness Racing SA came to the party with financial assistance.

One of the real pleasures of attending the local trots these days is to purchase food from the canteen.

It is run by the harness racing club, which saw Chris Drury in charge last year before handing over the baton to Bill Jacob this year.

From personal experience, the high quality and low price of the food (especially the fish and sandwiches) is second to none.

There were two local winners at Hamilton last Monday at very different odds.

The David Drury trained and driven Mikicool improved sharply at his third career start to win the maiden pace in a tight finish at almost 50/1 with the tote.

Then, last start Mount Gambier winner My Purple Patch ($4.40) won the NR 50-55 pace for trainer Barry Finnis and driver Lochie Cook.

TWILIGHTS FIRE UP

THE Mount Gambier Racing Club has been proactive this month with its promotion of the pre-Christmas twilight meeting to be run here next Friday, December 1.

Before that, there is twilight racing at Naracoorte this afternoon, with the first race at 2.40pm and the last at 6.23pm.

Rain (can you believe it!) has actually been forecast for this afternoon and easily the best race is the 2000-metre BM 62 handicap where Hasta La Prince is chasing a hat-trick of wins on his home track.