“A REAL EASTER MIRACLE”, “THE VERY DEFINITION OF A BAD BEAT” AND “WHEN THE PLANETS ALIGNED”.

Just a quick read that I hope you find interesting for when you’re hopping into your Easter Eggs tomorrow (see what I did there – hopping into your Easter eggs😀). Once again, this is a Rupert Free zone, but for information purposes, I have my next three weekly appointment with the Oncologist on Thursday and hopefully I’ll get the okay to commence treatment with the previously discussed Nebeqa.

A REAL EASTER MIRACLE

Anyone who has ever had a bet has absolutely no doubt that there is a “Punting God”. We may or may not believe the stories of The Virgin Birth or of Jesus Rising From The Dead but of the presence of an omnipotent Punting God, we have no doubt. I can attest that I personally was the beneficiary of an Easter Miracle courtesy of the Punter’s Deity on April 21st 2003. Let me explain.

In the late 1990’s, early 2000’s an Easter visit to Oakbank in South Australia for the Great Eastern Steeple was a once a year pilgrimage for my long time mate Michael Barrett and his wonderful Partner, Sharon Ryan. One of Michael’s friends was Eric Musgrove, one of Australia’s leading Jumps Trainers, and Mick, Eric and a number of other friends would spend the Easter Weekend based in picturesque Hahndorf and attend the Saturday and Monday Race Meetings between doing plenty of eating and drinking in the German themed Town. Robyn and I joined them for this terrific weekend a number of times but in 2003 we remained in Melbourne. I suspect it might be the case that Mick and Sharon barred us after the 2002 Easter Trip because I had John Williamson’s Greatest Hits playing on loop for the 7 hour road trip but honestly, I can’t see what the problem was. How could anyone not love listening to that Australian classic, Bill The Cat, multiple times while being chauffeured from Ascot Vale to Handoff?😄

Michael and myself would talk virtually every day back then and on Easter Sunday night be rang to tell me what a great meal I was missing out on at Zorro’s Steak House. Telling each other what a great feed we were enjoying in their absence was the subject of plenty of calls and on this call I asked Mick whether Eric Musgrove liked anything in the Great Eastern Steeple the next day. He replied that Eric thought by far his best for the day was in The Onkaparinga Cup on the flat. He didn’t tell me it’s name but I didn’t need to be a Rocket Scientist to find the tip on the TAB Site the next day. Eric only had one runner in the Cup and his name was Chase Harry. I threw $50 on “Harry” taking the “best tote” option on my Corporate Account (I hadn’t been barred by virtually every Corporate Bookie at that stage) and proceeded to forget what time the race was on, being more interested in watching the Richmond – St Kilda game from Docklands than watching the Oakbank gallops. After the Footy was finished I checked my Account and a win of just over $7,000 had been credited to my balance mid afternoon. “Harry” had led all the way starting at 40/1 with the Bookies, paying just over $100 on the SA TAB and paying $140 “Top Tote”. Obviously I immediately called Mick to thank him for the tip and his slightly annoyed response was “What the fuck are you talking about?” I reminded him of our conversation the night before and he informed me that the one Eric thought would win was scratched with a high temperature early Monday morning and he didn’t think “Harry” had a hope in hell! I’m not sure but I think Mick might have then hung up in my ear.🤣 I don’t know if Chase Harry ever won another race but that day he proved the time tested adage, “it’s better to be lucky than smart”. Now that was a real Easter Miracle. This one is for you Sharon🤣.

THE VERY DEFINITION OF A BAD BEAT.

Have you ever backed a horse that is going for its ninth win on the trot, watched it crap in by 11 lengths, note that your pick was never close enough to any other runners to lose the race on protest and still finish up $400 lighter in the kick? I have. This is the Sendok Story.

During my time studying (and I use the term extremely loosely) Accountancy in Bendigo there was a group of us who would regularly skip an afternoon’s classes to attend a Trots Meeting in the local area. I also had a good buddy doing Accountancy who had no time for the Trots but loved the Gallops and we would sometimes head out to the Bendigo Track for a Thoroughbred Program. His name was Kevin “Shifty” Sheehan and he went on to be arguably become the most important figure in the AFL’s Draft and Development Programs as the National Talent Identification Manager. We played cricket together in Bendigo Representative Teams and in the Clan Travelling Cricket Team and I spent much too much time at his Family’s Rising Son Hotel in Barnard Street, Bendigo. I am pretty certain he was my partner in crime the day of the Sendok Bad Beat.

As mentioned previously, Sendok was going for his 9th win in a row on this 1st day of October, 1973 and I somehow managed to secure 6/4 for $400 in the strong local Bookmaker’s Ring with him eventually starting Evens. That was about as big a bet as I would ever have in those days. He won, hard held, by an ever widening 11 lengths, and while I was lined up with the other winning punters behind the Bookmaker’s Stand, the Steward’s Warning Siren sounded. I had no idea what the issue was but I was bloody sure it couldn’t possibly involve Sendok. How wrong I was! Sendok had completed the Race with a 4kg Lead Bag he should have been carrying, back on the dividing partition in the horse’s stall. He was disqualified and every Punter who had backed him did their money cold. Even today, I understand the Punter still loses his bet if a similar circumstance occurs. One Rule of punting should be, “if you can’t win you can’t lose”, but when this happened “I couldn’t win and I did lose”. Danny Power, a Journalist mate of mine for more years than I care to remember, tracked down the story about the race that The Age published the next day and it appears below. One point in the story that jumps out at me is that the Trainer copped the same $400 Penalty as I did. That hardly seems equitable and personally I would have been happier to see him receive a 12 month disqualification and 50 lashes with a Jockey’s whip.😄

WHEN THE PLANETS ALIGNED

As anyone who knows me and anyone following my Blog will be aware, the two greatest loves of my life, apart from my Family, were The Trots and Baseball. The Trots gave us a great living for many years and Baseball gave me a place to get away from the pressures of living on the punt. Both provided me with wonderful friends and many memories that will keep me smiling when my time is up. This story is about how my love of the Trots gave me a once in a lifetime Baseball experience.

Some time in the late 80’s I was negotiating with the two owners of a Stallion in the USA to purchase him for down under. The price was agreed and the deal was done subject to the horse (I think it’s name was Nukes Image but I can’t be sure of that) passing what was called an EVA Test. To safeguard the Australian Equine Industry any stallion imports had to obtain a Negative EVA Result through a Semen Test before they were allowed in the Country. Most Stallions passed the test but this time Nukes Image failed so the Sale never went through. One of the two Part Owners was George Steinbrenner, Principal Owner of the New York Yankees, recently valued at US$7.1B. You might know him form the back of his head on many Seinfeld Episodes. At the time that the Sale fell over, Mr Steinbrenner, or George as I liked to call him, said to me that the next time I was in New York he’d like me to be his guest at Yankee Stadium. I wasn’t in New York for a number of years but in 1999 a group of 6 of us were heading to the USA East Coast to visit the Baseball Hall Of Fame in NY State and to attend a some Yankees games so I contacted George to see how long a rain check on his personal invitation was good for. To my absolute shock, he sent me the following reply.

So off to Yankee Stadium on July 19th we headed for our first game between the New York Yankees and the Montreal Expos. We were going to be there for another four games, one more against Montreal, two against Tampa and one versus Cleveland and I had let George know we’d be there for the five games I’ve detailed. To my absolute surprise, George hadn’t left Bleacher Seats – he’d left me six tickets for each of the five games in his field level private box on the home plate side of the Yankees Dugout. We were in heaven.

But let me back up a few days: on Friday July 16th, George had John F Kennedy Junior as his guest in “our” Private Box for a game against Atlanta and after the game JFK Junior took his seat behind the controls of his Piper Saratoga plane and took off for Martha’s Vineyard Airport. Now, had we scheduled our trip for just a few days earlier, I’m absolutely positive that Junior would have been fascinated by the Aussie accent and the winning personality of this White Hill Tech graduate and would almost certainly have asked me to join him on his flight.🤔 The plane never made it to Martha’s Vineyard and the bodies of Kennedy and his two passengers were recovered five days later. On Sunday July 18th David Cone threw only the 16th Perfect Game in Major League history and only the third Perfect Game ever pitched by a Yankee. Can you imagine how exciting that would have been to be seated there drinking Bloody Marys and eating Hot Dogs just a couple of feet from where Cone was doing his thing? Instead we were driving to our Hotel just through the Lincoln Tunnel in New Jersey. We missed that thrill by 24 hours and had to settle for watching five games of Yankee Baseball in seats that money literally couldn’t buy. After a couple of days we’d got to know the Waiting Staff looking after our every need pretty well and the Head Waiter enquired “Excuse me sir, but how did you get these seats?” As you’d expect I replied honestly “Me and George have been mates for years mate and he never makes any Roster moves without giving me a call first”. He seemed happy with that and although I never thought it possible, I think our service was even better after that conversation.⚾️

Reggie Jackson remains my favourite Yankee so it’s appropriate he should appear somewhere in this Post and here he is in an Angels uniform. Have a lovely Easter Sunday and stay well. Russ⭕️❌

1. 

   Duck story had me on the floor!

2. 

   Lovely tales as always Russ. We have recently got a new Dachshund puppy, as I lost my beautiful Steffi in…

3. 

   Hi Russ More wonderful stories and I will look up Rough Diamonds. You and Mark Twain hang in there! With…

4. 

   Hey mate love the blog,keep being tuff as I know you will. Sent from my iPhone

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   Bless you Russ. Reading your wonderful blog, I spend half of my time laughing and half crying. Perhaps you should…