At Geelong yesterday on 92%-93% unfit there were about 10 lays, non ran a place, with fitter horses beaten them every race.

Cheers Jim

Cobalt from the blue: time to register racing's vets

Opinion

Posted yesterday at 2:39pmTue 20 Jan 2015, 2:39pm

Photo: Trainers and vets owe it to the game to restore faith in both racing and themselves. (Getty Images: Mark Dadswell)

The horse racing industry is facing yet another doping scandal, so if the main players are serious about cleaning up this mess and their reputation then it's time to register the vets, writes Michael Hutak.

Like all organised sports, doping scandals are nothing new in racing. Go fasts, go slows, "elephant juice", EPO, steroids and now Cobalt - the headlines of the last week have been both breathless and curious.

According to legend, a racehorse vet from days of yore would make his annual trip to the home of doping, the US, where he would pick up that season's latest racetrack performance-enhancer of choice.

This is the shadowy end of the racing game, where the perps dress in lab coats rather than silks. Returning home, he would administer the latest fad to his select group of clients - trainers who consistently showed remarkable talent for turning average types into winners. Horses that would return from a spell "jumping out of their skin". Horses said to have "grown a leg" after staging form reversals.

Others also benefited from his handiwork over their entire careers. Over the decades, some of our most revered champions of the turf are rumoured to have had his "help".

The vet allegedly made his stateside pilgrimage each year, it is said, to ensure his trainers kept their edge - on both their equally corrupt rivals and the hapless stewards, who were (and are) always playing catch-up to discover what to actually test for.

The cheats' strategy is to stay one step ahead of authorities. Eventually, loose lips and the racetrack rumour mill leads to authorities catching up, prompting "the hot workers" to seek out the next innovation.

The stories around the abuse of cobalt chloride, first in harness racing and now in racing, both here and abroad, have been ongoing for more than two years. The difference this week is three of the country's highest profile trainers now have prima facie cases to answer.

These aren't battling trainers from the sticks. These are the trainers of winners of Melbourne Cups, Cox Plates, and of, gulp, Black Caviar.

Everyone has the right to both natural justice and the presumption of innocence. But while the burden of proof must rest on authorities, the trainers themselves owe it to the game that has rewarded them so much to ensure the public retains confidence in both racing and themselves.

To listen to Melbourne trainer Danny O'Brien, one of three under investigation, it's all been a bolt from the blue: "I'd never heard of Cobalt seven days ago, apart from reading that they put in a rule about it."

O'Brien says it's all a cock-up by Racing Victoria, and he hopes it will be all over by the end of the week. Informed opinion says O'Brien is dreaming. Stewards themselves have said it will take months to gather the detailed brief of evidence required to bring any possible charges against the trainers.

Veterinary experts claim cobalt doping needs to be at near toxic levels to be effective, making horses "run like beasts, but you only get two or three good races out of them, and then they're done".

The issue has again put the animal's welfare on the front pages and has raised the temperature on an age-old push to make equine vets who work with racehorses licensed and fully subject to the oversight of stewards, in just the same way as trainers, jockeys and stablehands have for, yes, hundreds of years.

The vets' professional associations have resisted licensing since "time immemorial" and Racing NSW chief steward Ray Murrihy told me that he had proposed such oversight twice over the years to no avail. One leading racing vet told me that Racing NSW "have their eye on a couple of rogue vets, we all know who they are," who are doing untold damage to the game.

The vet predicted that talks that have been ongoing since December between Racing NSW and the vets representatives will arrive at a solution that will better protect the public interest, racing's integrity and, most paramount, the welfare of the animal.

There are 1100 members of the Australian Equine Veterinarians Association, and if an entire cohort needs to be brought into racing's oversight to weed out these rotten apples, then so be it

Looking at Southwell, UK Pools midweek on Betfair over $AU1,500,000 that is huge.

Jim

When is a lay not a lay?

Liabilities determine punters laying horses.

They will lay a horse @ $2.50 but not @ $25.00, yet their chances of collecting may be far greater in laying the longer priced horses.

If your $25.00 horse is only 90% fit, drawn wide and 10 horses fitter, is it a good lay if you know how fit it is.

You cannot win more than 100% (your stake), either @ $1.70 or $100.00, it is all about the horses chances of winning and you lose your bet.

I have done these test before, any priced horse, as long as it is unfit 90% - 91% , against many fitter horses and so far

out of 50 races, 1 has run 3^rd and the rest have finished back near last.

Your strike rate is 100% over 50 races, so that is 5,000% profit and generally you are collect about 400 from home.

Fitness is obviously the key to laying big priced horses.

In the UK jumping races, unfit horses get beat 200 – 300 metres.

So when is a lay a good lay?

LONDON LADY fav. on only 95% fit, lost

Warm favourite at Bathurst on only 95% fit got beat, will improve dramatically on that run in fitness and can go to 97% next start and win.

$2.68 liability a lay.

Has to be weak, same class though.

Cheers Jim

A couple of closed punters magazines are on the forums at the moment, and some claimed huge strike rates.

I rang one up one day to do some adveretising and got the closing date for the next issue.

It was after a certain meeting, yet the magazine tipsters tipped plenty of winners after that meeting for the magazine.

Then blew up to blazes their strike rates in the next edition!

Punters dooped!

Cheers Jim

What days will you receive your fitness tips?

You will be notified 24 - 36 hours prior to the event. 

At this stage, they will be in Metro Melbourne / Country

I hope to attend 2 or more days per week, depending also on weather conditions.

Saturday races are temporarily unavailable.

If the meeting has bigger size fields (14-20) runners most races, I will pass because punters can get 3/1 in a field 8 field and 3/1 in a field of 18 runners.

I will go with the smaller fields, to avoid interferences.

Will you do night meetings?

Yes, more news later.

How will you receive the fitness tips?

Via SMS as emails tend to get held up in networks.

Will advise.

How many tips will you receive?

It all depends on trainers presenting their horses, 98% - 99% - 100% fit,

or unfit favourites (90% - 94%) with 5-6 fitter horses against it,

just to make sure, it gets rolled.

From experience, it may be up to 15 horses to hedge each way, selective tips per month.

It may be up to 15 lays on unfit horses per month.

Total of up to live 30 fitness tips per month.

Laying unfit horses.

Does it matter what price an unfit horse is to lay, if it is highly likely to

run near last?

You cannot win any more than 100% but yes, being a bookie you could pay

out $2.00 or $25.00.

Does it matter what price an unfit horse is to lay, if it is highly likely to

run near last?

How long before a race will you receive our fitness tips?

I need to identify their fitness ratings in the mounting yards, which will leave

4 - 5 minutes to commence contacts.

No tips posted will mean ratings on generally 93% - 96% fitness or even and I cannot see an edge in fitness.

Some early stable fitness mail and quadrella horse’s, may come through an hour before they race.

Quadrella horses still may not be the fittest horse in that leg, but are horses in the fitness zone to include in your multiples.

What will the text messages look like?

Ballarat   R3 – 7 Hedge

Ballarat   R4 – 8   Lay

Short and sweet message, as I don’t have to worry about spelling a horse’s name.

Will you have black bookers?

Yes, I will do my 28.8 fitness report on most meetings, of horses entering into the
“Fitness Zone”.

They will improve on fitness next start, or they will lose fitness, and you will lose.

Some big priced winners have come from my black bookers and horses are of good size,

quality types and not ponies.

Cheers Jim