Don't talk to me about apprentices

This weekend we went to the races at Adaminaby to see Diamond Jay race.

While we weren't expecting her to win, we were quietly hopeful.  Because of our two recent wins we had a large weight penalty allocated by the handicappers, but we still thought that we were in with a chance.  To offset the extra weight we were using an apprentice that could claim a 3kg reduction.

The weather turned out to be great, which was a nice change from the previous weeks where it was wet or cold or both.

I should have mentioned that Adaminaby is one of those small country towns that has a race day once a year that is always great fun to attend.  The whole town turns up, I reckon.  Here are a few miscellaneous shots I took of the early races; being a smaller track meant that you are closer to the action, especially compared to other tracks where you can't get very close to the winning post itself.

 Our strategy for Diamond Jay's race was to stay at the back and run against the fence all the way until the final turn where we would run wider and race down the outside to the finishing line.

Here is a picture of the horses just after the start.  Ours is in the centre of the picture with the pink and dark blue check.  Can you see where he is racing?

Not against the rail, and not at the back.

You see, our rider was an apprentice, who despite being told what to do, decided to run his own race.  And this meant running the horse mid-field, and 3 horses wide,  All the way around the track. 

All the way around, the racecaller kept saying things like "Diamond Jay is working hard running 3 deep around the bend ..." "Diamond Jay is having a hard time of it overtaking the other horses running so wide ..." etc, until we heard "Diamond Jay is dropping back in the straight.."

That's why this guy has been added to our "don't use again" list.

After the race he said that the horse jumped from the barrier so quickly he was taken by surprise.  He then said that she was running so strongly that he didn't want to pull her back (like he was supposed to) because she would lose her head of steam (like she was supposed to).  He stayed 3 wide because there were other horses against the fence and he would have to drop back (like he was supposed to) to get to a position near the fence.

The big downside of apprentices - they don't listen, and if they do the either don't do as they're told or they can't.  Or maybe I'm being unfair to other apprentices.  But it's not the first time that an apprentice has messed things up for us badly.

No luck at Adaminaby

Yesterday we went to the races at Adaminaby (about half an hour south of Cooma).

Adaminaby has one of those once-a-year racetracks that you sometimes think are really a pub with a racetrack attached. Adaminaby Cup day is a major fundraising day for the local community, so you expect slightly inflated prices, but Karyn and Penny were very happy with the price of Champagne. Being the designated driver, I just stuck to water all day. But we had a really good time despite not coming away with a win.


We got there early, and despite filling the boot with chairs, folding tables and the like, we decided to sit in the stand, just in front of the bookies. It made it easy to see the prices.


We had a few wins, and even more losses, but of course were slightly in the red by the end of the day.

Diamond Jay was in the last race, unfortunately. "Unfortunately" because the clouds were getting blacker and blacker as the day progressed, with showers increasing. I'm still getting the feel of my new camera, so I wasn't quite sure how far to go with adjusting the settings for the decreasing amount of light. I kept the speed at 1/1600 sec and increased the ISO 800, and hope that there would be enough light for a decent photo. There was, but only just. You might think that the colours are screwed up, but because of the drought, the grass was actually bleached white. Because of the light drizzle, this then turned an orangey colour that you can see below.

Here's Diamond Jay crossing the line in about 6th place. Just after the start, I heard the racecaller saying how DJ was doing it hard riding 3 horses wide, and I remembered that we had an apprentice on board to get a 3kg weight reduction. The downside of a lot of apprentices is that some of them have a lot to learn, and this guy seemed to run 3 wide for the whole race, which meant that we ran about 2,000m instead of 1,750m. The jockey came back and said that the horse was just too slow, but then how many jockeys would blame themselves. So given the circumstances, maybe 6th wasn't too bad. We'll just make sure we don't get that apprentice again.

Here was one of the "colourful" racegoers.



The funny thing is that you can have a really great day at country races. There's no need to get dressed up (if you're a guy). I like to wear my bright Hawaiian shirts. And everyone is just there to have a good time. What more could you ask for than a nice warm day, a few winners, and a steak sandwich in one hand? Apart from a beer in the other hand, of course.

You just have to be prepared to buy lots of raffle tickets for one fundraiser or another. The organisers are smart enough to have their cute children walking around all day asking you to buy them. I'm often glad not to win the prizes though - I kept thinking "what if I won that huge quilt?"