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.

A new roof at last

I’ve been nervous about rain for a while now, ever since we had a big storm and the rain poured down through the downlights in the ceiling.  So every time it rains I start listening for the sound of water dripping onto wet carpet.

Several times we’ve had roof tilers in to repair the tiled roof, and yet each time there’s another large storm we get more water in.

So finally we decided to replace the roof with one made from Colourbond steel.  Lovely large sheets of unbroken steel from the ridgecapping to the gutters.



The installers also added a sheet of R1.5 insulation between the metal and the roof battens, so that it is actually quieter in the rain that the old tile roof was.  On  the one hot day that we've had so far this Spring, the upstairs bedrooms were also cooler.

Pardon the mess, but Matt had some mates around, so wet towels, etc, were strewn around waiting for someone else to put them away.

Two in a row

This week we went to Moruya for its Melbourne Cup Day races.

This time Diamond Jay was in the second race.  It’s a nice change from normal where we seem to be always in the last race.  For me, that means that I get the chance to take better pictures because there will be more light around.  At Bombala a fortnight ago I was battling rain and dark clouds that made taking a high-speed photo difficult.

We decided to get there early because the racing club wouldn’t allow us to book a table in the Members’ Area, and we thought that if the weather was awful we wouldn’t want to be stuck outside.  So we got there early enough to get the best table near the windows.

It seemed to drizzle the whole way to Moruya, which was worrying.  But when we arrived the rain stopped.  The sun even came out after a while and there was even a large spectator turn-out.

It turned out to be a great day, with Diamond Jay winning by 2 lengths.

The crowd was deafened by the screams of delight from Karyn and Penny who then raced down to give DJ a good pat.

Karyn, as usual, gave a speech at the trophy presentation.  Unlike last time when the crowd ran away as she spoke, this time they hung around.

A final pose for the photographer… As usual, we couldn’t get the trophy away from Penny for the rest of the day.