SA HARNESS RACING - WHAT A JOKE

[SCD]

They wonder why turnover is not increasing on harness racing in this state, well I can easily answer that...

Race 5 on Friday night a driver - S McMillan on a $20/1 ant, JD Holmes (who is racing in a $4,250 race on Saturday - allowing horses like this to race in these races is another story) decided he wants the breeze, has his horse under the whip for 1 and 1/2 laps - needless to say, his horse dropped out and got beaten 15m... Was he questioned by stewards... no.... was any action taken... no

Race 9 on Saturday night - Simplybeat Dechill opened up on Supertab @ $1.04 with about $10k in the pool to open proceedings.. the 2nd favourite Village Lord finds the front, a $36 ant, High Cadence (who won on Monday I might add) takes him on for over 800m, while the favourite goes back, comes around with a lap to go and strolls in... was the driver questioned about his tactics in being beaten 15m??? no... was any action taken.. no

Race 1 on Monday - D Billinger driving the 2nd favouite Eyres Dream.. hands up every week.. except this week when taken on by $2 favourite.. this isn't the 1st time he hasn't handed up this week and does the next... does he get questioned?? again NO....

Talking to a professional punter at Kilmore, we were discussing Adel trots. When blokes like Webster and Justice were driving he would have regular bets on Adelaide trots.. but not anymore!! He got sick of "idiots getting away with incompetent drives all the time"... well no wonder that turnover is down and the sport has a bad name, when blokes like

S McMillan
G Rogers
D Billinger
B Scaffidi

are allowed to drive and destroy good races, without even being spoken to... in Victoria they get a 6 or 8 or even 12 week suspension for such incompetence, yet here we tollerate it from these amatures. It just goes to prove a point - pay peanuts, get monkeys and that's being nice to most of the drivers in Adelaide...

In future we should only bet on the following drivers

D Harding (regularly if not all the time)
W Hill
D Hill
A Calabria
R Hryhorec
and even
P Cavallaro - cause you know what you're going to get, death seat and take them on!

Anyone who has an opinion on this would be good!

[bayman]

gina bell useless, as is a few others but i've learnt the hard way & that is money lost if you like a horse and an incompetant driver is on do not bet in it as they get beaten & lot more than they win

but as i've said for a long long time we (aust) must go professional ie have a pool of professional drivers on retainers & they drive at tab meetings & if some mainly 'hobby trainers' aren't happy they race at non tab meetings lets face it jockeys= professionals & b grade jockeys go bush, this is the same as what i'm saying i believe if this happened turnover,crowds would go up & confidence would happen for the industry

[Punk Rooster]

Bring back Robbie Ditmar!

[bayman]

Bring back Robbie Ditmar!

they test them for drink driving so ditts would be in trouble but yes he could drive

[SCD]

Bring back Robbie Ditmar!

they test them for drink driving so ditts would be in trouble but yes he could drive

Luckily they don't test them at the Sunday trials.. I know a couple of drivers that have caught a taxi from town, straight to the trials and have been "under the weather"...
As for Robbie, I know he was helping Matt Harding out not so long ago, but now Matt has downsized (i.e. he got married and has no horses) I don't know what happened to Robbie.. but even I remember he could drive~

[mal]

There is a suspicion that driving tactics are premeditated at the trots.
Not so long ago[now?] bookmakers betting sheets were collected after
each race to check betting moves.

As for reinsman being made accountable I had often thought that horses
driven differently[Billinger on Eyres Dream] should be quizzed by the stewards.
I declared that horse Monday and it was differently driven, no confidence in
betting when that happens.

As for reinsman who take on leaders and murder thier conveyances thats another
issue, in my opinion you cant query the driver,
BUT
you can if he dosent next start.

Another idiosyncaracy is when a $1-25 fav gets beaten when driven poorly why
do the stewards query the run?
WHAT SHOULD HAPPEN
is all horses that get driven poorly shuld be quizzed even at $101
The $1-25 or $101 is the opinion of the bookmaker/tote punters[after all $101 shots do win as well]

I think you are on the ball SCD with this post
You hear many many disgruntled punters who bet on trots upset due to driving tactics.
I was a trots man but drifted to dogs because I was screwed too often at the red hots.

[another grub]

The heading to this thread says it all!!!!!!!!!!

[SCD]

There is a suspicion that driving tactics are premeditated at the trots.
Not so long ago[now?] bookmakers betting sheets were collected after
each race to check betting moves.

As for reinsman being made accountable I had often thought that horses
driven differently[Billinger on Eyres Dream] should be quizzed by the stewards.
I declared that horse Monday and it was differently driven, no confidence in
betting when that happens.

As for reinsman who take on leaders and murder thier conveyances thats another
issue, in my opinion you cant query the driver,
BUT
you can if he dosent next start.

Another idiosyncaracy is when a $1-25 fav gets beaten when driven poorly why
do the stewards query the run?
WHAT SHOULD HAPPEN
is all horses that get driven poorly shuld be quizzed even at $101
The $1-25 or $101 is the opinion of the bookmaker/tote punters[after all $101 shots do win as well]

I think you are on the ball SCD with this post
You hear many many disgruntled punters who bet on trots upset due to driving tactics.
I was a trots man but drifted to dogs because I was screwed too often at the red hots.

As for drives being premeditated... it has been alleged to me that not too long ago - one driver was seen in the stables area being very friendly with a person attached to a big betting stable - this driver was driving an ant in the same race as the horse in the big betting stable - which opened up very very very short on the interstate tabs... this driver then butchered the 2nd fav in front and tailed out to run a nice long last, while the favourite won... Looked at the stewards report.. nothing on the race, so obviously they don't check tabs, interstate bookies or Betfair from what I hear...

I think the thing for me is that you expect a horse to be driven consistantly.. if he goes 3 of 4 fence every week and looks for shortcuts, then you know what you're getting - but when they don't hand up this week and do next week, that's when I get very annoyed.. How can you have a bet on what someone will do this week when they don't know themselves... the VERY WORST in Adelaide at it is D Billinger!!!

In Adelaide they don't quiz any drivers or horses performance. These morons get away with crap drives all the time and nothing gets said - like Bayman said above, the sooner we get professional drivers at tab covered meetings the better, after all look in victoria, Douglas, Manning, Lang, Alford, Caldow, Justice, Webster, Sugars, Quinlan just to name a few get a lot of drives because that's what they do, blokes like (not to single him out) S McMillan who are hobbists are very rare in Vic and treated more harsh by the stewards when they do make a mistake!