Western Australia

[Jasper]

My immediate reaction was how on earth would they overturn the result, then I immediately thought of the Lucky Grey protest, the most unusual protest that I can remember in any code in WA which was upheld. Overall it was a pretty interesting 30 or so minutes. Ray Williams old school approach elevates him in my opinion. MS has been a wonderful horse over here for the last 3 years so it was great to see him win our biggest race.

I wasn’t overly interested in the Pacing Cup this year; 7 starters from the previous year, same trainers with multiple runners, lower class horse from the East was the only visitor etc. Turned out to be the most memorable for a few years. (Kyle Harper drove a double also including the big mares race which was great to see).

[Messenger]

I am a bit less accommodating of De Campos drive Trev. As McDonald had the inside, I see it the reverse of you - he showed no signs of surrendering the lead and yet De C kept persisting
He was going to get the lead but should have got another ½ m clear before coming down
As it was the biggest of races, the stewards were entitled to be ropable too - what if he had brought JJM down

Magnificent won magnificently and very hard to say he would not have done so from the death But he broke the rules to take the lead
I didn't see any Stewards room footage and have not bothered reading much about it
I didn't expect them to uphold the protest but I would not have been totally surprised - it would have been drawing a moat as opposed to a line in the sand

Overall it says something about how ridiculously leader biased the GP track is (thus drives like we saw last night)
I was happy to see Magnificent win

[Showgrounds]

You summed up the race pretty well Kev, the track is notoriously leader biased. That, in a nutshell, explains De Campo's determination to lead as well as McDonald's resolve not to hand up. The odds of contact being made increased with every stride the horses took. In accordance with the rules, De Campo cops a suspension while McDonald just copped a check for continuing to push his horse up when his chances of continuing to hold the pole had diminished. Fortunately for McDonald there are no rules or laws that I am aware of against stupidity.

G. Hall Snr can thank his lucky stars for the absence of rules against stupidity as he might have copped 12 months for his behaviour in the stewards' room.

Did the contact that caused Jumpingjackmac to break look to be a deliberate action of De Campo's to you? This is what Snr stated, not alleged, several times in the protest hearing. Watch the race again and compare it to Snr's statements - not allegations- that his horse had been deliberately knocked down. That is a very big stement too make and somewhat defamatory towards De Campo. He then went on to say, as part of his reason for protesting, that Magnificent Storm was a great horse but not brilliant enough to sit outside the leader and win. again I say the extra work the horse did, the winning margin and the manner in which MS won suggests Snr got his assessment wrong.

He then added that MS, by knocking JJM down, he had cost his horse the best position in the race (the lead) and, wait for it - and forced his other horse (Diego) to race in the death when it would have had the 1/1 spot if MS had stayed in the death.

That last comment summed up Snr's frustrations perfectly. The race was not rum in the way he hoped it would be. Had JJM not been checked, would he have vented so much?

From his 1 minute tirade I learnt Snr agrees the best place to be in a race is in the lead, he probably underestimated MS's staying ability but couldn't admit this having protested, and MS's failure to cease attacking for the lead cost Diego the coveted 1/1 position. And, worse, repeatedly accused De Campo of knocking his horse down.

Throwing a driver under the bus in this manner is extremely disrespectful and unprofessional in my opinion. He then followed on, ranting about his 55 years in the game and again stated it was a deliberate act. Having shut Ray Williams' attempts to refute his statement, I give a tick to Ray for shutting up when the stewards directed him to.

Williams' three word interjection summed up Snr's rant to that point and, intuitively, what was to follow. "You're talking sh!t".

Nuff said!

[Messenger]

Thanks for the transcript - he was talking shit.

[Showgrounds]

Thanks for the transcript - he was talking shit.

And gets away with it without even a tut-tut.

[Jasper]

But they had to have a crack re the protest as they had a responsibility to the owners and there was huge prize money on offer. As for throwing another driver under a bus what else could he say as it was pretty evident what occurred. Intent, which is what Hall focused on, isn’t really relevant to the matter at hand so that was an error in their argument.

If the protest was upheld it would have set an interesting precedent. The weak link was that JJM was almost ran over for second and he actually wasn’t off stride for very long. While Hall got off subject, alot, he was clearly stressed and emotional and having the camera so close to his face was probably a little unfair. It’s not as if he turned over tables or was abusive. If he had walked out that would have definitely been unprofessional and letting the owners down.

In the interviews on twitter post race DC seemed a little flat, RW on the other hand was bright and happy.

Out of interest does anyone know of a protest which was upheld based on interference a long way from the winning post?

[Showgrounds]

Yes, if my horse was checked by the winner in a $450k race I would consider a protest. Perhaps not when it occurred 2 3/4 lap from home, probably not when my horse was comprehensively beaten in the manner JJM was. Given the precedence of the Stewards suspending Hall jnr for his blatant breaking of whip rules in the Oaks, after determining the short half head margin did not adversely affect the (legally driven) runner up's chances, the 12.7 margin in the Cup suggests Hall snr had no hope of success.

I reiterate, Hall snr's performance in the Stewards room did nothing to enhance the sport's reputation. The first protest hearing I recall being broadcast live was Sunline v Northerly in the 2001 Cox Plate. I wish I could find a copy of the footage. Fred Kersley was relatively unknown in thoroughbred ranks at the time. While there definitely was interference, the protest was dismissed largely due to the way Fred calmly, methodically and rationally defended his horse. The stewards obviously agreed and Fred won plaudits from the massed racing media. He won two races in my opinion; one on the track and another in the stewards room.

Compare that with Snr's bombastic minute and a half rant on Friday night. The only thing "impressive" was that he managed to defame a leading driver, tell the winning trainer what he thought were his horse's limitations (which appeared to be none on Friday night), told the world how his team had been instructed to drive and accused the winner of having deliberately knocked his horse down (didn't happen) and made himself look foolish. Not bad within 90 seconds!

And it is not suitable to throw a driver "under the bus", so to speak. There was interference and ample film of the incident. Hall should have ust channelled Fred and calmly prosecuted his case. Instead, he throws a tantrum, diverts the stewards' attention from the race to himself and behaves like a complete dick. Not good enough and totally unprofessional.

[Messenger]

Having tuned out after the race (just keeping an eye on the TAB results page as I expected a protest) I am guessing but somewhat surprised that Sky 1 gave harness extended time and telecast the protest?

[Jasper]

Well that’s good news re Sky. I tuned out and watched it on the Trots WA X site. Straight after the race Sky showed a second or two of the connections etc and then did their classic of switching to a dog race and we saw the dogs walking up to the boxes. At least there wasn’t any images of dogs doing their business on that occasion. I hate the quick switch from the trots to the dogs and the long dog walk with the inevitable occurring.

With respect to the protest and the Kersley comparison, the Northerly protest is the yardstick re behaviour but Kersley was in the prime position of winning the race. Also whilst Hall did throw the winning driver under the bus, fair enough. Most people watching the race would think the same, and he called it as he saw it (although it diminished his argument). It is funny however that we lauded (or at least I have) Williams for his response but haven’t labeled him as being unprofessional around the use of profanity in an official inquiry.

[Messenger]

Well that’s good news re Sky. I tuned out and watched it on the Trots WA X site. Straight after the race Sky showed a second or two of the connections etc and then did their classic of switching to a dog race and we saw the dogs walking up to the boxes. At least there wasn’t any images of dogs doing their business on that occasion. I hate the quick switch from the trots to the dogs and the long dog walk with the inevitable occurring.

Sorry for the confusion - I was asking if it was on Sky, not saying it was
What is the Trots WA X site?