October
DecemberScratching my head
How telling that in the same edition of Winning Post that Richard Callander praises Wednesday acceptances for Saturday metro meetings (4/12), he writes a Rosehill preview noting that his mate Chris Waller had accepted with three horses for a particular race but would only be starting two.
Presumably the story was written on the Thursday morning, which means if acceptances had been taken on Thursday as usual then Waller would not have accepted with Alexander of Hales.
How does it help punters for Alexander of Hales to be cluttering up the published field when he was never going to run? (Early bettors would have been betting blind, not knowing how much of a deduction the bookies would take for the horse’s scratching.)
How does it help the owners of Alexander of Hales to pay up for their horse then have to scratch him?
Richard also recommends Australia switch to the New Zealand system, where nominated horses are deemed to be acceptors unless withdrawn before acceptance time.
He might want to turn to the back of Winning Post and have a look at the NZ Saturday fields (which accept on a Wednesday). Because of that system, up to six emergencies are allowed for each race. As a result, "punnas" have no real idea of the final field until scratchings are published on the morning of the race. Again, in come the deductions. How does that help?
Callander predicts that turnover will rise as a result of the change to Wednesday acceptances, but provides no logical reason why that should be the case. I predict that any rise in turnover on Saturday racing will be offset by a drop on Wednesday and Thursday.
Richard dismisses trainers who oppose Wednesday acceptances as dinosaurs who are resistant to any and all change. The other possibility is that the trainers have got some idea about their business, and Richard hasn’t.
Still, no one has been able to tell me who will benefit from Wednesday acceptances other than lazy journos — who, coincidentally, are the prime movers behind the push.
Cremorne (Vic)