October
OctoberNumbers up
Anyone taking a newcomer to the Spring racing carnival should get ready for the obvious question: “What are those numbers on the stalls the horses are standing in before the race?”
Innocently you answer: “They’re the barrier numbers — the ones in the racebook beside the horse’s name.”
“But,” your visitor pleads, “my horse has a 6 against its name and it’s starting in stall number 9. How can that be?”
Good question. Barrier stall numbers are apparently irrelevant now.
Last Saturday at Caulfield at least two races were run with the inside barrier being stall number 7 or 10, making the racebook useless.
Surely it is not beyond the wit of some clever person to run the horses from their actual barriers — the ones printed in the racebook.
Even better, put the saddlecloth numbers on the barrier stalls to give a better chance for an observer to follow their horse from start to finish.
Geelong West (Vic)