What are the odds?

Of me hiring a cricket-loving, Indian, Accounts Payable clerk a few months before the Indians nail the Aussies 2-0 in a series and send us home with our tails between our legs?

Damn you Viral. You and your exuberant celebrations and outlandish predictions (many of which have come true) and your Bollywood shirts. Be very careful not to make any keying errors over the next few months. You have been warned.

PS – What the hell is going on in the above photo? I hope they are using a condom.

Cox Plate 2008

1. 

Glenn Boss after his ride on Samantha Miss, Cox Plate 2008

I was privileged enough to have the best spot in the house at yesterday’s Tatts Cox Plate at Moonee Valley.

I was rapt with some of the photos I took in the Winner’s Circle, including the one above, which shows the face of jockey Glenn Boss immediately after the race. Bossy had to lose 5 kgs in 9 days in order to ride Samantha Miss at 47.5kgs, and it really shows in this photo – he looks physically and mentally exhausted.

Maldivian was a worthy winner of the great race, and a good-news story after last year’s disaster at the barriers in the Caulfield Cup.

Click on the photo below for a slideshow of the rest of my photos from 2008 Cox Plate.

Cox Plate 2008

Thanks to Cam for the loan of his camera.

Tarpins at Cranbourne this Sunday

Just a quick update on Tarpins. He ran a solid fifth last start at Kyneton, led around the straight and ran on well. He was coming third 50 metres from the line, but the leaders cut him off and Rawiller had to stop riding. He finished only 1.7 lengths behind the leader. Trainer and jockey were both rapt with the run.

He’s racing again at Cranbourne on Sunday in a 2025 metre race. The stable expect him to give a strong showing, now he’s had two solid runs under his belt and is back to his favoured distance.

1.20 pm – Race 3 Horse 3 – Jockey is Brad Rawiller again and he’s out of barrier 5.

We’ll be heading out there on Sunday to watch.

Happy punting.

Wakes nails the 100 push-up challenge

Congratulations to Wakes, who yesterday successfully completed the 100 push-up challenge.

Very sneaky she was too, didn’t tell me she was planning an assault on the summit. I was minding my own business in the shower when she came into the bathroom and shouted, “Yes!!!” – OK, it wasn’t really a shout, more of a breathless exclamation in between the huffing and puffing.

Anyway, straight away I knew that she had made the 100 and put me to shame in the process.

I gave up on my own challenge a couple of weeks ago (PB = 78), but Wakes loves nothing better than a fitness challenge and was determined to see it through.

The next challenge I’ve set her is the Triple Clap Push-Up:

Well done, Wakes, you are a champion.

Photo credit: Radiospike

Sorry to disappoint

Someone googled this to get to my site:

was bruce clark a jockey in australia

Hate to disappoint you mate, but the last time I was under 60kg I was in grade 6…

This horse is hoping like hell I don’t hop on.

Tarpins starts a new campaign

Tarpins in the mounting yard

Tarpins started off a fresh campaign with a run over 1400 metres at Bendigo yesterday.

Hopes weren’t too high – he’s being trained for 2000+ metres later in the spring, and it was a pretty strong Class 2 field.

He came in second last (10th of 11) but was only around 6 lengths from the winner and hit the line fairly strongly, which was what we had hoped.

We were fortunate enough to have gun jockey Brad Rawiller on board, fresh from his big win on Weekend Hussler on Saturday. I was very impressed with Brad – he conducted himself with the uiltimate professionalism, doing the meet and greet before the race then providing a detailed debrief after the race.

Next stop for Tarpins will probably be a 1700 metre race at Warrnambool on 23 September. Stay tuned.

Trainer Jamie Edwards and Jockey Brad Rawiller

More photos are here.

The bloke on the left wins gold

Sports Illustrated has an amazing sequence of photos showing the miraculous escape by Michael Phelps in the 100 metres butterfly.

Do you think Silver medallist Cavic will be haunted by this photo for the rest of his life?

Conspiracy theories abound but Photo 5 from the Sports Illustrated sequence almost convinces me…

Maybe Phelps has hidden propellers in his ears.

Push Up Challenge – Progress Report

I’ve got to say, I’m well and truly over push-ups at the moment.

I gave myself a decent couple of days rest before attempting the Maximum Test at the end of Week 5 today. Unfortunately I only managed to equal my PB from a few weeks ago – 78. It doesn’t give me much confidence that I’m going to be able to get to the magic three figures.

I struggled a bit with the sets in Week 5 – I had to complete the required minimum 40 reps at the end of Week 5 Day 1 as 2 x 20 rather than a straight 40. I completed Days 2 & 3 satisfactorily, but it was a big struggle at the end to get the required minimum 40 reps and I fell in a screaming mess on the floor both times

I go to a trainer in the days between my push up days, and often we do quite a gruelling upper body set, so I’m probavly not giving my body sufficient rest between push-up days either.

Looking ahead to Week 6, I’d have to say I’m no chance to complete Day 1, and very unlikely to complete Days 2 & 3.

I’ll probably repeat Week 5 again and see whether I can get through all three days in entirety. Then do the max test again next Saturday and make a call from there whether it is worth continuing with the program.

Details of the One Hundred Pushups challenge are here if you’re interested.

Our rowers are … flying?

How about this classic commentary during the Olympic men’s fours rowing tonight?

“Here come the Aussies. They’re absolutely flying … The French are tiring … At the top of the screen the Americans are also flying … the New Zealanders are flying as well … and the Irish, they’re coming home strong … and in the Aussies in lane 3, they are flying home.”

Nick Green was a brilliant athlete as a member of the Awesome Foursome, but as a special comments man?

Special = retarded.

Leapster take a bow

The weekly column by Sunday Age writer Leaping Larry is one of the highlights of my week.

How’s this for a great line today on the Shaw/Didak/Shaw/McGuire farce:

You’d think that footballers + alcohol + cars was about as well-established an equation for disaster as monkeys + matches + dynamite.

Keep up the great work, Leapster.