Perth racing faces a critical decision

When a state capital of over 1m people has two racecourses close to the city, the inevitable pressure to sell one of them will occur as the popularity of horse racing continues to diminish relative to alternative entertainment options. Racing in Western Australia has been strong in recent years, with metropolitan prizemoney embarrassing South Australia and making it a viable option for owners and trainers. But that has come at a cost - Perth Racing has robbed Peter to pay Paul and now they are struggling to cope with interest payments of $1m per year.

Premier puts Perth Racing under the pump

WA Premier Colin Barnett is mounting pressure on cash-strapped Perth Racing to sell Belmont Park racecourse to make way for the development of a 100,000 seat football stadium.

With Perth Racing to announce major prizemoney cuts this week, the WA industry is supporting Barnett's call to dump the ageing Belmont as a winter racing venue.


Traditionally Ascot is the A-grade track in Perth, while Belmont is the venue during winter, which allows Ascot to recover for its feature events late in the year. In recent years, Adelaide have moved from three racecourses to one (sold off Cheltenham, gave Victoria Park back to the parklands, built an extra track at Morphettville and invested in a bigger provincial circuit at Murray Bridge) and Brisbane has merged its two metropolitan raceclubs in the hope of eventually selling one of the racecourses off and creating a supervenue with the cash.

The state government wants to build a huge stadium for AFL close to the city - whether they need to build it for attendances of 100k though is debatable in a state of this size. If the government gets its way, what will happen to the WACA (a great AFL stadium surely becomes a great cricket stadium) and Gloucester Park harness track? Prime land on the edge of the CBD, not much more they can do to develop it....

WA racing could handle one city track - they have strong provincial clubs including Bunbury and Pinjarra, wet tracks in the west are far less frequent than in the east so wear and tear on the racing surface isn't a big deal. Turning Ascot into a super-venue with better facilities, perhaps an extra turf track to race on and racing for better prizemoney is likely to be a winner.Posted byScott Fergusonat13:14

Mikael D'Haguenet faces nine on Irish chase debut

Mikael D'Haguenet: star staying novice hurdler of the 2008-2009 season

  PICTURE: Caroline Norris  Mikael D'Haguenet faces nine on Irish chasedebut By tony o'hehir 10:59AM 14 DEC 2010 MIKAEL D'HAGUENET, the star staying novice hurdler of the 2008-2009 season, when he was unbeaten in six starts for Willie Mullins, will face nine rivals on his Irish chasingdebut in the Bar One Racing Drinmore Novice Chase at Fairyhouse on Wednesday.

RELATED LINKS Drinmore card RSA Chase betting  Runner-up on his only previous start over fences at Auteuil in May 2008 before joining Mullins, Mikael D'Haguenet missed all of last season due to a setback but is second favourite behind Time For Rupert for the RSA Chase at the Cheltenham Festival.

Head Of The Posse, who is two from two over fences, Berties Dream, winner of the Albert Bartlett Novices' Hurdle at Cheltenham in March and who has finished fourth on his two starts over fences, Realt Dubh, another dual chase winner, and Jessies Dream are among Mikael D'Haguenet's rivals in the 2m4f event.

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Celestial Halo faces four on Exeter chasing debut

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NCAA Football – Alabama faces South Carolina on Saturday

by Stephen Lars on Oct.09, 2010, under Football

South Carolina’s head Coach Steve Spurrier has one big issue in front of him: find a way to slow down the Alabama Crimson Tide, who has just recently made then-No. 7 Florida Gators seem like an easy Sunday morning walk in the park. As if that was not enough, the guys at South Carolina, and particularly the fans, most be a bit concern for what the fully recovered Mark Ingram showed off in his performance against the Gators.

Let’s go back to Bama’s last season game against the South Carolina Gamecocks. This game was some sort of decisive moment for Mark Ingram’s college career. Last season, Ingram rushed 246 yards against South Carolina. That was enough to make give him the third highest mark in Alabama’s history. And let’s not forget how he closed the game. Ingram was the man responsible for each of the Crimson Tide’s last 68 yards in the final scoring drive. That is including the 4-yard pitch he took for touchdown to secure the 20-6 win.

But Ingram is not the only strong player the Gamecocks should be worried about. Also starting will be Trent Richardson, who was key during the first two games that Ingram lost at the beginning of the season due to an injury in his right knee. Richardson has recorded in the first five games of the season a very respectable mark of 419 yards and 4 touchdowns.

That duo is expected to keep on with the Crimson Tide’s winning streak. So far this season, Alabama is 5-0 overall and 2-0 in conference play. They are not only the most dominant team in SEC, but top the rankings nationally.

Ingram is expected to shine again against the defense he so cleverly tore apart last year. If he is really going to try to get his second consecutive Heisman Trophy, he knows this is where it can all start to fall into place. He has said that his game against South Carolina, and the brilliant performance he had there, was what really threw him into the race for the Heisman. Not only did he deserved it, but was proud to bring in Alabama’s first Heisman ever. Now they could have two.

As of press time, the Alabama Crimson tide is the favorite on the spread to win this game. When it comes to wagering on the NCAA football season, the key factor is what the underdog is going to be able to bring on the table. The line might fluctuate a bit from now till kickoff, but at

Richard Hughes Faces Tough Challenge

Posted by Leigh on October 7, 2010 · Leave a Comment 

Richard Hughes pledged to persist in his challenge to become this season’s champion jockey after his fortunes were given a body blow when his appeal against a six day ban failed.

Askar Tau faces nine in bid to retain Doncaster Cup

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