ABC Online: Our Melbourne Cup runneth over with love

Michelle Payne and the Cup. AAP: Julian Smith

Held under the dark clouds of drugs, corruption and drive-by shootings, this year's Melbourne Cup turned out to be even beyond the horses. A history-making winner and her family showed us racing's capacity to be inclusive, accepting and empowering, writes Michael Hutak.
Did the Australian turf just get the shot in the arm it so desperately needs? Racing showed its human face this afternoon, as Michelle Payne became the first woman to ride the winner of racing's godhead, when she saluted on Prince of Penzance with one of the great the Melbourne Cup rides. In a complete boilover, bookies got the lot as the 100-1 outsider from the bush overcame the world's best thoroughbreds to write the proverbial fairytale in this 155th running of the event.
But it wasn't the race that won the crowd's heart; it was what happened directly after, as Payne and Prince of Penzance were led back to scale by the horse's strapper, her brother "Stevie". The joyous display by Steven, who has Down's syndrome, leading his history-making sister back to scale, were indelible images of a racing game that despite all the problems it faces, has a capacity to be inclusive, accepting, and empowering. 

-- Read our full story at ABC Online

ABC The Drum: Melbourne Cup 2015: Half Full, Half Empty

IT MAY have serious ethical issues, but racing is so embedded in the vernacular of Australian social and public life, many of us are happy to look the other way in the Spring sunshine.

TEAM AUSTRALIA has been usurped by our newly-minted innovative agile esprit de corps. As a popular leader takes the reins, an exhausted electorate is ready to party before bolting for the holidays. And so the festival of forgetting that is the Melbourne Cup is again upon us.

But as the oracles know, appearances can deceive. If you follow the Australian turf, you know that Winx has been the star of the Spring, capturing the spotlight with stunning wins in the Epsom at Randwick and last Saturday's Cox Plate that have marked her the greatest mare since Sunline. If you follow the daily news, you know the home of Victoria's chief steward, Terry Bailey, was sprayed with six shots from a semi-automatic weapon on the eve of racing's biggest week of the year.

Read the rest of our story over at ABC's The Drum

Did Vic Police rewrite the rules for Danny Nikolic?

Under the banner "Natural Justice Denied?", Costa Rolfe has given Danny Nikolic free rein in a "news" story on punters.com.au. Rolfe quotes him thus:

“The Police Commissioner has given me no reason for the exclusion order except that it's in the public interest. If he has any proof that I am of poor character, why doesn't he produce it?” Nikolic said.

“This exclusion order is a clear attempt to hinder any future license application under racing jurisdictions. 

“I believe it's a clear abuse of his discretionary powers and a tactic to further negatively affect public perception of me by linking me with organised crime figures without justification or rationale.”

Rolfe then paraphrased Nikolic, asking "how Racing Victoria and Victoria Police could essentially rewrite the rules in order to extend his ban beyond its original term."

Huge claims.

ABC Online: Bart Cummings: Farewell to the Australian turf's last household name

We all know there will never be another James Bartholomew Cummings.

We knew that by the mid-60s, the late 70s, the late 80s, and at the turn of the millennium. We knew it every Cup day for over five decades, as we scanned the field looking for Bart's runner to place our once-a-year flutter. We knew it in 2008 when Viewed, a 40-1 outsider, won Bart his 12th Melbourne Cup to the surprise of precisely no one, some 50 years after he'd saddled his first runner in the great race.
Just as we knew it yesterday when his son Anthony took to Twitter to tell the world his father had gone. I say "we" with confidence, because Bart was the Australian turf's last surviving national figure, its last household name.

-- Read the rest of our tribute at ABC's The Drum

ABC The Drum: "Cobalt five" called by RV Stewards to show cause

The frayed and fragile reputation of Melbourne's Spring Racing Carnival hangs on the outcome of hearings in Melbourne today into the "Cobalt five", writes Michael Hutak.

Cobalt, the meteoric element the smarties swear can send a racehorse past its rivals like a hurtling comet, continues to cut a swathe through the ranks of the Australian turf.

A recent rash of charges, hearings and detections related to the apparent cobalt doping of racehorses has left a stench of corruption hanging over the game's already ragged reputation. It's been a busy time of late in cobalt world:

-- Read the rest of our article over at ABC's The Drum

ABC The Drum: Sadistic side of greyhound racing must change

A Queensland inquiry has offered the greyhound industry a last gasp chance to survive after accusations of "animal cruelty on a scale never seen before". But there's reason to be sceptical things will change, writes Michael Hutak.

Some time around 1015AD King Canute was such a greyhound fan he introduced laws in ye olde England that rendered the breed exclusive to nobility, banning his celtic subjects, serfs and commoners from using them for hunting and gaming. Thus the "sport" of coursing emerged, whereby gentlemen owners of two greyhounds would wager on whose dog could best chase and catch a live hare. Apparently, this is a noble and pleasurable pursuit.

 -- Read the rest of our story at ABC's The Drum

ABC The Drum: Cobalt from the blue: time to register racing's vets

The horse racing industry is facing yet another doping scandal, so if the main players are serious about cleaning up this mess and their reputation then it's time to register the vets, writes Michael Hutak.

Like all organised sports, doping scandals are nothing new in racing. Go fasts, go slows, "elephant juice", EPO, steroids and now Cobalt - the headlines of the last week have been both breathless and curious. ...

This is the shadowy end of the racing game, where the perps dress in lab coats rather than silks. Returning home, he would administer the latest fad to his select group of clients - trainers who consistently showed remarkable talent for turning average types into winners. Horses that would return from a spell "jumping out of their skin". Horses said to have "grown a leg" after staging form reversals.

-- Read the rest of our article over at ABC's The Drum

ABC The Drum: Cobalt from the blue, time to register racing's vets

The horse racing industry is facing yet another doping scandal, so if the main players are serious about cleaning up this mess and their reputation then it's time to register the vets, writes Michael Hutak.

Like all organised sports, doping scandals are nothing new in racing. Go fasts, go slows, "elephant juice", EPO, steroids and now Cobalt - the headlines of the last week have been both breathless and curious.

The stories around the abuse of cobalt chloride, first in harness racing and now in racing, both here and abroad, have been ongoing for more than two years. The difference this week is three of the country's highest profile trainers now have prima facie cases to answer.

...read the rest of our story over at ABC's The Drum.