Tassie Sports » Horse Racing

Lightening Newitt

Menza — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 11:20:24 +0000

Yesterday (Wednesday 26th November 2008) a lightning bolt came within meters of striking jockey Craig Newitt while riding in the But Beautiful Super Vobis Handicap at Sandown.
The incident happening after he pulled his mount, Lara’s Glitter ($15.80) up after the race which was run during an electrical storm.
Newitt’s comments were:

“I couldn’t stop shaking. I shit myself,”

“I was only a few metres away from the rail when the lightning hit. I could taste it, that’s how close it was. As soon as it hit, you could smell it. It was scary.”

Bet on Tasmanian Horses

Menza — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 10:46:00 +0000

Tote Tasmania has had a huge 30% increase in turnover this past year, 2007/2008 up from the previous year. A turnover of A$498 million.

This is largly due to the deal with Betfair that has bought in business from outside Australia.

Tote Tasmania have inturn injected A$ 23.7 million into the Tasmanian Racing Industry, up A$3.3 million from the previous year.

Seems Betfair was a good investment for the Tasmanian Racing industry. Lets hope these extra dollars in the system float down to stake money.

The article: A PROFITABLE PARTNERSHIP

Tasmanian Greyhound Trainer Gets 8 Years

Menza — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 03:01:00 +0000

Well known Tasmanian greyhound trainer Ted Medhurst has been disqualified form training for 8 years after stewards had found Medhurst had:

Destroyed 11 greyhounds with a firearm,
Falsified documents,
Gave false and misleading evidence to an inquiry and
Removed blank documentation with a letterhead from a veterinary surgeon’s practice.

Also some interesting comments on this story from the The Mercury. Two views seem to be issues relating to vet fees and animal welfare. Both are I feel are very relevant.

Hypocrisy And Hysteria Abounds Over Betfair

Menza — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 08:41:00 +0000

Betfair has establishing a 60+ seat, sophisticated telephone betting operation in Hobart that has now been in operation for a over a year.

When first given the go ahead from the Tasmanian government, Betfair, (which is part owned by James Packer PBL ) was all doom and gloom from the different factions that had their own interests in punters money and the racing industry in Tasmania to the do-gooders that believe that their opinion rules for everybody, because the majority cant make their own decisions.

New South Wales seems to now be in a similar situation going by this article in The Virtual FormGuide.

From this article, I found this interesting:

In Betfair’s first full year of operation in Tasmania, TOTE Tasmania turnover actually rose by 20%, the largest annual increase of any Australian TAB. There is ample evidence that betting exchange activity stimulates TAB turnover, not the other other way round.