Champion jockey turned trainer Chris Munce has had a crack at Sky Racing’s coverage of the Brisbane racing carnival on his weekly blog at Sportsbet.
Have Your Say: Do you agree with Chris? – Leave a comment below.
Come on Sky, lift your game! We’re copping a raw deal in Brisbane during Queensland racing’s biggest days of the season.
Watching Sky Racing of a Saturday you wouldn’t know we are deep into the winter carnival.
The coverage of the last two weekends has been disappointing, to say the least.
A fortnight ago, after just about every race on Doomben 10,000 day, Sky left Brisbane for a provincial meeting at Kembla almost as soon as horses crossed the finish line.
In the races I watched at Doomben there was no head-on footage. Sky leaves one of our premier meetings and even showed various angles of finishes at Kembla.
After the 10,000, Sky presenter Bernadette Cooper appeared to have had her interview cut short with winning trainer Peter Snowden because they crossed to Kembla for a Maiden no less.
Last Saturday’s Doomben Cup was no different. As soon as horses crossed the line in the Group 1 showpiece, Sky cut to Newcastle for a Class 1.
I understand if races are held up the schedule can get tight, but surely in feature meetings like the winter carnival’s Group 1 races should be given priority. It doesn’t happen during the Sydney carnival.
Eagle Farm takes centre stage on Saturday with the Group 1 Kingsford-Smith Stakes. At the moment the track is rated a heavy 8, but with all the sunshine we’ve had this week it could receive an upgrade.
I’ve raised my concerns about Eagle Farm but remain confident the surface will measure up to three weeks of Group 1 racing.
The track has been given a good break and received an enormous amount of attention to help it cope.
We’ve had great weather this week and everything points to it racing well and every horse getting their chance to win.
I’m proud to have three runners, Ours To Keep, Saint Patricks Day and Champ Elect, in the Group 2 Sires’ Produce Stakes.
The team at Munce Racing has done a great job to get three two-year-olds into the field.
I’m not going to throw out a tip for one in particular. It’s a big field and luck will play a part, but my three are live chances.
In the big one it’s hard to go past Black Heart Bart. He’s the class horses in the race and Darren Weir wouldn’t have him here if he didn’t think he could handle the seven-day back-up.
Counterattack doesn’t win out of turn, but his run behind Redzel in the Doomben 10,000 was good as was Derryn’s effort for third.
