Biography: Graham is the former sports editor of the Irish Post newspaper in London and has been a broadcast and print journalist for the last decade working in the U.K., Australia and in his native Ireland. He presents a show on local BBC radio in the South East of England and claims to have Psychic powers. He once worked as a body double for Johnny Vegas and represented Slovakia in last year’s Eurovision song contest with the song “random factor blues”!
Jockey’s union reacts with dismay to owner proposalThe centre of Johannesburg was brought to a virtual standstill on Monday afternoon after Raceclubs jockey’s protested lambasting a proposal from the Mac Hardy stable to reduce their number as “unfair” and “down-right insensitive”. Mac Hardy raised his idea in the forums writing “Just wondering why we need 34 jockeys? Alot these days complain about the random, so why not just use the top 14 riders in each race to give each horse a chance to run closer to its true ability each race? It would boost horse values and the better horses would win more often.” Immediately the Virtual Jockeys Union (VJU) downed tools (their virtual whips) and gathered shouting slogans such as “What do we want? Races. When do we want them? Whenever is convenient”. A flabbergasted Diane Hall told reporters “I’m not even in the Union, they said I had to prove I was actually a jockey to get in but I hear there’s free sausage rolls on offer after” while Charlie Saxon went against the party line saying “I think there should just be one jockey – me!” A statement read out by the head of the VJU Wolfgang Schmidt said “we all have virtual families and virtual mouths to feed. This proposal would see us all on the scrap heap and we will be writing to David Cameron to make sure no changes are made to the number of jockeys on Raceclubs.” Since the protest was virtual the press office of the local police force reacted saying “In the event this gets out of hand we’ll be calling in the virtual riot police.”
Mick’s heroes – by name and by natureGoing from strength to strength the aptly named Mick’s heroes stable passed the 700 wins mark recently with consummate ease. Mick believes it’s important to make his virtual ggs feel good about themselves and so by labelling all of them heroes he feels he’ll get the best out of them and it’s a ploy which appears to be working. Sources inside the yard told View from the Stands this week that Mick has also employed the services of an equine psychologist. His modern approach to ownership flies in the face of his profile picture which displays a caveman! In June of this year the stable celebrated its biggest win to date when ‘Ooh La La’ captured a Classic Challenge qualifier for juvenile fillies. Mick’s heroes has only been in operation since February of last year so chalking up 700 plus wins already is some achievement. Heroes, you bet they are!
He’s not heavy, he’s my brother
They say you should never mix family and business but that’s exactly what Craig from the Craggles stable did this week when he announced “As some of you may know I am leaving the game for a while due to work so what I have decided to do is let my brother run my stable. He’s been thinking about joining so I gave him the idea he can run my few remaining horses, with the exception of the two challis that will be going into auction so he doesn’t ruin them.” Craig’s brother, whose name has yet to be released to the media, begins his reign of terror next Saturday and all members have been asked to go easy on Craggle the younger! Craig added “Now he’s a complete novice ,but he has been watching me run my stable, so he has picked up a little bit here and there. I know most of you are in the good category but I have also told him some of you are in the sarcastic category (not a bad thing at all), so as I’ve said above - please go easy on him (within reason). Wise words, all that’s left for me to say to Craig’s brother is one wrong move can destroy a stable…. so enjoy!!!!
Spare a thought for Butler’s YardI nearly fell off my chair when I spotted the Butler’s yard profile picture today. If you’re unsure what I refer to go to the profile picture. Either it was taken after (or during) an unmerciful drinking session or it’s of some unfortunate innocent! It does disturbingly remind me of a girlfriend I had as a teenager though!
Read more from Graham Clifford on Raceclubs.com
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