A free (or maybe not) ad

Does anyone else remember the days when the BBC was a commercial-free zone. No, I'm not just referring to the fact that nowadays the BBC has just as many ad breaks as ITV, except that all the BBC's excruciating ads are for themselves. I'm referring in this case to the free ad (at least we hope it's free, although I'd say that Ian Bartlett would be missing a trick if he didn't negotiate a big dinner for himself at Ladbrokes' expense on the back of it) which Ladbrokes received in the form of Mike Dillon's interview with Ian Bartlett during the Shergar Cup coverage this arvo. After my diatribe on the blog yesterday, when I saw Dillon appear on camera I thought, "Yes, now let's see what he's got to say for himself!". However, it transpired that Bartlett's obsequious questioning was merely a spring-board for Dillon to advertise the great service and all the wonderful offers which Ladbrokes supposedly give their clients, rather than an interrogation of just why the hell aren't Ladbrokes prepared to play what has traditionally been regarded as the game. Disgraceful - but he'll probably get an award for investigative journalism for it!

In fact, Bartlett's questioning was about as fierce as the England bowling this weekend. What's going on? But isn't that the wonder of cricket, that nothing can be taken for granted? The poms clearly had the upper hand over the past two Tests and would have gone into this game with two consecutive victories to their credit had not the weather been so bad last weekend, and yet here they seem so completely out of their depth that it's almost impossible to believe that this English team could ever be competitive against this Australian team. It will be a miracle if in their two innings they can score 50% of the runs which the Aussies scored in one. What a great game. And isn't Test Match special a wonderful show? I really don't mind not having the pictures when we have Geoff Boycott et al. talking us through it. Great stuff.

It's only a pity that there was no Ashes element to the Shergar Cup. It was interesting to have the Indian and the Japanese hoops, but I thought that the inclusion of Ahmed Ajtebi was rather a cop-out. I think if one uses British-based overseas riders in the overseas team, they need to be demonstrably from the very top drawer (as Richard Hughes is, although whether Neil Callan was more of a drawcard than such Irish-based Irishmen as, say, Mick Kinane or Pat Smullen would have been is debatable): if one just gets A.N.Other out of the weighing room and sticks him in the international team simply on the basis that, although a run of the mill UK-based hoop, he happens to have been born elsewhere, it rather devalues the competition. I know it saves money, but that's not quite the point. Possibly there was pressure from Dubai, which sponsored the last race, but really they would have more justifiably included either Saleem Golam or Sylvester De Souza in the Rest Of The World team. And it would have looked rather silly if they had. It would have been better, I'd have thought, if a hoop from either America or Australia could have been included, because those are, after all, the leading racing nations. We've had plenty of Aussies in it in the past, including Glen Boss who was memorably bad a couple of years ago. Damien Oliver is riding in a similar competition at Deauville next Saturday, as he did last year. Maybe he wouldn't have wanted to come for this as it would have meant missing the ride on Mic Mac in the Aurie's Star Handicap at Flemington today, but I'd have thought that his position on Greg Eurell's good horses is so secure that he could have been absent for the horse's first-up assignment without any fear of losing the ride. I'm sure that either Michelle or Clare would have stayed on to represent their country if asked, and that they would have done so with credit. Clare might have wanted to get back as she's been busy at home, riding a double at Morphettville midweek and another winner there today, as well as winning in the country at Balaklava in between, but Michelle hasn't ridden in town since she got back, having had two rides (for one second) at Ballarat on Thursday and two rides (for one third) at Tatura today. Can you work out where this is going? Well, I'd been wracking my brains as to what photograph I could use to illustrate this chapter (understandably not having any photos of Ian Bartlett, Mike Dillon, Ahmed Ajtebi or Geoff Boycott on my camera) and this is the best tenuous link I can come up with. When Michelle finished second at Ballarat on Thursday, she was second in a female jockeys' quinella,
being beaten a short-head by a horse trained at Geelong by the expatriate Irishman Niall Philips (brother of Dave Philips, who led up Vintage Crop for Dermot Weld when he won the Cup in 1993) and ridden by Nikita Beriman, whose claim to fame is, of course, being the first female jockey to ride a Group One winner in Melbourne, courtesy of her 100/1 victory on Tears I Cry in the Emirates Stakes on the last day of the Flemington Carnival two years ago. So that's the picture taken care of: Tears I Cry, as seen by us in Quinny Scott's Cranbourne stable in January. Dear little face!