Friday, April 15, 2011

Autumn Racing Carnival 2011 – The Doncaster Mile

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More Joyous

The heady excitement of first class racing continues this Saturday at Randwick with three Group One events, the feature race being the famous Doncaster Mile, which stars that other marvellous Australian mare, More Joyous. She is gunning for her 13th consecutive win on a Sydney track and her 5th win in succession for the season. The Doncaster Mile is by no means an easy race to win. She is top weight, so one or other of the lighter weighted  contenders could spoil her party. There’s the consistent Love Conquers All, Danleigh, Aloha, Triple Elegance and stable mate Pureness all in with a chance. But More Joyous being the freakish beast she is, barring extreme misfortune, should bolt in.

The AJC Australian Oaks (2400 metres) also looks a doozy of a race with AJC Derby winner Shamrocker out to make history by winning the Derby/Oaks double. If she has recovered from her gruelling win in the Derby there is a very good probability of her succeeding.  Others in contention are Victorian Oaks winner Brazilian Pulse, Pinker Pinker, 100/1  Stormqueen winner Mirjulisa Lass, Fibrillation and Crafty Irna.

The third Group One of the day is the Galaxy Stakes a sprint over 1100 metres. Last year Ortensia was the winner, though later a prohibited drug was found in her system and she was disqualified. She’s back again for a second go at it, though it looks a much harder race this time, judging by the quality of the field. Swift Alliance looks the one to beat and others like Sister Madly, Solar Charged, Avenue and News Alert are all talented sprinters and therefore in with a chance.

As well as being an excellent day for racing, it is also International Independent Record Store Day. 

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Basement Discs  will be celebrating the occasion with a great line up of local artists performing in store throughout the day - JEFF LANG, CHARLES JENKINS, THE WOLFGRAMM SISTERS, SEAN McMAHON'S WESTERN UNION, ABBIE CARDWELL, CHRIS WILSON, SARAH CARROLL, CASH SAVAGE, THE SPOILS (DUO) and LITTLE JOHN.  They will also be having a music quiz and other such fun stuff with the likes Dave Graney and Rebecca Barnard undertaking the MC duties. 

I’ll be dropping in during the afternoon,  to snap some pictures and  take in the vibes.

Several other independent  record stores in  Melbourne will be celebrating as well, so  check  out your favourite record store tomorrow and give your support to a worthy cause.  They’d be a sad loss to the cultural landscape were they to close.

1 comment:

Kay Cooke said...

What a fantastic photo of More Joyous! Amazing. Also great to hear Basement Discs shows continuing ... lately too many good things are being forced to go - I hope BD can keep going (I fully intend on visiting Melbourne one day and checking it out!)