Writing in Idol Horse, Adam Pengelly wrote a piece on Tom Prebble and how he’s doing today after his life-changing fall and how he’s working himself back to life going on around him .  Mentioned was the support group around him- his parents Maree and former champion jockey and Melbourne Cup winning jockey Brett, former jockeys Tye Angland, and Chris Symonds and the World’s Best Jockey James McDonald rushing over to see Tom right after winning the Cox Plate. Adam painted a pic

It’s deep, yet shallow, sissy, yet masculine, childlike though chilling and giving off a Halloween and Chung Yeung vibe for Hong Kong racing with rather spooky horsey dance moves borrowed from Gangham style by some people in the scary looking empty setting of Happy Valley racecourse. Far better and more “Thriller” if it was filmed at midnight in the Happy Valley cemetery. Especially deep and probing are the thought provoking deluge of naughty “lah lah lah lah lah lah lah lahs

********************* We couldn’t help overhearing a very senior Biggie Small executive with the HKJC, and someone who really should know better, dismiss jockey Mark Zahra’s accomplishments by telling his dinner guest, how “he couldn’t ride a winner when in Hong Kong”.  This rather telling remark was a couple of weeks before the double Melbourne Cup winning rider rode four consecutive winners at Flemington on Saturday’s Victoria Derby Day including two winners for the new God

Thanks for the happiness you’re bringing to those who might have disappeared into themselves, Rob. My mom did when she lost her battle with Alzheimer’s and I didn’t know what to do, so I blocked it out and let Trina deal with it. I was scared, whereas Trina being Trina had that kindness and inner resolve to promise my parents that they would leave here with dignity. And they did. For bringing some joy to the Hyland family on Tuesday afternoon and especially, father and grandf

It’s The Gift Of Love through the gift of music and which Rob Foenander unselfishly gives for those in age care homes in Melbourne. Today, he visited the great Pat Hyland, who won the Melbourne Cup aboard Vain, and made him and his friends and family smile, remember good times and feel happy. Good stuff, Rob and good that you’re using your talent to give people the happiness they need. Looking good, Pat!

If you thought Robert DeNiro was menacing and and just plain wrong when playing the role of Max Cady, especially in that memorable scene where he asks actress Juliette Lewis, playing the underage Danielle in the remake of “Cape Fear”, let’s just remember that he was playing the role originally created by Robert Mitchum. One of the greatest film noir actors ever, Robert Mitchum had a disdain for Hollywood pretentiousness and would have had for breakfast some of the pomposity a

Was watching something or another the other day and thought to myself, “Have we run out of ideas?” Did every creative idea that became reality run out of steam maybe twenty years ago and, like life itself, is this all one rerun- the music, the advertising, the inspiration to dare to dream, your heart knowing when you have fallen in love, and also knowing when you have fallen out of love and when love takes a backseat to things that are puerile? Or, unlike Alice, did we stop b

SCORING GOALS, PETE GOES GLOBAL… Whatever anyone might think of him, it’s darn difficult to ignore Peter V’Landys, especially because he appears to be travelling under the radar and as they say in Media Speak, is expanding his reach. There are those well into the Australian sporting arena who no longer see him as the “racing supremo” of Racing New South Wales. Yes, he’s still guiding the Everest juggernaut, but he’s also somewhat like the Scarlet Pimpernel. Was he actually on

Some friends were, I think, teasing me on the weekend that by bringing “entertainment” to horse racing with the Happy Wednesday brand for the Hong Kong Jockey Club, I had created a herd mentality that was neither here nor there- “The Square Peg In A Round Hole Solution”. Of course, Happy Wednesday under me was before Covid struck and Hong Kong was still a happy place. Today is not yesterday, and I understood what my friends were saying during these post pandemic times, where

THE BATTLE OF EVERMORE LUCK AWARD Trained by Mark Newnham, current head of the Trainer’s leaderboard in Hong Kong, a first starter ridden by the extremely tall, strong Jimmy Orman gaining increasing popularity in the city, drawn an outside barrier and absolutely smashed in the betting to start the race favourite, looked like waltzing in until suddenly something made him run out wide probably looking for the closest McDonald’s, and then surviving an enquiry and an objection fi

Some may disagree, but I believe that Maureen Haggas has done more to introduce the world of horse racing to a global mainstream audience more effectively and quicker than any marketing and promotional efforts of racing clubs, the racing media and the rather doggerel sounding ARF- the Asian Racing Federation. When Mo, as her friends know her, opened fire with two smoking barrels about what she believed to be a race ride of a “big sissy”, she single handedly made the word “sis

Speaking to some people from overseas, it was obvious that they were “riffing”, something one does when unsure about what they are saying because they have had zero experience about the subject- in this instance, Hong Kong 2025. There are those who apparently describe me as being “difficult”- and worse- which I wear like a badge of honour. This is for the simple reason that I have actually “been there”, done it, won awards for my work in advertising and music, met my heroes,

Trainer William Haggas has been somewhat busy these days saying that though Oisin Murphy is a mighty fine jockey, he’s also been lambasting the recently crowned British champion jockey for some of his riding modus. Not to be left out, wife Maureen Haggas has chimed in by appearing to be none too impressed with the riding skills of Champion Hong Kong Jockey Zac Purton. This was after his ride at Randwick last weekend on the Haggas trained Lake Forest which came an inglorious l

It really has been a comedy of errors. Though some may see it possibly succeeding as a mockumentary in the style of a poppy version of Spinal Tap, or The Rutles, consider this: “The HKJC and X1X Entertainment Present Now United In Hong Kong, China”. Where once upon a Spice Girl, there were Posh, Baby, Ginger, Sporty and Scary Spice, when the same formula was repeated with SClub7, some of us actually knew there was a Rachel and Hannah in the group. In 2019, and from the same S

As someone who grew up, down and sideways in Hong Kong and took in the races at Happy Valley racecourse before “graduating” to see the start of horse racing at Shatin, what I have always wanted to see is a greater “fusion” between the sport and the city, and a more mainstream audience. Being in marketing for as long as I have and having lived and breathed advertising and creating product awareness, what has still not happened is this marriage between Hong Kong racing and Hong

Let’s address the elephant and dodo bird in the room: If the world is in a mess, little old Hong Kong has become a miserable and sad city when looking beyond the obvious, like the little train that could, the city is small enough to travel under the radar and be anything it could be plus being something special. These days, this train is travelling in reverse and perilously close to being derailed. Why? Perhaps it’s a lack of creativity which was here when there was an inspir

From being something of a non-believer whether the horse race known as the Everest would be a success, mainly because of the politics of horse racing going on at the time, these days I have switched sides. I have nothing but respect for the ways in which the head of Racing New South Wales Peter V’Landys fine tuned the Pegasus slot race from America into an event marketed as something for a younger demographic in Australia- and is today a global success and very probably the m

Coming from the advertising and music industries and having worked with clients like McDonald’s, MTV, Seagrams and artists as diverse as Robbie Williams, Coldplay, the brilliant Gorillaz project and Eminem, it’s always interesting to visit the horse racing business model and see how it might have changed, or even if it’s still there. Having been introduced to horse racing through nights out in London at the gentleman’s club called Aspinall’s and those years of meeting the hor

It’s hard to believe that someone with such an illustrious career in horse racing that he has can fly under the radar- but that’s exactly...

Maybe it doesn’t happen that often these days, because of the ongoing reality show of the Big Orange in the golden White House, but, not...