He’s chilled and strong willed  with the determination to win  He doesn’t settle for  being second best  Some even call him King  He just smiles and looks  and takes it all in He doesn’t ever forget  About where he came from  And all the places he’s been  Heavy is the head that wears the mighty crown There are always those who want to see him slide and on the way down But Zac is hip to the game He’s seen it all before He’s not gonna let his guard down He’s busy keeping score

Some of us have very fond memories of Sir David Tang despite the various rumours about the “health of his wealth” and also some of those who were attracted to his amazing generosity though he was very probably keeping up pretences amongst the hoi polloi and which can be a full time job. https://www.standard.co.uk/news/londoners-diary/londoners-diary-tributes-pour-in-as-sir-david-tang-dies-at-63-a3622751.html With many clamouring for the details of the Epstein files and the re

It’s not only about  standing in the spotlight  and always  taking the applause  It’s about knowing how to  turn things around  when the lights go out  And charting a new course  Don’t keep playing the tiresome blame game  when fingers are  pointing your way  As history has taught  many of us  Even the big dog  always has his day Karma is a strange beast  Bridges should  never be burned  Friendship is a very  fragile thing  It cannot accept  serial lies  And deflections  at e

Just love her and this version of the Burt Bacharach-Hal David song. Though nothing compares to the version by Dionne Warwick, here’s something that is so different in that it is chilled and has a warmth to it like hot chocolate on a rainy night and kissing the the nape of her neck as she gently teases your throbbing horn. The British born artist is no newcomer having been signed to Warner in around 2010 with one of her biggest supporters being Prince who performed ‘live’ in

Though knowing the ins and outs of horse racing pretty well without disappearing into the deep end of the karaoke carpool, I can’t help wondering if we have seen the end of an era and, if so, how the next era is going to start. The 2025 Lexus Melbourne Cup had it all and the racing writers have said it all with those in the main roles being galloper Half Yours with his positive attitude, two extremely likeable trainers Calvin and Tony McEvoy and the irrepressible and such a t

When the stars align, magic happens and which is what happened after, and maybe even before, the running of the Melbourne Cup at Flemington. This was when Half Yours, trained to perfection by Tony and Calvin McEvoy, and so confidently cuddled and ridden by Jamie Melham said Yup to the Cup and took out The Race That Stops A Nation. After exactly a decade since Michelle Payne became the first female jockey to win the Melbourne Cup, Jamie Melham became the first female rider to

Part of what might be called HKJC Entertainment, those same unknown girls some have seen wandering around Hong Kong in white gym outfits for the past few months, are back in a- quelle horreurs- music video. This time dressed like dominatrixes and with one rather odd boy flouncing and dancing and singing in foreign tongues and going all old school Gangham style with horsey moves has not gone down too well with those who have seen it. Filmed in an empty and spooky looking Happy

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