Noel Callow's Malaysian problem

Practical Punting Daily

Herbal tablet to blame for Noel Callow's Malaysian problem?
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Posted @ 7:54 am
The inside story on Noel Callow's problem sample in Malaysia is that a herbal tablet he's been taking for 5 years and which passed drug tests all over the world may be at the heart of the matter. In the topsy-turvy world of Malaysian racing, some people think NC has been the victim of a setup. He apparently won on his first ride there, by 4.5 lengths, and the stable didn't have the money on. Not happy chappies. The popular Aussie jockey fears he may cop a ban of 3 to 6 months.

(Over)use of the whip in the closing stages - by Tony Paley

by Tony Paley

Phew - now that was a horserace as crack Hong Kong sprinter Sacred Kingdom bounces back to form and defies the previously unbeaten red-hot favourite Rocket Man in a ding-dong battle up the straight for the International Sprint title at Kranji in Singapore.

Brett Prebble on Sacred Kingdom would surely have been straight into the stewards' room if he had ridden a horse like that in Britain such was his (over)use of the whip in the closing stages.

Decision Making

From the selections of two horses, it is very tough for humans to execute their decisions, let alone selecting three or four horses in a race. For a choice of two animals, it is a matter of making the right call.

Picking A Winner

Picking a winner is 40 percent skill, 41 percent luck and 19 percent on the eeriness, the unforseen and the hidden agenda.

Choice and Decision Making

Most of life are choices and decision making and the rest is pure dumb luck and no matter how good we are there is a lot of luck involved.

and

It is a combination of good luck (a lot of it) combined with the fact of hard work on analysis, observation, looking out for clues to get the winners

FYI / Beware

FYI /Beware

The confidence trickster Cha Cha Cha aka R Oh is back in action as LIVE INFO

Noel Callow

By Andrew Eddy

At the centre of attention was a jockey in the red and lilac colours madly waving his arms, punching the sky, poking his tongue out and then star-jumping off the horse on returning to the mounting yard. He was Noel Callow, as brash and instinctive as always.

I first met Callow in 1989. A son of successful rider Kevin Callow from Adelaide, he was apprenticed to Eddie Laing at Epsom and one of his first assignments in his new and exciting role in Melbourne was to look after a filly I part-owned called Marine Beach.

My first impression of the then 15-year-old was that he was a rare individual. Within moments of being introduced, he was telling Laing, a veteran and successful horseman, exactly how to train horses.

He then turned on us and suggested how we should write our racing stories and then turned his attention to the bloke with the broom. He soon told him how to sweep.

Despite this slightly annoying over-confidence, he was somehow a likeable kid. Not that it mattered too much as kids like him do not last.

Masters expect their apprentices to be respectful, to listen and learn, to obey instructions and to stay out of trouble. Callow failed in all these categories.

A few months later, Laing sent him packing and over the next few years, Callow found himself in a variety of different stables. Added to his woes was that, as he matured, his weight began to soar. Stories continued to abound about how he had yet another punch-up with a fellow rider in the jockey's room. He was a hot-head who was never going to make it.

Sure enough, Callow gave up riding in the mid-1990s and, among other pursuits, began working in a bottle shop. Like so many before him, he had drifted out of the game. Few, if any, thought he would mature and could return to race riding, let alone become Australia's leading rider by winners, as is the case this season. But he did make it back. The ability was always there but, suddenly, so was the application and the dedication.