Melbourne Cup Final Field Announced – No Vigor

The Melbourne Cup final field has been announced and to the surprise of many, the Danny O’Brien trained Vigor who was 25th in order of entry, failed to gain a start in Tuesday’s two mile feature. The VRC Committee should really hang their heads in shame on this decision, it’s made their “role” in racing a complete waste of time.

A few year’s ago they had a decision to make. The WA trained Free At Last had qualified for the Cup and was IN THE FIELD, only to be balloted out of Melbourne Cup by the committee………Now Vigor, who ran 3rd in the Caulfield Cup from an outside gate, has been overlooked for two 200/1 shots and two 100/1 shots……then there are a few in the 60-80/1 range that won’t win if they start on Saturday night.

Now my own personal view is that if you qualify your horse for the Melbourne Cup then you are entitled to run it. If you haven’t qualified then you have no right to be in the field.

However, once the VRC used their discretionary powers to dump Free At Last from the Melbourne Cup their decision late Saturday smacks of not only inconsistence but incompetence.

Check out the Melbourne Cup Video Formguide and my views on this years runners in the 2009 Melbourne Cup Formguide.

Melbourne Cup Betting

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Master Chef Loses All/Any Credibility

Gotta talk about that Master Chef show.  FFS if you had a bet on it with one of the online bookies you woulda done your money cold. Imagine in the run betting when Julie didnt even put her meals on the plate………If you believed in miracles you woulda made a killing.

The show had to lose all/any credibility last night..fair dinkum when that sheila says them taters were golden brown im thinking you’ve got to be f’ken kiddin me.

Just be flicking the channel the next time i see that show on the air.

I don’t even like that Chris dude he comes across as a bit of a wanker and he cooked some shit i wouldnt eat if you paid me ……….but he did get it on the f’ken plate.

It’s funny, every chef you see on TV is under control…the two girls in the master chef “final” crumble under any sort of pressure.

WOW what a week in sport

It’s been a big week in the world of sports and entertainment. Roger Federer finally got around to breaking the record of Pete Sampras with his 15th Grand SLam title, and didn’t Sampras show his class when being interviewed after the match?

Andy Roddick, what can you say……….on another day he becomes the Wimbledon Champion. Can argue with some justification he deserved to win..especially with that lead in the tiebreaker….oh well.

I did back him against Murray so lets hope he can win one Wimbledon title before his career is over…especially now that he can make some volleys. If he played like he plays now in his first final he certainly wouldn’t be 2-19 against Federer (the greatest ever player).

Big Bad Bazza called it a day at the Swans today. He reckons he can’t control himself so wants to leave the game with his head held high. I think he had too many birthdays to play anywhere else and got talked into calling it a day when he wanted to keep playing. Bit of a shame.

The Cats and the Saints played out a ripper didn’t they? long season for the Saints to play that sort of game plan. ALthough, it’s the same game plan that got Sydney to 2 straight Grand Finals. Yeah, Ross Lyons is getting a lot of credit for reinventing the wheel being used by Sydney since the day Paul Roos got the job.

I’d like to see a team like say Hawthorn stack their defence and see how freescoring the Saints are when the opposition copies their game plan….oh yeah, they did that and the halftime scores were 2-2 .

19th May 2007 and the halftime scores were 2.6 to 2.4 as the Hawks and the Saints both defended first and neither side got caught on the break which is how the Saints kick most of their goals.

Michael Jackson deserves a mention. It wil be brief. I can’t believe the publicity this child molester is getting. The world’s a better place without him!

Nadal World’s Most Unsporting Sportsman

Wimbledon Champion Rafael Nadal has claimed the title of the world’s most unsporting sportsman with his performance at this year’s Wimbledon Championships. In what is surely a significant, and remarkable triumph for the brilliant Spaniard, he let himself down badly with the total disrespect shown to Roger Federer, the game of tennis itself and the history of the game not to mention the monumental achievement of one of the games greats in Bjorn Borg.

Wimbledon got its dream final, Nadal v Federer on Centre Court with Borg in the stands as Federer chased a history making victory.

Unfortunately, Nadal chose this moment to write his own place in history. The Wimbledon Championship final was ready to get underway and Nadal was nowhere to be found.

How on God’s green earth can you not be ready to walk out on centre court for The Wimbledon Final?

This may well have been a match winning strategy. Nadal did go on to write his name in the history books as the 2008 winner and the match will be remembered as one of the classics as both players played their part in producing a classic match, undoubtedly on the greatest stage of them all.

Certainly, his antics have hardly been mentioned by the adoring press. Just shows the quality of journalism out there today. A lack of intestinal fortitude best describes the tennis writers of today.

Nadal could not have been more disrespectful to probably the greatest tennis player we are ever likely to see in Roger Federer. He could not have been more disrespectful to the game itself on such a grand stage. One of the games past champions in Borg or the public, both at the arena and those in TV land around the globe.

Nadal missed an opportunity to win over the tennis world. And it’s unfortunate because his go slow antics are probably the one thing that nobody respects. His late arrival and subsequent slow play which did earn one obligatory warning from the chair are typical of the lack of respect Nadal shows his opponents, the game and the paying public.

Now i’m certainly no great fan of Federer. However, I do respect what he has achieved and the way in which he carries himself both on and off the court. In a manner that you would want the #1 player in your sport to conduct himself is exactly what Federer does.

But Nadal…who i must say, had little trouble in playing at a fair and reasonable speed in the second half of the final after he had a 2 sets to love lead, he doesn’t really do much for me. Maybe it’s because i think he is the undisputed unsporting champion in a sport that has always been regarded as a game for gentleman.

Stern Legacy a Fixed NBA

NBA Commissioner David Stern is in a bit of an NBA fix these days with the majority of sport fans and the general public believing the words of former NBA referee Tim Donaghy. For those who have been living on planet Mars, Donaghy is the ref who admitted wrongdoing, and has already been found guilty of wire-fraud charges in relation to fixing and betting on NBA games that he officiated.

This whole episode has been a nightmare for Stern who has been resorted to the petty tactic of name calling. It really is rather amusing watching Stern, in every interview he conducts he is like a broken record saying the same thing over and over again. Unfortunately for the NBA Commissioner, his rhetoric is falling on deaf ears.

A recent survey concludes that 80% of fans believe the gambling ref.

This is not good for Stern who is looking more and more like a desperate man with each passing day since Donaghy claimed that “company men” were manipulating playoff games to provide the NBA maximum television and marketing benefits.

The calling favored stars and glamorous franchises with examples backed up by facts, the scoreboard never lies. Stern has called the allegations “baseless”.

Stern has basically defended the accusations with that age old defence where you discredit the person making the allegations, “He is a felon,” “He is the only one found guilty,” “He is singing like a canary to get a lighter sentence,”

RJ Bell of Pregame.com has provided some statistics in defense of Donaghy’s claims.

Since 2000, a surprisingly large 26% of non-first round NBA Series have extended to the maximum seven games.

That’s 44% more often than expected.

RJ Bell of Pregame.com said: “The odds of this increase happening randomly are less than 1%, approximately 180 to 1.”

How many 180/1 shots have you seen win the Kentucky Derby?

44% more Game 7s than expected clearly supports Tim Donaghy’s claim that the NBA Playoffs are officiated with the agenda of extending Series as long as possible.

The officiating in the current Boston Celtics v LA Lakers has left many bemused. None more so than the Lakers after their trip to the Gardens where the disparity in trips to the foul line could well be the 9th wonder of the world.

Game 2 in the NBA Championship series saw Boston go to the free throw line 38 times to the Lakers 10. Boston reserve Leon Powe, who 99.9% of NBA fans wouldnt know if they bumped into him in the street, went to the foul line more times in 14 minutes of playing time than the whole Lakers team.

Over to you Mr Stern.