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Luckily I was watching on a delay so I could fast forward most of the horse racing stuff, but I wasn't on a 12 minute delay so I still had to watch a couple of minutes. Harms was trying to make a point I think about Folau's struggles to balance his religion with his job, as if that made any difference at all.
 
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Reading this thread just underlines why I stopped watching this show a couple of years back.

I see they fell into line with the rest of the mainstream media and treated Winx as if its got the whole country obsessed; the umpteenth example of how overexposed horce racing is in the general media compared to its actual public level.
 

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I don’t have a problem with them discussing Winx and Tiger Woods’ comeback - they’re genuinely big sporting stories. Although I personally think the Winx legend is a bit overblown (no overseas racing, no longer-distance events, no battles with handicapping and owners of other horses were too scared to challenge her).

It wasn’t John Harms’ finest episode. John, the reason people don’t focus more on the good stories in horse racing is because the media swept too much under the carpet for too long. There’s a widespread belief that the sport is cruel and about as trustworthy as athletics or cycling.

Folau is an open and shut case. You can practice religion freely (it’s the only guaranteed right in our Constitution), but you can’t just vilify people. He breached his employer’s social media policy for the second time and is unrepentant about it (which is ironic, considering he’s adamant that others repent). Harmesy did the Devil’s Advocate role badly.
 
Minka Beaver said:
Although I personally think the Winx legend is a bit overblown (no overseas racing, no longer-distance events, no battles with handicapping and owners of other horses were too scared to challenge her).

It wasn’t John Harms’ finest episode. John, the reason people don’t focus more on the good stories in horse racing is because the media swept too much under the carpet for too long. There’s a widespread belief that the sport is cruel and about as trustworthy as athletics or cycling.
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It just all feels so manufactured, most likely because the media establishment see horse racing as part of the Australian ethos and need to pump it up with stories like this to divert from the constantly ugly side of it.

Before we were told Winx was a one-off, weren't they saying the same about Black Caviar and before that Makybe Diva? Almost as if horse racing needs one of these already going around at all times to distract from the fact no one cares about the 'sport' for 51 weeks of the year.
 
wagstaff said:
It just all feels so manufactured, most likely because the media establishment see horse racing as part of the Australian ethos and need to pump it up with stories like this to divert from the constantly ugly side of it.

Before we were told Winx was a one-off, weren't they saying the same about Black Caviar and before that Makybe Diva? Almost as if horse racing needs one of these already going around at all times to distract from the fact no one cares about the 'sport' for 51 weeks of the year.
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Horse racing is far too prickly for its own good. If it owned up to the messy stories earlier, then there’d be more faith in it - even in an era of multi-sport betting and increased animal rights focus.

There were I think four horses post-World War II who had winning streaks of 18-22 races, but they all raced in the back-blocks. Yeah, these Winx/Black Caviar streaks are at least partly caused by weak fields and not testing the horses over longer distances - hence why all that “we’ll never see the likes of this horse again” is now being said more often.

Offsiders is the perfect show on which to have those discussions, because there shouldn’t be any vested interests. But they take short steps and avoid the contest too frequently.
 
Minka Beaver said:
It wasn’t John Harms’ finest episode. John, the reason people don’t focus more on the good stories in horse racing is because the media swept too much under the carpet for too long. There’s a widespread belief that the sport is cruel and about as trustworthy as athletics or cycling.

Folau is an open and shut case. You can practice religion freely (it’s the only guaranteed right in our Constitution), but you can’t just vilify people. He breached his employer’s social media policy for the second time and is unrepentant about it (which is ironic, considering he’s adamant that others repent). Harmesy did the Devil’s Advocate role badly.
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Agree with this. Horseracing is a joke of a sport run by (and for) crooks. It's why I find someone like Whateley impossible to take seriously
 
StillAtLarge said:
Agree with this. Horseracing is a joke of a sport run by (and for) crooks. It's why I find someone like Whateley impossible to take seriously
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I don’t mind the sport - I’m not a punter, but I take a passing interest in it. So if I’m going to listen to a horse racing discussion, I want it to be more than just people gushing - and I reckon a few others in the audience feel likewise.
 
Whether you like it or not, but Winx was the biggest sporting story in Australia that week, and probably one of the biggest stories for the year - And whether Tiger Woods could win the Masters was just behind Winx in importance.
 
40+ thousand went to a sold out Randwick on Saturday, lining up from 5am to watch her race. She was front and back page of papers during the week and thousands of people put bets on her just to have a souvenir of the ticket from her last race (which personally I find weird). She was the biggest local sports story last week by a long way.

Tiger Woods winning the masters will probably be the biggest story in world sport this year. The scenes at the end haven’t been seen in golf before, and there’s a reason he’s one of the highest paid athletes of all time, a lot of people care about it.
 
99 Problems said:
40+ thousand went to a sold out Randwick on Saturday, lining up from 5am to watch her race. She was front and back page of papers during the week and thousands of people put bets on her just to have a souvenir of the ticket from her last race (which personally I find weird). She was the biggest local sports story last week by a long way.

Tiger Woods winning the masters will probably be the biggest story in world sport this year. The scenes at the end haven’t been seen in golf before, and there’s a reason he’s one of the highest paid athletes of all time, a lot of people care about it.
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The Winx story was inflated by a Sydney media desperate to have an event on par with the Spring Carnival which won't happen.
 

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Minka Beaver said:
I don’t mind the sport - I’m not a punter, but I take a passing interest in it. So if I’m going to listen to a horse racing discussion, I want it to be more than just people gushing - and I reckon a few others in the audience feel likewise.
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You are the first person I have ever come across that is interested in horseracing as a sport for its own sake, and not the punting side of it.
 
Dazzler10 said:
You are the first person I have ever come across that is interested in horseracing as a sport for its own sake, and not the punting side of it.
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I have a passing interest in horse racing (i.e. I watch the major Spring Carnival races and at most one or two other races over the course of the year), which is very different to being emotionally invested in the sport. The former involves just appreciating a storyline and trying to understand why it matters - that's similar to how I don't play or have a year-round interest in golf, but I can appreciate the importance of Tiger Woods winning the U.S. Masters.

I agree that to be an actual fan of horse racing you need to be a gambler - they're inextricably linked.
 
Minka Beaver said:
I have a passing interest in horse racing (i.e. I watch the major Spring Carnival races and at most one or two other races over the course of the year), which is very different to being emotionally invested in the sport. The former involves just appreciating a storyline and trying to understand why it matters - that's similar to how I don't play or have a year-round interest in golf, but I can appreciate the importance of Tiger Woods winning the U.S. Masters.

I agree that to be an actual fan of horse racing you need to be a gambler - they're inextricably linked.
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OK, that makes sense.
 
99 Problems said:
40+ thousand went to a sold out Randwick on Saturday, lining up from 5am to watch her race. She was front and back page of papers during the week and thousands of people put bets on her just to have a souvenir of the ticket from her last race (which personally I find weird). She was the biggest local sports story last week by a long way.
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The problem with this justification is that other sporting events with 40,000+ attendance would get a mention. I agree with Wagstaff's post about the media treating Winx as if the whole country cares and that it's of national interest.

99 Problems said:
Tiger Woods winning the masters will probably be the biggest story in world sport this year. The scenes at the end haven’t been seen in golf before, and there’s a reason he’s one of the highest paid athletes of all time, a lot of people care about it.
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I question the impact, but can't articulate why atm. It doesn't help that Woods winning the Masters has been pre empted for 5 years.
 
imadodgyumpire said:
The problem with this justification is that other sporting events with 40,000+ attendance would get a mention. I agree with Wagstaff's post about the media treating Winx as if the whole country cares and that it's of national interest.


I question the impact, but can't articulate why atm. It doesn't help that Woods winning the Masters has been pre empted for 5 years.
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They would’ve got a bigger crowd, but they reached capacity. The ratings on channel 7 were huge for a Saturday, and then there were sky viewers and everyone at pubs and clubs on top of that. It was the most mentioned event on social media. The reason it was so big in the media was because it was so much bigger than what is the norm in racing. It was bigger than the sport itself.

On Woods, I understand people not warming to his comeback as a lot of his issues were self inflicted. But still, golf is one of the biggest sports in the world, and it’s biggest ever name coming to win it’s biggest tournament in his 40’s was always going to be massive.
 

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99 Problems said:
On Woods, I understand people not warming to his comeback as a lot of his issues were self inflicted.
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I understand why his reputation was tainted by his off-course scandal(s) but his win is an amazing feat regardless. His body was breaking down before things in his personal life did and if that never happened we would have likely seen the exact same performance drop occur.
 
Horse racing is no sport and it's an insult to the audience to cover it like one.
 
Offsiders is representative of the problems with the ABC imo; in theory it should be the perfect place for a lively and interesting debate on the sporting events of the week.

Instead, it's staid, complacent and non-essential; if anything it plays a role in restricting viable views on sporting topics than expand them.
 

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