Tag Archives: Sport

Wild oats and rolls in the hay as Diva does her dynastic duty

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RACING

KAREN KISSANE

SPARE a maidenly blush for Makybe Diva. She must now trade in the orgasmic delight of finishing first in the Melbourne Cup at Flemington for the not-so-orgasmic delights of the breeding shed.
The queen of the track is to endure the fate of female aristocrats throughout history: arranged unions and dynastic pressures to continue her line.
As with any trophy bride of gentility, the bucks involved are big. According to Mike Becker, president of Thoroughbred Breeders Victoria, a good yearling foal of Makybe Diva by the world’s top breeding stallion, America’s Storm Cat, could sell for $US5 million to $US8 million ($A6.7 million to $A10.7 million).
“She is one of the great mares of all time. That would be a drawcard instantly,” Mr Becker said.
Such profits would make the cost of having her “served” by Storm Cat a triviality ($US500,000, plus the round-trip cost of $US40,000 for transporting her to the United States). What some people will do for a little bit of nookie.
Australia’s top sire, Redoute’s Choice, is by contrast a bargain at $200,000 plus GST for encounters that result in a pregnancy. This might prove a little too close for comfort for our Diva, as Redoute’s grand-sire was also hers, loading the genetic roulette wheel against any joint progeny.
But even an Aussie-sired foal might fetch a price tag of $2 million or more, says John Messara, owner of the Arrowfield Stud in NSW.
After the career-girl glamour of the track, the Diva will find the road to motherhood dignity-denting. Racing experts suggested yesterday that her owner, Tony Santic, might well rest her for a year as Australia is now halfway through its breeding season of September to December. But by this time next year, she will find herself at the very least sexually initiated – and in a way that makes all those minimal-foreplay jokes ring true.
Test-tube reproduction is forbidden to racehorses. “If you used artificial insemination, you could impregnate 10 mares from one ejaculate, and we are passionate about not getting a reduction in the genetic pool,” Mr Becker said. And in the world of equine sex, the gentleman makes the rules.
Makybe Diva will not only have to pay for her consorts but she will have to travel to meet them. Like Elvis at Graceland, a stud stallion can stay close to home and have the females flock to him. He can service up to 200 mares a season, and travelling time would cut into his precious productivity. (Yes, 200 is more than the number of days in the season. Stallions can perform up to three times a day, no Viagra required.)
A mating goes like this. A virginal horse (or maiden mare, as they are known) might first have her hymen ruptured by a vet to ensure ease of passage for the rite of passage. Then she will be placed near a “teaser” stallion. As she comes on heat, he will come on to her. She will sidle up to him and raise her tail; handlers will see her vulva moving.
A vet will be called in and will give the mare a rectal ultrasound to confirm that she has follicles ready to release eggs from her ovaries. On day three or four of her cycle, she will be mated.
She will be in a shed with a handler at her head holding a “twitch”, a long piece of wood or pipe that has string or rope at the end of it. This is twined around the fleshy part of the mare’s nose to discourage her from “misbehaving”.
“It probably borders on rape, but it’s not,” Mr Becker said. “You know she’s receptive. She’s heavily in season.”
But she might be nervous if she is inexperienced. “Stallions are very virile creatures who roar and tuck their necks in and bluster – just like a normal bloke.”
The stallion will sniff her and rub himself against her before rearing up on his back legs to mount her. A young stallion might need a helping hand if he is to find his way. The whole process takes about five minutes and the serious action only about two. “There’s not a lot of pillow talk,” Mr Becker admitted.
Sometimes stallions knock back a mare they don’t fancy, Mr Messara says. “Some stallions prefer grey mares. You can liken it to blondes.” A stallion who is unhappy will refuse to mount or fail to get an erection. The lady, on the other hand, “doesn’t get a choice – sorry about that. They express their dissatisfaction by kicking, but we hobble their hind legs in big leather shoes.”
Makybe Diva might keep a little more of her feminine self-respect. Her strapper, Christine Mitchell, yesterday said she would pity the first stallion the triple-Melbourne Cup champion met as a brood mare. “She’s got a wicked kick in her back end.”
All of which leaves open the central question about equine reproduction for anyone who has passed paddocks in springtime. How sizeable, exactly, is the stallion’s virile member?
Mr Messara was dumbstruck. “I’ve never paid that kind of attention to it.”
Perhaps if he were to ask a female strapper, who might have more of a sense of wonder about it all? “I’d get my face slapped!”
But in the interests of accuracy, he telephoned his stud manager who was in a breeding shed at the time. The answer came in the old parlance: two feet.
Another reason to take one’s hat off to the Diva.

First published in The Age.

Security lapses cast dark cloud over London Olympics

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Poor weather and London’s notorious traffic snarls could be the least of the problems when the 2012 Olympics begin next week, reports Karen Kissane.

FIRST there is the weather. London has had its wettest summer on record. In a recent newspaper column, the city’s irrepressible mayor, Boris Johnson, mused on how that might be turned around in time for the Olympics: ”Perhaps we could stage a pagan ritual at Stonehenge, involving either the sacrifice of maidens [if there are any these days], or a goat, or a rabbit, or maybe just a worm – whatever the RSPCA would allow.”

The sun god Ra could be implored to ”vaporise the thunderheads ? before the entire country dissolves like a sugar cube and sinks into the sea”, he wrote.

Sebastian Coe, chairman of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games, has warned spectators of rowing and equestrian events that their viewing areas are a sea of mud, and advised raincoats. One of his officials – presumably one of little faith regarding Ra – went a step further: ”Bring wellies.”

Then there is travel, or lack thereof. London’s road traffic moves like molasses on a normal day. Its underground train system is already so jammed at peak hour that fuming commuters must let trains go without boarding because there simply isn’t room to squeeze on. Some stations close for a while on exceptionally bad days, keeping commuters from even getting onto a platform. But the system will have to cope with about a million extra trips per day during the Olympics. Londoners are being asked to work from home or find other ways to stay off the system for the duration.

This week, road traffic into London slowed to a crawl as parts of the 48 kilometres of dedicated Games Lanes – to be used only by members of the ”Olympic family” – came into operation. An accident and a suicide caused two separate bottlenecks, with traffic not moving at all for about 45 minutes. Other jams were caused by last-minute braking as drivers fearing fines in the Olympic lane suddenly swerved to change lanes.

All these difficulties are tiresome, particularly for the gloomier Londoners who already viewed the Games as an ordeal to be endured with the kind of British stoicism displayed during the Blitz. But they are minor and predictable problems.

The chaos around Olympics security, however, is of an entirely different order. It opens the way to catastrophe.

Over the past 10 days, Britain and the world have learnt that the Games has a shortfall of 3500 security guards, as well as problems notifying the guards who do exist about when and where they are to report for work. Only 30 out of an expected 300 security officers turned up to guard cyclists. Only 10 out of 58 arrived to guard footballers; only 20 out of 58 at the main Olympic hotel; and no guards at all turned up for an induction day at Coventry Stadium (70 had been expected).

”On a daily basis it’s a lottery as to how many staff are going to turn up,” Clive Chamberlain, chairman of Dorset Police Federation, told The Guardian. ”It’s a fiasco, an absolute debacle.”

Home Secretary Theresa May, at the centre of a political firestorm over the mess, claims the government knew nothing of the crisis until it was told last week by G4S, the company hired to provide Games security. She has called in 3500 emergency troops, including sailors and airmen, and police from eight forces around the nation to fill the shortfall.

Another 2000 might be needed but the government is fending off that further embarrassment, despite warnings from defence chiefs that notice is required if their troops are to be in action by the opening ceremony next Friday. This would bring the total numbers of military staff involved in the Games, both planned and unplanned, to 19,000.

GS4 chief executive Nick Buckles endured a grilling by MPs this week in which he admitted that he couldn’t guarantee he could supply even the 7000 guards now required by his tattered end of the bargain. He said he could not predict the scale of ”no shows” until recruits failed to respond to an email. He also could not promise that all the guards would speak fluent English: ”I don’t know what fluent English is.” Asked by an MP whether the debacle was a ”humiliating shambles” for his company, Buckles admitted, ”I would have to agree with you.” G4S has seen £400 million ($A600 million) wiped off its market value and is predicting it will make a £50 million loss on the Games contract. But it is still insisting on claiming its £57 million ”management fee”.

How did it come to this? It appears computer glitches at G4S sent recruits to wrong venues or supplied them with incorrect schedules. There also seems to be a larger than expected number of casual employees who lost interest or found another job. But May claimed the company had been assuring ministers it would ”overshoot” the recruitment targets in its £284 million contract. This is at odds with an internal Home Office memo revealed by The Sunday Times that warned in April, ”We will very soon start to see big shortfalls against planned numbers.”

Part of the problem is due to governmental dithering. Last December, a full six years after London won the Games, the government had a last-minute rush of blood to the head over security issues and dramatically amped up the brief to G4S from 2000 guards (in a contract signed in December 2010) to 13,700 guards. The tardiness was despite the fact that London was hit by the July 7 suicide bomb attacks the day after winning the race for the Olympics in 2005. Defence chiefs had offered to provide Games security but the government decided outsourcing to a private company would be better.

Margaret Hodge, chair of the Commons public accounts committee, said, ”It is outrageous. [The organisers] knew in 2005 that security was going to be a major challenge but they left it too late.”

There have also been concerns about the quality of recruits. G4S, which won the contract partly because it has previously provided security for the Olympics site during construction, has also protected the Wimbledon tennis championships.

A security consultant who went undercover for the company at Wimbledon last year reported alarming lapses. These included some staff lacking even ”the most basic security knowledge” needed to guard a significant terrorism target; staff routinely leaving premises unprotected by sleeping on the job; and some recruits being allowed to skip hearing and smell tests designed to check that they were able to notice fires or explosions. The security consultant who wrote the report, Peter Bleksley, is a former Scotland Yard detective. He warned that the problems could ”eventually prove catastrophic for G4S” and some were so serious they could have ”fatal consequences” if they were not fixed before the Games.

Buckles claims those concerns were taken on board and dealt with, but one whistleblower has claimed the company has been forced to resort to a ”no-fail policy” for recruits in the current crisis.

G4S made headlines in the 1990s over security breaches with its prisoner-escort service. This week, prosecutors decided not to bring charges against three of its guards who, at Heathrow, restrained an Angolan man who became ill and died of cardio-respiratory failure following the incident in October 2010.

Despite the torrent of bad publicity, Games chief Coe has promised that safety is not compromised: ”My responsibility is to make sure that we get a Games that is safe and secure. We will do that, and it is to make sure that our teams, the Home Office and the military sit alongside G4S and mobilise and deploy exactly who we need to.”

Assistant Commissioner Chris Allison, the national Olympic security co-ordinator, has also denied that security is falling over: ”The plan is exactly the same as it was. It is just being delivered by different people. I went through the search regime at Olympic Park ? and it was everything you could possibly want.”

It will certainly be one of the most militarised Olympics ever, with missiles poised and jets on hand and the Royal Navy’s largest warship deployed to launch military helicopters.

All that might prove of little use if a would-be terrorist slips through the net at Heathrow Airport. The Observer reported that terror suspects were able to enter Britain in the run-up to the Games without being picked up by security checks. A senior border officer claimed inexperienced recruits were repeatedly failing to refer passengers on a watch list to counter-terrorism officers.

With less than a week to go before the London Olympics begin, the blame games are already up and running.

First published on theage.com.au

Lukewarm reception for ride, but a win’s a win for world-beater

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LONDON

THE British press is having a field day in the aftermath of Black Caviar’s close-run win at Ascot on Saturday.
The headlines about “the Wonder from Down Under” — the horse — are now accompanied by sharp criticism of “the Blunder from Down Under”: the way jockey Luke Nolen made a rookie’s mistake and stopped riding close to the finish of the Diamond Jubilee Stakes, almost losing it. In one of racing’s most heart-stopping wins, Black Caviar put on a final burst of speed and put down her head in the last few strides after she had been overtaken by her closest rival, Midnight Cloud. The photo showed she won by a nostril.
Nolen later admitted he had lost the plot part-way through. “I let her idle through the last 200 [metres],” he said, “and I underestimated just how stiff a track this straight six furlongs is, and also the opposition.
“And I shit myself duly. And I’m afraid my brain fade might be talked about more than this mare’s fantastic effort.”
But Nolen also said Black Caviar had not raced to her best.
“She wasn’t taking me to the line. I had to ask her to find it. Yes, I was at fault, but when I relaxed on her — I thought I’d done enough, and that’s an error every apprentice is taught not to do, and I got away with it — that big engine seemed to shut right down,” he said.
“I tried to get her going again in the last strides and it was only her determination when the other horses came to her that kept her in front. She just didn’t bring to the races today what she usually can, and I’m just disappointed that you over here didn’t get to see just how good she is.”
Nolen became the man of the hour for all the wrong reasons. The Times called his misjudgment “calamitous”; the Daily Mail used both “calamitous” and “schoolboy howler”.
The Telegraph suggested the jockey “may well have had to ask for political asylum” had the photo gone the other way. One commentator suggested there might have been a one-off return to the gallows had Australia’s darling been beaten.
There had been great expectations of Black Caviar, who had received an unusually affectionate welcome at Ascot. Many of the estimated 7000 Australians in the 70,000-strong crowd had been issued with “Go Black Caviar” placards and wore ties or caps in her colours.
When Black Caviar first appeared in the pre-parade ring, even trainers not linked to her jostled for positions that would give them a good view and snapped her on their cameras.
While Australia’s national pride might have been dented a little by the fact that she did not sweep grandly to victory, the roar of the crowd at the excitement of the finish — and again at the photo replay — suggested exhilaration rather than disappointment.
Graham Sharpe, of the bookmakers William Hill, told The Independent: “We may have lost a bit on Black Caviar, because at that price [1/6] it is not a horse that many punters would have bet on. [But] it was a great race for horse racing. There may be some people who are keeping their bet slips as souvenirs rather than cashing them in.”
The Independent also had the kindest headline: “Still unbeaten, just. Still a heroine, justly.”
Black Caviar’s trainer, Peter Moody, said the race was always going to be the greatest risk of her career as it came at the end of a long season and a long overseas trip, but “whether she wins by a quarter of an inch or a quarter of a furlong it’s still a win, and they’re not going to give us any more prizemoney . . . She didn’t let us down. She’s done Australia proud, and she’s still undefeated.”First published in The Age.

Heart-stopping Caviar may have raced her last

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LONDON

THE racing world is coming to terms with a moment of madness that almost cost the super mare Black Caviar victory on her biggest stage, England’s Royal Ascot.
A rookie’s mistake by jockey Luke Nolen, in which he stopped riding close to the finish, almost denied her the trophy.
In one of racing’s most heart-stopping wins, Black Caviar put in a final burst and put her head down in the last few strides after she had been challenged by Midnight Cloud. A photo-finish showed she won by a nostril.
Nolen admitted he had lost the plot. “I let her idle through the last 200 [metres],” he said, “and I underestimated just how stiff a track this straight six furlongs is, and also the opposition. And I shit myself duly. And I’m afraid my brain-fade might be talked about more than this mare’s fantastic effort.”
But Nolen felt that Black Caviar had not raced to her best either. “She wasn’t taking me to the line. I had to ask her to find it. Yes, I was at fault, but when I relaxed on her – I thought I’d done enough, and that’s an error every apprentice is taught not to do, and I got away with it – that big engine seemed to shut right down.
“I tried to get her going again in the last strides and it was only her determination when the other horses came to her that kept her in front. She just didn’t bring to the races today what she usually can.”
As she recovered from her exertions, many fans were left asking what was next for the six year-old. Plans to race again in England were quickly abandoned and trainer Peter Moody also raised the possibility that Saturday’s race may have been her last.
Does it matter that she didn’t dominate the field with her usual vigour?
It has left Nolen man of the hour for all the wrong reasons. The Times called Nolan’s misjudgment “calamitous”; the Daily Mail used both “calamitous” and “schoolboy howler”.
Apparently stewards did speak to Nolen after the race to remind him of his responsibilities but he broke no rules.
There had been great expectations of Black Caviar, who had received an unusually affectionate welcome at Ascot. Many of the estimated 7000 Australians in the 70,000-strong crowd had been issued with “Go Black Caviar” placards and wore ties or caps in her colours; one baby held up at the racetrack fence was dressed entirely in salmon pink with black spots.
When she appeared in the pre-parade ring, even trainers not linked to her jostled for a look.
Moody said the race was always going to be the greatest risk of her career as it came at the end of a long season and a long overseas trip but “whether she wins by a quarter of an inch or a quarter of a furlong it’s still a win, and they’re not going to give us any more prizemoney.
“She didn’t let us down. She’s done Australia proud, and she’s still undefeated.”First published in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Moody’s princess all set for her royal performance

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Newmarket

TRAINER Peter Moody was protective of his princess. Champion Australian racehorse Black Caviar would parade for the media for no longer than two minutes, he barked, and she would be wearing her protective suit to shield her against the weather.
People with umbrellas were to keep their distance. “Umbrellas and racehorses don’t mix!” he warned.
So a dozen reporters and cameramen dutifully stood in driving rain at Newmarket – while Black Caviar dutifully went through her paces – for an update on how the wonder from Down Under was doing before her first big international race at Royal Ascot on Saturday.
Moody said the mare was “the fittest I’ve probably had her in the last 24 months”. The track will be heavy but Moody was not convinced the weather would be: “If we got it wrong as often as the weatherman we would be unemployed. She’s got a great record of producing great tracks.”
Black Caviar has never raced on an extremely soft track but Moody said she had both trained and trialled on them in Australia.
“This track is one of the best rated tracks … I’m not worried at this point … the big concern for us was the travelling aspect and we appear to have overcome that.”
Moody said he was very pleased with her condition: “She’s done everything we asked of her.”
He said she was doing so well that he had to give her “a little bit of work” on Tuesday, even though the original plan had been to avoid heavy training in the run-up to the Diamond Jubilee Stakes.
Thousands of Australians are travelling to Britain to see the big moment. “This is our turn on the world stage,” Moody said. “It’s our Olympics.”
He said the owners should be applauded for their decision to bring her out of her comfort zone and to Ascot.
“These owners have had the balls to put this mare on a plane and bring her three-quarters of the way around the world,” he said. “Imagine having something this good and sharing it with the rest of the world.”
He compared this to British champion Frankel, who he said would never leave British shores.
He said Black Caviar was bold enough to take whatever position she wanted in the race.
“I’d love nothing more than to see her come out and win by 10 or 11 lengths,” he said. But such a performance would be saved for an Australian racetrack.
“The Poms have been using us Aussies as cannon fodder for 150 years so we’re not going to put on a show just for them.”
If she won “by an inch” it would do him, he said.First published in the Sydney Morning Herald on 22 June 2012.

Black Caviar ready to shine like a diamond in the mud

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NEWMARKET

TRAINER Peter Moody was protective of his princess. Champion Australian racehorse Black Caviar would parade for the media for no longer than two minutes, he barked, and she would wear her protective suit to shield her from the weather.
People with umbrellas were to keep their distance. “Umbrellas and racehorses don’t mix,” he warned.
So a dozen reporters and cameramen dutifully stood in driving rain at Newmarket — while Black Caviar went through her paces — for an update on how the five-year-old mare was doing before her first international race in the Diamond Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot tomorrow. Moody said she was “the fittest I’ve probably had her in the last 24 months”.
The track tomorrow will be heavy and Black Caviar has never raced on an extremely wet track, but Moody said she had trained and trialled on them in Australia. “This track is one of the best rated tracks … I’m not worried at this point … the big concern for us was the travelling aspect and we appear to have overcome that.”
Moody said Black Caviar was doing so well he had to give her “a little bit of work” on Tuesday, although the plan had been to avoid heavy training.
Thousands of Australians have travelled to Britain to watch the mare. “This is our turn on the world stage,” Moody said. “It’s our Olympics.”
He said the owners should be applauded for their decision to bring her out of her comfort zone to Ascot. “These owners have had the balls to put this mare on a plane and bring her three-quarters of the way around the world.”
Moody said Black Caviar was bold enough to take whatever position she wanted in the field. It would be great if she won by several lengths, but she would not be pushed to do so.
“The Poms have used Australians as cannon fodder for 150 years … We’re not going to let them put her to the sword.” If she won “by an inch” it would do him, he said.
Asked whether he expected the mare to improve her performance, Moody said: “Five years old, 22nd start … I put the question to you: does she need to?”
Asked by a British reporter if Prime Minister Julia Gillard had sent her best wishes, he joked “she’s one of yours” and might be barracking for a British horse.
But Moody said there had been huge interest from American TV and Asian TV and radio. He hoped Black Caviar would meet the Queen.
Black Caviar’s jockey, Luke Nolen, said he had been stunned by the attention she had received in Britain. “It is in another stratosphere,” he said.
Nolen was in the saddle on Black Caviar on Tuesday.
“I rode her in her last gallop before leaving Australia and she was in good nick then and she is better now,” he said.
“It is a bit different over here but we know how good she is and want her to show it. She seems to have settled in all right but we won’t really know until Saturday. I will take a win by any margin. It would be a long way to come to lose.”First published in The Age.

Black Caviar fever heats up as Aussies flock to Ascot

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Black Caviar will race in the Diamond Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot on Sunday.

Peter Moody was in fine spirits when showing off star mare Black Caviar yesterday.
Star Hawk won’t cop out yet – Page 21Champion Australian racehorse Black Caviar was ”the fittest I’ve probably had her in the last 24 months”, trainer Peter Moody said last night.
The five-year-old mare, who will race in the Diamond Jubilee Sprint at Royal Ascot on Sunday morning Australian time, was paraded briefly before the media at her Newmarket stables, wearing her protective suit to shield her from the driving rain of a soggy British summer.
The track will be heavy but Moody was not convinced the weather would be.
”If we got it wrong as often as the weatherman we would be unemployed. She’s got a great record of producing great tracks,” he said. Black Caviar has never raced on an extremely wet track but Mr Moody said she had both trained and trialled on them in Australia.
”This track is one of the best-rated tracks … I’m not worried at this point … the big concern for us was the travelling aspect and we appear to have overcome that,” he said. ”She’s done everything we asked of her.”He said she was doing so well he had to give her ”a little bit of work” on Tuesday, even though the original plan had been to avoid heavy training in the run-up to the race.Thousands of Australians are travelling to Britain to see the mare in her first international race.”This is our turn on the world stage,” Moody said.
”It’s our Olympics.” He said the owners should be applauded for their decision to bring her out of her comfort zone, comparing that to British champion Frankel, who he said would never leave British shores.
Moody said Black Caviar would take whatever position she wanted on the field and would not be pushed to win by several lengths, saying: ”The Poms have used Australians as cannon fodder for 150 years … We’re not going to let them put her to the sword.” Asked whether he expected the mare to improve her performance, he said: ”Five years old, 22nd start, three-quarters of the way around the world … I put the question to you. Does she need to?”Moody also said there had been huge interest from American TV and Asian TV and radio.
”It’s been unbelievable. They’re all rooting for her,” he said.Late last night, Black Caviar drew the outside barrier in a field of 15, with the draw moving the mare into $1.22 with ACTTAB.
Previous years at Royal Ascot has proven the grandstand side is the place to be late in the carnival.
SUNDAY
Black Caviar races at Royal Ascot in the group1 Diamond Jubilee Stakes. TV time: Live on Prime and TVN at 12.45am.First published in The Canberra Times.

Caviar arrives in fine fettle

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LONDONThere aren’t many females who feel up to a bit of flirting after 26 hours on a plane.
But there aren’t many like Black Caviar, either.
Maybe it was the pressure suit she wore to stop her lovely long legs swelling (it worked). Maybe it was the hourly attentions during the flight of her unusually large retinue: veterinarian Peter Angus, track rider Pat Bell, assistant trainer Tony Haydon and also an expert in transporting thoroughbreds such as herself.
But the world’s fastest sprinter was full of life when she was decanted from a mobile stable and into an exercise yard at the animal reception centre at Heathrow Airport on Thursday night. Ears pricked and eyes bright, she tried to peer out of the back of the metal container and into the grey chill of a London evening.
As the back opened she would have tossed her head with impatience — she had been constrained such a long time — were it not for the men holding her bridle.
Once on solid ground again she agreed to stand still long enough to have her Lycra pressure-suit and leg-wraps taken off. Equine vet Peter Angus ran hands over those multimillion-dollar legs, the ones that have brought her 21 consecutive race wins and which might bring her victory at Royal Ascot this month.
“She’s very bright,” Angus said. “After a journey like this they can be so tired that sometimes their eyes are dulled, but she’s as bright as a button.”
Horses can lose up to 3 kilograms an hour during flight and also face the risk of injury, but Black Caviar was glossy and unscathed. “She seems to have eaten and drunk on the flight and is in very good condition. She doesn’t look to have lost much weight, looking over her hindquarters. The next couple of days will tell but she seems very settled and relaxed.”
The good news will probably lead to her already prohibitive odds shortening for the Diamond Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot on June 23.

First published in The Sydney Morning Herald.

Rowing for her majesty … it’s a wedge issue

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LONDON

THERE were certain delicate issues to be navigated by the Australian surf lifesavers who will row boats in the huge flotilla on the Thames for the Queen’s diamond jubilee celebrations later today.
The women usually wear bikinis in the short races associated with their sport and the men their famous budgie-smugglers. Apparently this was not a goer for this grand event, where they will wear black pants.
The traditional bathers “wedgie up” over time “and being on the river from 9.30 to 5 with a wedgie would be too painful”, crew member Sarah Handley says cheerily.
Surf lifesaving boats also effectively act as modesty panels, which the boats borrowed for the day will not achieve to the same degree, so “we had to wear something more modest”.
They were worried about their modesty? Organisers’ concerns were “not for us, mainly for the Queen”, Handley laughs. She is among four Queensland state rowing champions, from the Currumbin Surf Lifesaving Club, who will row today. They put in an application following a call to oars by the Australian high commission in London. Their winning pitch? “We thought it was really important, as female rowers, to offer representation for our female monarch,” Rachel Kilmartin says.
Twenty-nine Australian lifesavers will be among those in the human-powered vessels that will lead the flotilla of 1000 boats, including a barge, the Spirit of Chartwell, that will carry the royal family.
The flotilla will include 10 herald barges that will play different music, including a floating belfry containing eight church bells, each named after a senior member of the royal family. The largest, which weighs half a ton, is Elizabeth. Church bells along the route will ring in reply.
Another barge will play Handel’s Water Music, while the royal marines will play Sailing. The final music barge will carry members of the London Philharmonic Orchestra who will play themes for landmarks as they are passed: Country Gardens for the Chelsea Physic Garden and the James Bond theme for the MI6 building at Vauxhall.
One group of boats will receive a particularly warm welcome: in the historic section will be the much-loved Dunkirk Little Ships. They are the last survivors of Operation Dynamo, Churchill’s strategy to evacuate almost 400,000 troops from the coast of France during World War II.
In a stretch of the river from London Bridge to Wapping, boats from the era of sail will be moored, including warships, tall ships, square riggers and oyster smacks. A 41-gun salute will erupt from the Tower of London and the flotilla will end with the singing of God Save the Queen.

First published in the Sun-Herald.

Nixon video: teen arrested

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LIKE most other chapters in the tawdry saga of the teenager and the football world, the news broke on Twitter.

The teenager announced her arrest to her 15,000 followers: ”Fabulous, have just been arrested – off to the police station . Thanks. DUUUHH, VIDEOS.”

Police had taken her to City West police station, where she was questioned about possible offences including drug possession and secretly filming AFL player manager Ricky Nixon.

About the same time, commercial news bulletins were showing footage the teenager says is of Nixon – in his underpants – in her hotel room.

After she was released by police without charge, she told The Age she had had not known covert filming was illegal until the police told her so: ”Ricky wasn’t aware that I filmed him,” she said. ”Ya, well, oh well, my mistake.”

Regardless of how the film was obtained, the teenager was last night sticking to her story that she and Nixon had had sex, and that he had taken drugs in her presence.

Nixon had emerged yesterday morning to vigorously deny the claims on Melbourne radio.

He painted himself as an innocent, fatherly figure trying to help a troubled young girl – in her hotel room. Yes, he admitted, he’d been a duffer to have seen her in private, most recently last week. But no, he insisted, there had been no alcohol, no drugs and no sex involved.

”I did not use drugs in her presence. I have not seen drugs when she’s been there. She has a video she’s put together which conveniently shows drugs in the video with her, not with me. She also shows a video that purports to show me in a hotel room with here. Yes, I was, [but] it doesn’t show me having sex with her. I’ve never had sex with her,” he told 3AW.

Nixon’s self-admitted error in visiting the teenager in her hotel room was all the more remarkable given her role in publishing on the internet naked photographs of two of his clients – St Kilda players Nick Riewoldt and Nick Dal Santo. She has since admitted that she lied about the origins of the photographs.

As 3AW’s Neil Mitchell asked him: ”You knew this girl was unreliable and dangerous. You’ve been telling people that for some time. Yet you went to her hotel room. Why?”

Nixon: ”I totally agree with you. I shouldn’t have gone there. I want to make that really clear. I apologise to everybody who thinks I’ve done the wrong thing.”

He hinted that the girl had said on the phone things ”that didn’t sound good to me” and that he had thought she needed help. But he refused to be drawn on whether he had been concerned that she might self-harm. He said the episode meant he might be reluctant to help people out in the future.

Commentators have quickly homed in on questions about the media ethics of the organisation that broke the story of the alleged relationship, the Herald Sun. The paper just happened to have a photographer outside the girl’s hotel as Nixon left it one morning last week.

Had the paper set up an under-aged girl to do a ”sting” on Mr Nixon?

Editor Simon Pristel yesterday strongly denied this, and he denied that the paper had paid her money. Asked whether he or anyone on his staff had urged the girl to provide photographic evidence of an inappropriate relationship with Mr Nixon, Pristel said, ”No, not at all.” No money had exchanged hands for the story either: ”We haven’t given her one cent.”

He did say the Herald Sun last week paid for the girl to have two nights in a city hotel. It was during one of these nights that the girl allegedly texted a Herald Sun reporter saying Nixon was in her hotel room. A reporter and photographer later saw Nixon leaving the hotel in the early morning.

Nixon yesterday said he had only arrived at the hotel 20 minutes earlier and merely spoke briefly to the girl about having stolen his credit card from him.

Pristel told The Age his paper paid for the girl’s stay in a hotel last Thursday and Friday nights out of concern for her welfare because she had nowhere to go, as her time in a different hotel at the AFL’s expense had run out. ”We didn’t feel it was appropriate that she should be on the street,” he said.

Pristel said he was concerned about how this might look, so he asked the girl’s lawyers to provide a statement confirming that the offer was made out of concern and not as an inducement to provide information.

He said Victoria’s Surveillance Devices Act made it illegal for him to publish the girl’s videos, or to report on their contents. If Nixon gave permission, however, they could be released: ”If he says he’s got nothing to hide, then I’m sure we might find a way around that.”

Nixon yesterday accused the Herald Sun of having reneged on an agreement: ”They did a deal with me which they seem very keen to break.” He refused to elaborate further.

Asked if there was a deal with Nixon, Pristel responded: ”On Friday when I met Ricky Nixon ? I put certain allegations to him. He denied some, admitted other things, and on legal advice I decided to publish his admissions and denials and to exclude from the next day’s paper certain other material. He was aware of the general nature of what we were publishing.”

Nixon, who is managing director of Flying Start, is now staring down a major threat to his career.

The AFL Players Association will investigate the scandal. Its accreditation board will on Thursday consider a preliminary inquiry on the matter.