DOOMBEN PHOTOS FROM LAST SATURDAY STARRING "DINGA"

By Phil Purser

02/02/2010

All Doomben photos Dan Costello

Bet you thought Tim Bell would get the lead gig here after riding four winners, but that is not the case, as this photo can serve to educate people as to why they should look after their teeth well from a young age. What thoroughbred owns these fangs? Is he or she a winner, or  a loser? Why is this galloper baring their molars to the breeze? Jack Styring eat your heart out. The answer is on the last photo.

Now Tim Bell can get a guernsey. He can go second, so he doesn't get a swelled head from everyone putting his photo up in lights. What we need to do for young Tim Bell is to give him a nickname, so I reckon he can forthwith be known as Tim "Dinga" Bell - as most Bell's that I know cop "Dinga" as a nickname, at some point of their life. So this is "Dinga" aboard Ollie Vollie winning the first race. Plus "Dinga" can be a great secret code to use next Saturday at the pub, as in , "Hey Bill, are you backing Dinga in the next, he's on a certainty" - and you'll drive fellow humanoids crazy as to who "Dinga" might be, as most will have had a few sherbets and will be flat out knowing what day it is, let alone who the hell "Dinga" is.

After "Dinga" won the first, The Courier Mail Turf Editor, Bart Sinclair, can be seen following the apprentice - and ringing the number to have some more moola on him in the jockeys challenge, after the youngster didn't say to him "That's just an appetizer, I reckon I can ride four".

Wonderful Girl and Stathi Katsidis won Race 2 at Doomben. The only way you could have had her was if you'd had your tea leaves read on the way to the track and the sheila reading them said " I see a number 14 in Race 2 winning, at a track starting with the word doom", as you couldn't have had her on her debut run at Kembla Grange, when the ambulance beat her in - and she'd got booked by a traffic cop over the back of the track for loitering. She'd got beaten just 13.3 lengths that day. Fair dinkum, it is no wonder that bookies own mansions and punters are already working out which Salvation Army Citadel they'll be attending for Christmas dinner this year. You can also clearly see the two "crop circles" just above her near side leg, where some extra-terrestial invaders have landed on her leg one night when she was a foal pushing out zeds underneath the stars. Bet you not many noticed that.

This is a headshot of former Sydney trainer Toby Edmonds who is the new trainer at the Gold Coast for Patinack Farm. It is the wonder the corporate bookies don't do up a market on who will be the next Patinack trainer to get the chop - or is 2010 a new era in that regard?

Gorden Yorke is a shy reclusive person (not) and he won the third race at Doomben with Rare Diamond, who had won the Iris Neilsen Invitation at Ballina for visiting New Zealand apprentice Tasha Collett, just six days earlier. Take your hands down Gordon so we can show both viewers your melon.

Oh, okay then, said the afffable Coffs Harbour trainer  - who remains the only man to train the winner of a Doomben Triple Crown, namely Natural Destiny.

Eureka won Race 4 and he was about as easy to find for punters as 1) a needle in a hay stack, or 2) that 2YO winner Wonderful Lass, after he'd run 11th of 15 just 14 days earlier when Larry Cassidy had the sit. Cassidy rode the horse again last Saturday - and the owner, a Mr Shahabuddin, seen here on the far right, flew in to watch his horse run. Wish I'd have known the owner was flying in before the race - not after it. Why isn't that a gear change that has to be notified "owner flying in from the other side of the world to watch his horse this day". Trainer Rob Heathcote on the left - and a happy stable strapper - also got  a guernsey in the photo.

Kinsmate (on the outside) and Tabulate on the inside staged a soul stirring struggle to the line in Race 4 out of Doomben last Saturday, with Glen Colless on Kinsmate getting home narrowly ahead of apprentice Allan Chau on Tabulate, which is trained by his new boss Rob Heathcote. Would you know the trainer of Kinsmate, Neville Petersen from Toowoomba, in a police line-up? Well stick with me then and you soon will.

Well you now would know trainer Neville Petersen if you were standing next to him at a Woolies check-out.

Guissepino won Race 6 at Doomben after what seemed like half the field were late scratchings. Guissepino had run a close second to the talented Zero Rock last campaign, so wasn't hard to have here, albeit hindsight is a great thing in racing. Apprentice Chris McIver, who can ride at 50 kilos wringing wet, had the sit, and can be seen riding hard near the finish line. So would you, if your car payment was due next Friday. Want to see Chris' melon?

Well this is 50-kilo bundle of joy Chris McIver. Young Chris decends from a long line of jockeys in his family, so it's in the genes - and he is a natural lightweight. He started his apprenticeship in Rockhampton, but once told me his ambition was "to ride as an apprentice in Brisbane with Liam Birchley as my boss". He got his wish - and is a regular in the winners circle. The pair combined for yet another city winner here - Guissepino, so they are clearly good for each other.

Tim "Dinga" Bell went around the middle of the track on Dealers, but for the second time in two starts the horse went on and won the race. Bet you Dealers' former trainer Peter Snowden is watching aghast from Sydney, so as to work out what other horses he might have in his care that he can bring to Brisbane, to have them sent around the middle of the track - as they too will probably be able to beat our rubbish.

Meanwhile out wide on the track in this photo, jockey Joe Bowditch in the blue and yellow colours of Pride of Power can be seen looking across, wondering what the hell young "Dinga" is on about, but what was happening was that "Dinga" was stoked to win the race on Dealers, as one of the part owners had been killed in a motor vehicle accident on his way to the track.

Tamworth trainer Sue Grills was photographed, clearly on top of the world, following the win of Dealers at Doomben last Saturday, however soon after this photo was taken she became emotional, due to the fact that one of the part owners, Andrew Futter, had been killed in a road accident when making the trip north to watch his horse run.

Fantastic Blue from Toowoomba was photographed winning Race 8 at Doomben last Saturday and then everyone took their bat and ball and went home. Guess who rode Fantastic Blue. Yep - that kid "Dinga". Wonder can "Dinga" count? Put up the number of fingers to correspond with the numbers of winners you've ridden please?

Good man, you've done it. Jockeys have to be mindful though when they have ridden a double to hold their fingers the right way.

The youngster is riding in Sydney next Saturday.

And the answer as to who owns the fangs from the first photo is Race 5 winner Kinsmate.  Obviously didn't scrub his teeth as a kid.