With Jim Cassidy gone from the saddle, the red-and-green having lost Issac Luke and the Swans missing Adam Goodes, 2016 could well be a gap year. Mind you, 2015 has been common on all my important facets – the turf, South Sydney and the Swans.
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But Cassidy, still pumping powerfully long after most of his vintage was in decline, left great memories as did Bart Cummings, who passed away. Without The Master the Melbourne Cup will never be the same.
"It's going to be boring for you people without me," Cassidy quipped outside the jockeys' room a few months back. So true: the modern generation are as good as ever but lack the spark and character of Cassidy.
And spark is what Luke had around the rucks. Maybe the Rabbits won the 2014 grand final without him but they wouldn't have got that far had it not been for him throughout the season.
Luke was one of the great South Sydney hookers, in the category of George Piggins, Elwyn Walters and Mario Fenech but the Rabbits don't glorify heroes. Nathan Merritt, possibly our best winger, a status mainly earned when we were closer to the tail than the top of the competition, was allowed to disappear into obscurity with little, if any, fanfare.
The Swans give Goodes his full acclaim. Goodes was a champion, one of the outstanding footballers of my time in any code, and even at the end had class, whether it be playing or doing his war dance. And for those who took exception, in the immortal words of Michelle Payne, they can "get stuffed".
Payne saved racing in 2015, a year tainted by cobalt, with her brilliant ride in the Melbourne Cup, plus her charm and grace on ground level. Had she not navigated superbly, Australia's greatest race would have gone to Frankie Dettori on runner-up Mr Dynamite. Rated the world's greatest jockey, Dettori was responsible for the mayhem that would have seen him disqualified in most jurisdictions.
Payne also took the spotlight away from the breakdown of Red Cadeaux, who was magnificent but old, raising the question of whether he should have been there at 10.
No doubt the cobalt cases in Victoria have been allowed to fester for too long but Racing NSW acted with more purpose in conducting the Sam Kavanagh and Darren Smith chapters.
Alas, in my opinion, the Kevin Moses penalty over a cobalt positive produced from Felix Bay at Hawkesbury last April was a miscarriage of racing justice. Moses was disqualified for two years and fined $20,000. Compare this with Chris Waller getting a $30,000 slug for a Lasix positive in The Metropolitan at Randwick with Junoob, subsequently disqualified.
The Waller penalty was appropriate but what makes cobalt so much more potent than Lasix and a Hawkesbury benchmark 75 a worse classification than a Randwick group 1? Moses has gone to appeals and the punishment stands with breaches of racing law, but not a fair go, being spouted.
Certainly punters, too, were badly treated with track bias for Victoria Derby day after what appeared perfect lead-up weather.
But Sydney came to the fore down south, with Winx taking the Cox Plate under Hugh Bowman. Bowman produced another wonderful performance on The United States to beat Payne and Prince Of Penzance in the Moonee Valley Cup.
Hopefully, Sydney can improve Saturdays, now getting a boost from country horses in the Highway series. Prizemoney hasn't been the answer but our racing will received a greater kickback from the state government, making it dollar rich but ideas poor.
Saturday's Summer Cup, a group 3, must be the worst on record with seven acceptors, headed by Junoob and 10 year-old I'm Imposing, trained by Chris Waller, and Sebrina, a late entry.
Still Michelle Payne has finally made Royal Randwick on Saturday in her Cup year due mainly to engagements from her brother, Patrick. Promoters couldn't get her a ride here a few weeks back.
