This week
How it Happened - Shanks Pony Cup, November 1
A highlight of the Feral joggers running season is the Shanks Pony Cup, the last run on the Feral running Calendar. This year it was a mystery course dreamt up in the fertile mind of Anthony Salmon. Horses were unloaded from floats, registered with the course marshals and then from a lucky dip where they pulled out a Red or a Yellow card.
The course was marked out with Blue, Red and Yellow arrows. Horses were instructed to follow the Blue arrows marked Long or Short around the course. Salmon’s warped mind then threw in some challenge. Some intersections had 2 or 3 blue arrows, it was up to the horse to choose an arrow to follow. Here luck rather than ability came into play as some arrows paved a short track and others a longer track. Just when all seemed simple enough a Red or Yellow arrow appeared, horses had to follow the arrow relating to their lucky dip on registration.
So, what did this mean? Horses were crisscrossing over the Hill, some going in the opposite direction to others. The lucky short course horses cantered 3.2km and the unlucky 3.9km. In the long course the lucky galloped / trotted 5.9km and the unlucky 6.9km with some in-between. In some instances, the same horse was passed twice.
A filly, Sharon Careri led a mob of 36 back to the stables in a net time of 32.24s. But how far had she actually galloped? The filly was pursued by a pack of trusty steeds, Brendon Sinclair, Tony Gullo, Rodney Savage and Myles Bunn. A mature pony Lisa Croce starting from a one-minute handicap trotted back lucky not to have been overtaken by gallopers Michael Johns, young colt Flynn Bunn and Lachlan Date. Other gallopers such as Matt Kenny 11th, Mark Andreazza 12th and Jim Wythes 22nd, ran well but on the longer tracks. Fully spent after winning the Arsova competition Gary Workman trotted around the course finishing 36th.
From the short course starters, a galloping young colt Callum Vecchio led a herd of 18 back to the stables. Next came a filly Maggie Croce then a couple of foals Isaac Fattore and Ivy Pasqualotto with mum Sabrina Pasqualotto closely following.
Returning to the stables horses cooled down and chatted about their track adventures. One of the horses Lachlan Date clocked up the milestone of 1000km on the Hill. To mark the occasion chaff bags were replaced with a treat from Lachlan’s locker.
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With daylight savings now on, the Feral’s meet at the water tower opposite pioneer park for a 5:30pm start. Please be there 10 minutes earlier to register. Whether it’s your own wellbeing or wanting the kids to get some outdoor exercise you are welcome as a sprinter, jogger or walker. Tracks are well marked; safety is of prime concern and there is lots of social fun after. The best part of being a Feral is enjoying the company of like-minded people.
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PLEASE BE ON TIME ENTER BEFORE 5:20 RACE STARTS 5:30
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Things to Remember each week
Runners must wear tags when participating in Feral events. Apart from the timing, it is a saftey measure. The tags serve to monitor those runners who have commenced their run and are still out on the track. It is not appropriate to turn up on the Hill on a regular basis without wearing a tag.
Zero start times
Zero handicaps are only for the slowest runners and for the walkers, so if you do not fit this description and you are given zero, please enquire with the race director. It is not usually our mistake, just that prior circumstances have dictated a zero which may need to be changed back (see below).
Also, if you have a Short course handicap (say 8min) and you want to walk, we prefer if you walk off that handicap (8min) ... you won't finish far behind, and it saves us a lot of time and possible mistakes in adjustments to and fro (see above).
We do allow Long course walkers to start off zero ... just let the race director know ... otherwise it is disq
Did Not Finish? We need to know. All non-finishers / short cutters / other issues - report to the race director
Instant Results ... we are putting the results online, at the finish line, so your loved one can know what mood you're in before you get home. (Will it be a hot bath or a cold shower? Champagne, or a beer in the dog house?) However ... be aware that these are preliminary results and will almost always change when joggers are added, deleted and edited. You may drop a few places, rise a few places, or even, heaven forbid, get disq'd. So if the fine details matter to you, drop back again later.