13/03/01 Marlborough Travels Safely to Japan

10/03/01 Sizzling Hot Field for Autumn Hurdle

06/03/01 First Cab Off the Rank for Mills

27/02/01 Top Tussle Looms at Mornington

26/02/01 Latin Lava Proves Too Hot for Rivals

21/02/01 Ciaron Taking Giant Strides

20/02/01 Logician Hopes Raised for Cup

17/02/01 Bendigo Beckons Intensive Care Unit

16/02/01 Fair Maidens Flock to Mornington

13/02/01 Logician Looks to Ascot to Keep Midas Touch

08/02/01 All's Well That Ends Well at Moe

04/02/01 Logician Bogged Down at Sandown

02/02/01 Eskies Filled With Moe

02/02/01 Logician Launch on Schedule

29/01/01 Marlborough's Sights Now Turning Japanese

28/01/01 Dream Return for Magnificent Marlborough

26/01/01 Nakayama Grand Jump Announcement Delayed

25/01/01 Intensive Care Pays Dividends

23/01/01 Logician Still on Track Despite Setback

20/01/01 Everybody's Jumpin' !!

17/01/00 Wilson's Well Not Dry Yet

16/01/01 Champ Clears First Hurdle

13/01/01 Right Answers at the Valley

12/01/01 Heat to Turn Up at Werribee

12/01/01 Back To School for Marlborough

04/01/01 Questions Left "Unanswered" at Terang

31/12/00 Terang To Jump Start New Year

About Don Cooper - email Cooperdjd@aol.com

From one side of the rails to the other, I have experienced all the thrills, excitement, highs and lows that the sport of thoroughbred racing has to offer.

After completing the inaugral Horse Industries Training Course at T.A.F.E., I went to work at the Morphettville stables of Joe and David Hall.

After several years of grooming and caring for some fine horses, the opportunity arose for me to venture to the equine paradise of Lindsay Park Stud and be marvelled by the magic of its creator, the great Colin Hayes, O.B.E.

It doesn’t get much better than cantering a finely tuned thoroughbred against the magnificent backdrop of a rising sun over Angaston on a clear morning.

As a rider I made a very handy strapper and found my niche with preparing yearlings for sale and weaning foals. One of my great memories of Lindsay Park was handling the early weaning and education of a little grey filly by At Talaq out of Raffet, which turned out to be the Doncaster Handicap winner, Skating.

Following several injuries, I decided that my career in racing may be better served by my talents with a camera and proceeded to take photograph after photograph at the local meetings.

My work was acknowledged through TABform in Adelaide, then on a national scale by inclusion to Tom Brassell’s Australasian Racing Year of 1996.

Following several years off the scene, a lack of positive and colourful coverage of jumps racing has led me to pursue a career in the media, of which this is hopefully the launch of a long and substantial contribution to a discipline of racing that I have always loved.

The sheer enormity of the equine athlete soaring over an obstacle at full gallop captured my attention from an early age and has left an indelible mark on my outlook of jumps racing. It is a display of the power, strength,and athleticism that epitomises the thoroughbred and calls upon a skilled horseman to combine and conquer each hurdle. Not someting that is put on a programme to let the flat jockeys have an extra rest before the "real" racing starts.

Without doubt the most exciting time of the racing year for me is between Easter and the end of winter, when the best of the best come out to jump.

The most frustrating thing I have found with the coverage of racing is the highlighting of falls and negative, lacklustre, poorly informed journalism of jumps racing.

Here now lies an opportunity to get this discipline to the forefront and not portray these horses as "last chance stakes"performers, or their riders as poorer versions of the silk kings that just happened to have luck on their side when it came to their stature.

Yes, I am passionate about jumps racing and I intend to let this be known- I am not the only one - and I look forward to delivering a high class coverage of this great sport to the Virtual Racing Chronicle.