Tag Archives: cup
Despite All Odds, Damien Oliver Bounces Back
Damien Oliver is probably the best-known current Australian jockey. His is a story of talent and success, but also of heartbreak, tragedy and recovery. Its the stuff Hollywood films are made of, and its not entirely surprising that a movie based on Damien Olivers career is currently in production. “The Cup” is scheduled for release in 2009, and will feature Stephen Curry as Damien Oliver.
Damien Oliver was born in Perth in 1972 into a racing family. His father Ray Oliver was also a jockey until tragically killed in a race fall in Kalgoorlie, WA.
Damiens career started as an apprentice to Lindsey Rudland in Perth, and his first winner was Mr Gudbud in 1988 at Bunbury, WA. In total, Oliver rode 66 winners in WA and was the leading apprentice for the 1988/89 season. He then moved to Melbourne, to complete his apprenticeship with the trainer Lee Freedman. Under Freedman, Oliver did complete his apprenticeship with a total of 478 winning rides.
Olivers first Group 1 win was on Submariner in 1990, for Bart Cummings in the Show Day Cup. By the end of his apprenticeship he had 18 Group 1 wins, including the Caulfield Cup (on Mannerism). He also won the Victorian Jockeys Premiership twice as an apprentice.
Over the next decade, Oilvers career went from strength to strength. Highlights included winning the Caulfield Cup again in 1994, 1995, and 1999 as well as the Cox Plate in 1997 and 2001. In 1995, he won the Melbourne Cup on Doriemus. During this decade Damien was at the height of his profession, and he won the Victoria Jockeys Premierships five more times. Then tragedy struck.
Days before Oliver was due to ride Media Puzzle in 2002s Melbourne Cup, his older brother Jason, also a jockey, was killed in a fall during track work. Damien is on record as having said “Melbourne Cups dont mean anything to me any more Id give it back to get my brother back”. Damien then went on to win the Melbourne Cup for the second time, and flew home to Perth the following day to attend his brothers funeral. The 2002 Melbourne Cup went down in history as the most emotional Cup ever.
Oliver continued his career as a highly successful jockey, but then tragedy struck again. In 2005, during a race at Moonee Valley, he fell and was left with two fractured vertebrae, which kept him out of racing for a year. He was extremely lucky not to have damaged his spinal cord, which could have confined him to a wheelchair for life. Many jockeys with Olivers injuries would have taken the opportunity to retire. Instead he worked through a year of painful rehabilitation, and returned to the track in 2006 to come second in the Melbourne Cup that year.
In 2008, Damiens mount Mad Rush was favourite to win the Melbourne Cup, but was a little unlucky on the day and came in eighth. One gets the impression that Damien Oliver hasnt yet finished with the Melbourne Cup and will be back for another crack in 2009.
Damien Olivers story is not just that of a great jockey, its also that of huge determination and dedication to his sport. Thats why, against all odds, Damien Oliver always bounces back.
2010 World Cup Brings Lottery Scammers Out of the Woodwork!
The FIFA World Cup will take place this year in South Africa and will probably be the most watched sports event on the planet. In 2006 an estimated 715.1 million people viewed the World Cup which was held in Germany. All of the matches of the 2010 games are expected to be sold out and football fans from around the world will descend on South Africa this June and July. Unfortunately the demand for tickets has prompted scammers to take advantage of World Cup fever. A new series of emails are making the rounds telling the gullible they have won several million dollars in the “World Cup Lottery. Basically this is a variation on the old and well known 419 advance fee scam.
One email titled “The South African 2010 World Cup Bid International Lottery” has been making the rounds of email inboxes around the world. There are several features of this particular email that are clear indications of a typical lottery scam. The first and most obvious clue is that no legitimate lottery will notify winners via email. The scammers will tell their victims that there email address was selected by computer email draw or a computer ballot system. Put bluntly there is no such thing as a random email ballot system. The spelling, syntax and misspellings in the emails are another clear indication of a typical lottery scam. These emails are obviously written by persons not well versed in the English language and most people in South Africa use English as a primary language.
Another indication that the World Cup lottery is a scam is the use of free email accounts. Check out the official UK National Lottery website or any other official lottery website and you will see that official lottery websites never use free email accounts. Asking the lottery winner to keep their big win confidential is probably the most obvious indication of a lottery scam. Lotteries love publicity and encourage big winners to come forward to claim their winnings and to talk to the media. And finally, no legitimate lottery notifies winners by emailever!
You may wonder just where the scammers got your email address. The answer is simple; scammers harvest email addresses from websites you may have visited such as blogs, comments on public forums or any other websites that are publicly accessible. Scammers use rogue programs to search the internet for email addresses. Cyber criminals also sell email lists to spammers and scammers. Protect yourself from scammers and enjoy the greatest sporting event in the worldthe 2010 World Cup!