Tag Archives: national
Lotteries 'Down Under'
Lotteries ‘Down Under’
Most people when they think of Australia have visions of kangaroos, dingoes, the platypus and many exotic animals indigenous to the country. Founded by British convicts the former British colony is a diverse society and many of the oldest families proudly trace their ancestry directly to a convict deported to Australia hundreds of years ago. Australians are a friendly outgoing people who are fond of a good time and love their beer. Australians are some of the most democratic people in the world and have a limited tolerance for snobbery and arrogance. They are also fond of lotteries and millions play regularly. The nation is home to several state and territorial lotteries.
Probably the most well known lottery in Australia is the ‘Oz’ lotto. Oz lotto is a national lottery and drawings are held each Tuesday. It is Australia’s first national lottery and was launched in 1994. Oz lotto holds the country’s record for the largest lottery jackpot ever won in Australia. On June 30th 2009 two lucky Oz Lotto winners shared a $106,549,984.76 jackpot. Players must select seven numbers from 1 through 45 and tickets for each game cost $1.
Powerball is a popular game modeled after the American lottery game of the same name. Australian Powerball was launched in 1996 and draws take place on Thursday nights. Players select five numbers from 1 through 45 and a Powerball number from the same numerical range. To date Powerball’s largest jackpot was $80 million dollars won on July 30th 2009.
Keno games are run by two private lottery administrators, South Australian Lotteries and Intralot. SA Lottery’s Keno games take place every 3.5 minutes and draws are closed 40 seconds before each draw. For lucky players who match all 10 numbers the jackpot is $1 million dollars. The Intralot keno games take place in Victoria and Tasmania and draws take place every evening at 8:00pm (Melbourne time). Minimum jackpots are $1 million dollars.
Saturday Lotto is a national game played in all States and Territories. Draws take place every Saturday night. Depending on the state or territory the Saturday games are known as Tattslotto, Gold Lotto, X Lotto, and Lotto and Saturday Lotto. This is one of the oldest lottery games anywhere and the first draw took place on June 24th 1972. The top prize of $4 million is typically shared by multiple players and ‘superdraws’ take place about seven times a year and have jackpots range in the $20 to 30 million dollar range.
Monday & Wednesday Lotto are played everywhere except Queensland and the first draw was way back in 1979. Jackpots range between $1 and $5 million. Australian lottery players may purchase online lottery tickets for any of the lotteries and can also check current lottery results on the official lottery websites. In addition players ‘down under’ can purchase lotto tickets for foreign lotteries such as El Gordo, Euromillions, the UK National Lottery and many others. Aussies love their lotteries and play often. Players in the remote outback with an internet connection can buy their lotto tickets online without have to drive great distances to the nearest lottery retailer. It would appear that Australians love lotteries as much as their famous beer!
Is Red A Winning Name?
If I was fortunate enough to own my own race horse I think I would do worse than to give him a name that contained ‘Red’ within it! Why you may ask? There was after all only one Red Rum, and as renowned as he is, there is unlikely to be another like him – he truly was one in a million. But there are other Reds who have also done well.
Red Splash was the first ever horse to win the Cheltenham Festival Gold Cup in 1924, even though he was not even yet the modern day prerequisite five years old. Aside from his jumping, which was considered to be extraordinarily good, he was admired for staying on so resolutely, given that he was sharply tackled by Conjuror II on the tiring bit of rising ground that tends to defeat a lot of Gold Cup competitors. Unfortunately his success of 1924 was never to be repeated and even though there were grand hopes for him with the National, it was never to be.
Another Red that did well was Red Alligator, who was the comfortable winner of the 1968 Grand National, winning by twenty lengths just as his half-brother Anglo had done two years beforehand. In winning, Red Alligator provided the first of three National-winning rides for his twenty year old jockey Brian Fletcher. Red Alligator was bred by William Kennedy near Downpatrick in Northern Ireland. Sired by Magic Red, he was out of Miss Alligator who had finished sixth in the 1949 Oaks and still had been sold for only seventy guineas at the Dublin sales in 1952. Miss Alligator became only the second mare to produce two Grand National winners, the first of which was Miss Batty, dam of Emblem and Emblematic. Unfortunately for Mr Kennedy he made no profit from breeding two National winners – he sold Anglo for £140 when he was still a foal and sold Red Alligator at the yearling sales for 340 guineas. Eventually trained by Denys Smith, it was soon realised that Red Alligator was both a sound steeplechase jumper and stayer, which was clear to see in the 1967 National, where after a mass disaster at the twenty-third, he was put back three times at the fence before giving chase so well that he finished third. Red Alligator won eleven chases but saddled with an extra thirteen pounds following his glorious 1968 Grand National victory, he never came close to winning the race again.
Red Marauder was another Red to win the National, a 33-1 shot who was one of only four of forty runners to complete the course, two of those having been remounted. His rider, Richard Guest, afterwards stated that he was ‘probably the worst jumper ever to win a National’. This may well have been true as prior to the race the Jockey Clubs safety panel put him under extensive scrutiny, and he only won acceptance to the race on a casting vote – see, there just might be something in the name Red!!