This is my last day for the season and it looks like being a bit of a fizzer. The forecast is for rain all day and the track is a deteriorating DEAD 4. I’m just going along for the colour and movement. Besides, it gets me out of the house. A bet seems pretty unlikely. I’ve been scared off from the last three mid-weekers because of the HEAVY 8. So my season is petering out. And as soon as I step onto the course the track is downgraded to SLOW 6. This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper.
In the first race the two-year-olds run a time of 72.55. The late and great EJ Minnis’s par time for a genuine DEAD track is 72.62, so that’s quite reasonable. And you’d expect that first use of the track is likely to produce a better time before it gets all chopped up.
In the second race, the good thing Our Baby Bonus, runs 59.88 compared with EJ’s par of 59.83 for a genuine DEAD. Again, not too bad.
In the third I’m quite taken with the appearance of Stoneblack, but hold back. The horse nearly wins with a terrific run, with a race time of 98.01. EJ’s par times rate that as a GOOD track! I coulda backed that horse! $2.90 the place. Damn!
I miss the fourth, a 3000 metre race for plodders, and fool around photographing cannon bandages. I still don’t like them and they are still a serious negative. But at least they provide some colour and movement.
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- Arch Symbol
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- Al Karam
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- Saddler’s Story
In the fifth, only seven horses. But I’ve now decided that the track is bettable, it hasn’t rained all day, it’s my last day, and I’m going for it. Tindal looks terrific with his two strappers and I go for him. He hangs on to win in 97.72. The track is still GOOD and I’m up and running with $3.30 for the place.
In the sixth I can’t split El Mandon and Gran Sasso, so I leave it. The time of 71.75 is a GOOD/DEAD time.
In the seventh Believe’n Achieve looks the goods and wins like a good thing at $1.80 the place. And the time of 91.45 is better than the par of 91.88 for a GOOD track
And in the last Elumino is faultless in the yard and showing $2.90 the place on the tote and $1.55 with the books with five minutes to go. I know it will be crunched but I back it on the tote at $1.80 with one minute left. Elumino ducks along the rail for third and I get $1.60. And the time for the last? A SLOW 60.33. It’s all too late now to stop betting!
Three out of three for the day. It’s nice to go out with a bang.
I’m off to the spelling paddock now and will return in the spring. Hopefully I’ll find time to send a few postcards from the paddock.