No show, I’m afraid. I’m stuck up on the roof of my place with a serious roof plumbing emergency. But the internet is amazing and I’m always keen to check out a short priced favourite in a two-year-old race. How often do they fall in a heap? So I can see the mounting yard parade on my iPhone on racing.com and Doubt I’m Dreaming, the odds-on favourite, seems relaxed enough, although munching on the bit with an exaggerated open mouth. Going to the gate he seems to lose the plot and fights against the jockey. Normally I would require two faults to oppose a horse so resisting the jockey on its own is probably not enough. So I just watch the horse flounder into third place. Besides, how ridiculous is it to lay a horse on your roof? So I would have lost anyway, as I lay them for the place, and $1.16 would have been pretty irresistible! It’s not often a leaky roof can save your bacon!

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Every now and then you have one of those good days. And so it was. It didn’t start out too well when I missed Miss Vista’s race, mainly because I was attending to my complaining stomach, but also because of the huge field size. The striking cult horse with the albinism and walleye won in a breeze, well, just held on. I managed to catch up with her after the race. In the next there was plenty to like about Plenty To Like, with the tongue tie, positive strapper, ear flicking and snorting. Plenty to like about the place dividend of $4.60 too. No need to worry about dead-heating for first! In the fifth it all came undone with Moonlover, prancing, head in to a positive strapper, but an overweight jockey. The horse simply didn’t run on and I did my dough. Boom Time in the next looked terrific, but was too short for me at $1.60 and won as it liked. Arch Fire in this race was listed in the gear changes as having “synthetic hoof filler”. This must be a first so I photographed the horse’s feet and I guess it must be the front hooves as the colour of the wall is different!

In the Victoria Handicap Hooked looked a standout with tongue tie, salivating and head in to the strapper. I was very pleased with $2.25 fixed on the tote for the place. And in the Easter Cup I narrowed it down to High Church and Second Bullet. I really wanted to lay the favourite Grey Lion but my Betfair app had frozen so I backed the Bullet instead. Grey Lion was roaring in the parade ring, giving the two strappers a hard time who were tug, tug, tugging, and was sweating up remarkably on a cold day. Did I mention the dump? A lay that got away when it finished last. Still $3 for the Bullet was OK. And in the last race I wasn’t betting but determined to get a photo of the horse that finished last. I pretty much failed but this has to be a trivia question for the future. Name the horse that Greg Miles called last in his last race call. If you look up the results you will see it is Authoritarian. In my poor photo the horse Greg named is covering up Authoritarian on the inside. Three out of four for one of those good, good days.

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Not much to report with all the action in Sydney. I planned to watch two races, the first and last. The first was the two-year-old with only six runners, but the place dividends are often very good. The favourite Plutocracy was a muscular, loose-walking colt with no faults, so I couldn’t lay him and I couldn’t back him at $1.40. So I prepared myself for the long wait till the mares at 5.30 pm.

Caulfield 4.04 pm

At 4 pm the storm clouds rolled in and racing was suspended. I gave up at 4.30 with time running out and darkness approaching. The last three races were eventually abandoned. That Sydney horse is pretty good!

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