No excuses today. An Indian summer. A beautiful, balmy 25 degrees, and a dry track. In the first I was presented with a conundrum. Two two-year-olds from the Ellerton-Zahra stable, both parading around the yard in a very relaxed manner, heads down. Which one to back? Pillar of Creation, more fancied at $3.00 the place, or Thunder Rain at $3.80 the place. I always fear that the unfancied one in a dual entry will get up. But in the end the horses decide it for me, with Thunder Rain tossing her head up going out to the track. How I hate “Head up”. Pillar of Creation storms home from last to snatch third.
In the second the $3.80 favourite So Pristine is all over the shop, with the strapper struggling to contain it. I scored ten possible faults, including: tongue tie, exposed teeth, tugging on the strap, bucking, flared nostrils, clacking (striking itself), head up with the jockey up, and sweating behind. I like my mares to be calm so I fired up iBetMate and laid it on Betfair at $1.60 the place. Sam Hyland, the mounting yard reporter on TVN, couldn’t fault it. We are obviously reading different books. So Pristine struggled into fifth place.
In the next, brimming with confidence, I backed a relaxed City Of Song, despite the green winkers. The horse wore them for the first time at her previous start at Moonee Valley and they didn’t impede her barnstorming run home for second. The horse repeats the dose and comes from near last to win going away at $5.20 the place. Three out of three! I put the cue in the rack and spent the rest of the day patting myself on the back. I didn’t even indulge in photography, apart from an art shot of the sun streaming through a horse’s whiskers on a beautiful autumn day in Melbourne. Isn’t racing wonderful?
Melbourne autumn
This article is almost the best example Ive seen on your book in action. I love the description of the 10 faults and am still heavily promoting your book to mates as the way to go especially if you a regular race goer as they all are. Hopefully some sales will arrive soon.