The first horse I see is Nonconformist in the pre-parade ring. Looks nice and relaxed. Next up is Gold Trip in the stalls. He looks terrific, hindtoe up. Imperious. Time to check out the fave, Smoking Romans. The horse is weaving. Rhymically waving its head from side to side. Quite vigorously. This is probably one of the worst things a horse can do in my book with a behavioural handicap of -50%. In other words weavers win half as often as you would expect by chance alone. In other words a lay. Gai’s horse Knights Order looks terrific and Duais is OK too. Benaud is asleep. Alegron is fine and rounds out the six for my box trifecta. I checked on the emergency Durston twice, looking fine, maybe a bit forlorn, but I didn’t pay him much attention since he was listed as having a Norton bit.
In the parade ring Gold Trip is a stand out and gets my place bet on the tote at $4.40 with a 1.10 multiplier. What’s that? $4.84. The horse looks all set to win until the neglected Durston grabs him on the line. A good winning day, but damn, in all the excitement I forgot to lay the favourite.