There is a great line and a great tip in the new book, Watching More Racehorses. If you see a horse displaying a certain behaviour pattern it is “well worth while getting down on hands and knees and crawling across broken glass in order to back it”. It doesn’t happen very often. But there was an example today in the Easter Cup. It was an interesting race with five main chances, all pretty much equal favourites around the $4.00 or $5.00 mark. It was easy enough to rule out Manndawi and Transfer Allowance with boots, with the fetlock boot even featuring in the book chapter on Rare Stuff!  Doumarin and Rather Heroic were also easy to toss out as unsettled, changing stride and tossing their heads up. Good Value was circling in the yard, a definite no-no. That left five chances: Leebaz, Extra Zero, Guardini, Puccini and Observational. Leebaz had the barrier blanket which is a nice positive and the stallion chain a serious negative, and also had a tongue tie, was gaping and salivating, all quite OK, especially the salivating which is very OK. Extra Zero, the old stager, showed me some teeth, but that’s pretty benign. Guardini had the arched neck, and was prancing and neighing, well roaring really, like a stallion. Do you like your bull stallions roaring? And the two hands of the strapper were a negative! I tried to video it, but the horse had pretty much calmed down by the time it got into the yard and I pretty much failed!

Puccini was a clean sheet, and trained by the trainer of the moment, DK Weir. I love clean sheets! Observational had the tongue tie and was gaping, which is also pretty benign.

Who would you back if you had to crawl across broken glass on hands and knees? Leebaz took the lead and looked beaten in the straight until Guardini peaked on its run and Leebaz kicked back and nutted it on the line. Observational got third. Puccini finished fourth and Extra Zero fifth.  I backed ….?

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