At last the autumn break. 37 mm of rain at my place after the driest start to the year on record. But danger lurks at Caulfield. A Soft 5, so some give in the track, but not badly affected. I’m no good in the wet, but I really want to go to see just one horse, Villermont, in the second last.
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- Villermont
I last saw this horse winning the Sandown Guineas as a three-year-old in 2017 and I was blown away by his relaxed attitude and looks. I made the comment that “it’s hard to see that I will ever get $2.70 the place about this horse again!” Clearly I was wrong! Today Villermont is going around at $2.80. The horse is relaxed, head down, and led on a nice loose strap, but hasn’t raced in 12 months, the distance is too short, and a disturbing development is the appearance of a tongue tie and cross-over noseband combination. So after all that anticipation it’s a no go. Villermont bounded in the air at the start and ran an even race to finish sixth.
The day wasn’t a total wipeout though as Neurotic, despite the name, was a calm, head down horse, and loomed up to win. The mare fortunately held on for third at $3.40. That’s even better than $2.70!
Geoffrey, Cross-over noseband plus tongue tie feels like one of those “unholy” combinations that you describe in Watching More Racehorses (pages 51-55). Horse’s mouth clamped shut and no movement of the tongue. Sometimes you see saliva trying to escape from the horse’s mouth with this combination though I’m not sure that this would ever cancel out the negatives.