Large fields make it hard to see them all and William Thomas was probably the best horse I saw all day although too short at $1.40. It won like a good thing. In the two-year-old I liked Fighting Harada, who looked keen and ready to go, salivating and chewing on the bit, head in to the strapper. The horse had the gun barrier, the number one slot, and just had to jump and run and win. Fighting Harada was slow to begin. The boxer I remember wasn’t a slow beginner, he came out punching! What’s wrong with that jockey? Didn’t he know that he had to boot it up out of the gate? And then the horse was booted up at the 800, when it was all too late, and had to be checked off heels! Fighting Harada made a last gasp surge at the post and I was convinced it had grabbed third but in fact had missed by a head. Very disappointing! I was spitting chips. That horse was ready to win! I should have ridden it myself!
In the eighth race I fined it down to two horses, Notio and Eclair Calling. Notio was the classic horsewatcher’s horse, totally relaxed, fit, lobbing around the yard with its head down. Eclair Calling by contrast was a horse that held its head high but in towards the strapper. The horse wasn’t changing gait and wasn’t unsettled. Imperious, dominant, I thought. As a bonus it was trained by Phillip Stokes who doesn’t bring his horses over from Adelaide for fun. And what’s more I noted in my race book that it was a dual acceptor but scratched in Adelaide. Eclair Calling was $2.60 and Notio $1.80. An easy decision in the end. Go for the odds. They finished second and third so that helped to ease my earlier disappointment! One out of two. A good day. Getting cold though.
NSW held its Saturday metro meeting at Hawkesbury, a good provincial track with average facilities, including a betting area under what looks like a gigantic old farm shed. Bon Allen in R1 had a pronounced arched neck but after leading well, weakened badly. No problems, just a class issue, which I guess no amount of positive behaviour can overcome. Invincibella in R6 looked relaxed and serious and squeaked into third at $2.00 after being blocked in the straight. Mccreery in R7 looked relaxed, head down, but his gait seemed a little faster than most relaxed horses I see and his tail wasn’t as flat as it could have been. But his head stayed consistently down so I ignored the misgivings. He ran a good third at $2.80. Couldn’t find anything early in Melbourne by peering at my iPhone (no public racing.com TV available) and the later fields were too big to manage in the weak lighting under the tractor shed.