Dr. Geoffrey Hutson's breakthrough book Watching Racehorses is out now! Learn about behavioural handicapping: how head tossing, pawing, salivating and other behaviours provide telltale clues about a horse's readiness to run.
Order Online

Derby Day

October 31st, 2015 0 comments

The greatest day’s racing on earth. I’m woken early by a thunderstorm at 5 am. It’s teeming. Uh, oh! There’s 7 mm of rain in my gauge as I leave for the track, a short tram ride away. It’s not looking good. My first anorak day for the spring. I shouldn’t bet. I shouldn’t even go! But I grab the umbrella.

And so it proved. Nothing made ground down the outside. The inside lane was a ride to victory. The Mackinnon winner Gailo Chop had the perfect form for a wet day. Five starts for four wins and a placing in the wet. But I don’t do form. And it had the glue-on shoes so it is obviously sensitive to hard tracks. The glue colour made them virtually undetectable. I stuck to my old favourite Happy Trails, who always looks good.

My first losing Derby Day in five years. I backed Gai’s horse in the Hotham Handicap and thought I had it made with Amicus at 30/1 in the Myer Classic until she was pulled up by the going. One out of three.

Home to find 10 mm in the gauge! I told you that track was off!

 

Leave A Comment

All fields marked with "*" are required.





Allowed tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>