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Flemington Australian Guineas

March 2nd, 2014 0 comments

I crossed out the three most fancied horses. Shamus Award looked fit, but was very unsettled, tossing his head about and resisting with the jockey up. Eurozone had the cross-over noseband, head up, and the strapper was struggling to contain the horse with two hands, and Hucklebuck looked a bit sour with his ears laid back. I settled on The Quarterback, Alpha Beat and Criterion as the best, and ended up backing Criterion for the place. The Cox Plate winner led all the way, but Criterion charged home to grab second at $2.90. I was a bit spewy as I backed it in the last few seconds when it was showing $3.30 on the tote, so there must have been a bit of late money to shift it that much in a decent-sized tote pool.

Since I have been paying more attention to the horse’s feet I’ve also started to keep track of horses that cast a plate during the running. It looks like a fairly negative variable, but I’m not sure what use it is to the punter when the race has been run and won. An excuse I suppose. It might explain Hucklebuck’s poor run. And in Mrs Mac’s Beef Pie Sprint Spartini rocked up with a bar plate on his near fore that had not been notified to the stewards. The trainer, DK Weir, was slapped over the wrist with a feather and only copped a reprimand rather than a fine. It pays to be Victoria’s leading trainer.

 

 

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