It’s cold and wet. So cold and wet that I have to break out the heavy duty winter coat and beanie! I need six for my trifecta. First cab off the rank is Young Werther, still kicking and pawing in his stall as he was before the Turnbull. Vow and Declare looks fine, but has had his chance. The favourite Deauville Legend looks good, relaxed, with a lot of folk fussing around him. Ciaron Maher has five runners, but they are all muddled up in the wrong stalls. Gold Trip is easy to pick out. Imperious, dominant. Smokin’ Romans is still weaving. High Emocean is relaxed. Gai’s horse Knights Order is beautiful, relaxed, licking and lolling. The Chinese pony Hoo Ya Mal looks out of place with the big boys. Serpentine is parading with his head up and showing teeth and Emissary is nice and relaxed. I don’t like Duais with a smoking strapper and Montefilia is fit and parading head down, but with two strappers. Realm Of Flowers is in. So I have five – Gold Trip, Knights Order, Montefilia, Deauville Legend and Realm Of Flowers. Half an hour left and I need one more. I go and have another look at Emissary. Still looks fine. High Emocean walks past, head in, looking great. Number six.

Time to bet. First the trifecta, then the place bet on the favourite, a class above them. It is showing $3.50 on the tote but only $2.00 with the books. Why is that? Hmmm. I decide to split my bet. Half on the fave with a 1.10 multiplier and half on Gold Trip at $6.00 fixed.

They come thundering down the straight. For a moment there it looked like all three bets would get up, but Emissary spoiled the party. A good day, but I should’ve gone seven in the trifecta.

4 comments

I’m up at 7, woken by the rain, full of doubt. It’s been pouring all night. I live just a couple of drop kicks from the Valley and there’s 33 mm in my rain gauge. A heavy track! I don’t bet on the heavy. I’ve pretty much decided not to go. It starts clearing by 11 and I’m in two minds. By the time they jump in the first I’ve decided it’s better to get out of the house than sit around moping. I used to catch the tram or walk but today I’ll drive. There’s a long queue of cars and it takes me 25 minutes to get into the centre car park. The parking attendant directs me to a spot a mile from the tunnel so I ask if there’s anything a bit closer now that I’m a disabled person. I’m put in a huge puddle next to a BMW. I hope there are a lot of lads around to push me out later!

I narrow the race down to two horses, Gold Trip and El Bodegon. Gold Trip is relaxed, but not quite as imperious as last week and El Bodegon is pawing extravagantly in his stall. There’s nothing wrong with the hot pot Anamoe except the $1.30 the place. I’m Thunderstruck is not a settled horse and Gai’s horse Alligator Blood has the lameness query with the synthetic hoof filler. Zaaki is all skin and bone and is carrying his head awkwardly. I go into the stand to have my bet and the 4G won’t connect to Tabcorp. I try the Valley free WiFi but get the revolving sun. I guess there are twenty thousand punters trying to connect. So I give up and just watch. After all, it’s just another race on a special day. And I don’t bet on the heavy. Anamoe brains them. And the car leaves the mud behind, no help needed, no worries!

2 comments

The first horse I see is Nonconformist in the pre-parade ring. Looks nice and relaxed. Next up is Gold Trip in the stalls. He looks terrific, hindtoe up. Imperious. Time to check out the fave, Smoking Romans. The horse is weaving. Rhymically waving its head from side to side. Quite vigorously. This is probably one of the worst things a horse can do in my book with a behavioural handicap of -50%. In other words weavers win half as often as you would expect by chance alone. In other words a lay. Gai’s horse Knights Order looks terrific and Duais is OK too. Benaud is asleep. Alegron is fine and rounds out the six for my box trifecta. I checked on the emergency Durston twice, looking fine, maybe a bit forlorn, but I didn’t pay him much attention since he was listed as having a Norton bit.

In the parade ring Gold Trip is a stand out and gets my place bet on the tote at $4.40 with a 1.10 multiplier. What’s that? $4.84. The horse looks all set to win until the neglected Durston grabs him on the line. A good winning day, but damn, in all the excitement I forgot to lay the favourite.

0 comments

Ah, the excitement of the spring carnival is in the air. At long last! I’m here for the Might and Power, a Cox Plate warm up where Anamoe is the hot favourite. The horse looks the part in his stall and gets all the media attention. And is James Cummings taking lessons from Gai by putting straw in the stall? No matter, I’m a Zaaki fan. The horse is nice and relaxed and I take $1.60 the place with a 10 percent multiplier on the tote. What’s that? $1.76. It is a fabulous race with Zaaki taking on Gai’s front runner Alligator Blood nice and early. He needed to do that to get ready for the Plate. And it looks like he will hold on to win until the hot pot swamps them on the line. A terrific run for third. I’m excited!

But I’ve had a bit of a set back. I have been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease which affects my walking ability. I’m now shuffling around like an old person and have trouble getting more than 10,000 steps. I don’t have a noticeable tremor, but like Billy Connolly, I have trouble rolling over in bed! Another side effect is a condition called micrographia, where my handwriting has turned incredibly small. I have trouble reading my own writing at the best of times, but now the scrawls I make on my racebook are virtually illegible. And also I reckon there has been a ten percent decline in my cognitive ability. I feel I’m losing the edge off my sharpness. Simple cryptic crossword clues can take me an age to crack.

So what does all this mean? It means I have trouble checking out the horses in their stalls and in the parade ring. And it means I will have to give away the blog, although I will try to keep it going for a few more weeks. And I will keep the web page going for a while in case there are a few punters out there who haven’t yet read the books.

4 comments

And also election day! Thank goodness it will soon be over! Six weeks is a long time to have to put up with constant images of our PM, Scott Morrison, mopping floors, crash tackling children, welding without eye protection, or inspecting engineering works in a hard hat and high-vis jacket. So I’m off to vote early and since I’m an inner urban Melbourne boy, it will be a vote for the Greens!

To Flemington, where it is cold and quiet. The grey Brosnan looked good in the two-year olds and then not much action until the sixth, where I took a set against the second favourite, Worthily. The horse had the red ear muffs (which are discarded at the barrier), but the strapper needed two hands and a shoulder to control the fast gait, with occasional tail swishing. The head was very unsettled, up, down, in and out, gaping and showing me teeth.

I was obviously looking at a different horse from the mounting yard expert Warren Huntly, whose comments were broad cast over the PA: “He wears the red ear muffs, but just seems to save all his energy. He doesn’t look like he gets worked up to the point that he needs the pre-race ear muffs. He’s just relaxed, saving all his energy, stepping out nicely. Looks in good order!” I would have said: Looks in bad order! I laid the horse for a place and was very satisfied to see it run second last. Too bad if you were betting from the TV at home!

I’m off to the spelling paddock now. Hopefully, if the body holds up I’ll be back in the spring for the Caulfield Guineas.

0 comments

It’s not often that the two-year-olds are the feature race of the day. But today is the day and I can even sleep in as the race is not off till 2.15 pm. But I’m early. I’m keen to check out Cannonball as this horse seems to have done a Lazarus and come back from the dead. When last observed in January 2010 (check out the search box!) he was an American horse ridden by the controversial Pat Valenzuela, who had previous convictions for substance abuse. Gosh, have I really been blogging on for that long? 12 years? Must be time soon to hang up the hat.

Cannonball

In the stalls the horse looks a million dollars. Well, $975,000 to be precise. So obviously it is not the American horse. In the yard the horse is frothy, dumping and is shitty behind. The favourite Yowie is a head up, changing gait, dumping horse, flashing me an occasional bit of white eye. In the end I decide it’s too hard and leave the race alone. Cannonball bursts to the front and holds them off for a strong win. In retrospect I probably should have laid Yowie, but my mind was stuck 12 years in the past.

5 comments

It’s all Zaaki!

Down the back the horse is asleep in its stall being taped up. Asleep, oh, how I love that. In the parade ring it is a cross-over noseband and supreme fitness. In the mounting yard it is head down with an arched neck (no photo), salivating, and two strappers. Pity about the odds, but I managed to get $1.50 the place. I didn’t even get to see the main dangers – Inspirational Girl, out on the track early but a known miscreant, and I’m Thunderstruck, out late. Zaaki does it at both ends, and brains them.

It’s all Zaaki!

2 comments

I’m nervous. This is my first excursion out in public without a mask for what, six months? I’m triple vaxxed, but I’m in a vulnerable age group now. Time doesn’t seem to stand still for anyone these days. The last Blue Diamond I saw was two years ago! I have had one fleeting visit to Caulfield since then last May. There was a lot of excavation work going on and it looked like they were building a huge block of public toilets. It turns out that they are temporary stalls while they build new subterranean stalls and a parade ring. They will four metres below ground level! Part of the master plan apparently. And we are going to be sent out to Sandown while they do all this.

I arrived in time for the third where Gai’s horse Castlereagh Kid looked a standout. A measly $1.80 for the place, but nice to have a winner first up after such a long spell. In the next Yearning was a nice head down horse and powered home for third. I managed to get $2.80 for the place, and so now I was more than satisfied. Cascadian looked the goods in the next but $1.30 the place is not my sort of bet so I waited for the Diamond. I didn’t fancy the winner Daumier as the horse was gaping and the strapper needed two hands. But Revolutionary Miss was very relaxed and just nosed out by the colt. Three out of three for the day. Long may it continue.

2 comments

Winter is coming. There is hardly a soul at Flemington and just four bookies in the main ring. I suppose they are all online these days. Out the back it is deserted apart from a few owners and trainers. There are two zones but thankfully both have access to the horse stalls.

Winter is coming

The weather seems unaware that winter is coming. It is a balmy 20 degrees with cloudless blue skies. And even better is that the programme is agreeable with the two-year-olds letting me sleep in and not jumping till 12.55 pm. I was quite taken by Deprivation, head down and chewing gently on the bit. It’s the omen bet too – I’ve been in deprivation for over a year! I was in the process of taking $4.40 fixed for the place when the odds were immediately wound back. Don’t you hate that? So I had to accept $4.20! The horse jumps out to a strong lead, which is a bit of a worry for a baby having its first go at 1400 m. Deprivation is swamped at the post, but manages to hold on for second. That’s a good start!

The next is a small field of eight stayers. I take a set against Wyclif the second favourite, mainly because the horse was sporting a humungous black nose roll for the first time, but also because it was unsettled with its head up and a fast, changing gait. So I laid it at $1.50 the place and with hindsight it was probably a brave bet in a small field. The horse drifted back to third last and then the jockey became anxious about 1000 m out. Wyclif then dropped out of the field and finished stone motherless last. I loved it when Matt Hill the race caller said Wyclif wasn’t travelling a long way from home. Obviously it didn’t like the nose roll.

I hung around for the main race the Straight Six and was half tempted by a relaxed Dexelation but in the end it was too hard and no surprise to see a 100/1 winner. So I’m out of here now. Into hibernation. Hopefully if my battery doesn’t go flat I’ll be back in the spring for the Caulfield Guineas.

7 comments

It’s an age since I’ve been out to The Heath. In fact Blue Diamond Day on 22 February 2020, some 440 days! I’m keen to get there early for the two-year-olds with a field of six runners. I elect to take the car rather than the train since everyone seems to be avoiding public transport in case COVID is hiding under the seats. I park in the centre of the track but the main tunnel is closed. Did you know that there are two tunnels? Well, I didn’t, but I am directed towards the Guineas tunnel which is a long walk that ends up where the old Guineas stand (the cheap seats) used to be. It turns out that after walking so far I’m still only just opposite the train station and have to struggle onwards to the main gate. It’s looking ominous and sure enough the babies jump the moment I enter the course.

The course is divided into two zones. Zone 1 is members with access to the horse stalls, Zone 2 is general public with no stall access. That’s discrimination, isn’t it? Still I have plenty of time to check out the horses, but there are no horse name cards on the stalls. An official explains that there have been no name cards since COVID as the cards are touched by too many hands – the printer, the courier, the track staff. There is a directory in the racebook but the horses are listed in alphabetical order which means the stall numbers are randomised and a real pain to sort out. And then to get to the parade ring you have to negotiate what looks like a bomb site. What are they building here? Public toilets? Maybe it’s some new stalls with electronic names like at Flemington.

In the mares I backed Savigne which was lolling its tongue and is surprisingly a positive. The horse ran an unremarkable fourth. I made another attempt to check out the stalls and noticed only one horse, Exeter, mainly because it had a saddle cloth, but also looked nice and relaxed. Exeter seemed to be running well on the pace but then faded at the 100 only to surge again in the last 20 metres. I was pretty sure it had got third, but the photo finish took an age to decide and with each passing minute it was looking more and more ominous until a dead heat was finally declared. The worst thing about dead heats is that you only get half the dividend. $1.10 the place is simply money back. I watched a couple more but the stewards were calling the horses straight up to the yard without a circuit of the parade ring and no chance to look at them. Not much point in continuing when you can’t identify them easily in the stalls or see them in the parade ring so I packed up my biro and headed home. I think I should have caught the train.

3 comments