I’m feeling fairly average. In fact , I’m quite ordinary. Well, really, I’m a bit poorly. My head is full of germs. But there is no point staying at home moaning about it, so I’m off to Caulfield to share the germs around. I’m stuffed full of cold and flu tablets, but they hardly seem to make an impression on an insistent, dull headache. And the congestion in my ears and nose seems to amplify my tinnitus, so that it sounds like the entire Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is tuning up inside my brain. It’s so noisy in there that I can’t even think. It looks like a dangerous day for decision making.
And it doesn’t start too well. The omen bet Pray for Me is a standout in the second. No faults, perfectly behaved, head in towards the strapper. I have crossed out all the other horses, so I double my bet. The horse has a perfect, faultless run with cover, but just fails to hold on for third. Oh well.
In the third I don’t like the favourite War Ends, mainly because it was tossing its head around repetitively out the back. I offer to lay it for the place at $1.40 on my betting instrument, but the bet goes unmatched. The favourite weakens to run fourth. Oh well.
In the fifth race Patrick Payne’s Fieldmaster looks the goods, with a nice positive strapper. The horse has the race shot to bits but is just nosed out on the line. It’s times like these that I’m glad I’m a place punter! Thank goodness. Back to square one.
One more roll of the dice in the last. Das Machen and Delyara both look good, and I settle on Das Machen. She leads from pillar to post with Delyara running a very good third at $5.90. But I happy with my $2.80 and two out of three for the day. My long term average.
And I’m still feeling quite average. Home to bed to nurse my poor sore head.