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The Last Gasp For Wednesday At The Heath

The VATC can rightfully pat themselves on the back after finally finishing their part of the carnival on a great note. The truth is they fought the heavens and the vagaries of a biased track on the first two days and then were finally presented with weather on Cup Day that made it compulsory to get out, join in and have fun.

Let’s first go back to Caulfield Guineas day. Paternal 7/1 was at very backable odds in a wide betting race, he came from well back and wide, then came French Clock beating Rancho Spark, Rustic Miss and Bebetto all were on the pace. Well backed favorite Sorrento couldn’t run on. Race three saw Arrabeea lead with Queen and finish 1st and 2nd. Belle Ball was wide and well back, and again was a good, but unlucky runner finishing 3rd. Race 4 was put on for Falvelon who raced on the pace and beat Mannington who settled third. The pattern was definitely advantageous to on-pacers. Majestic Avenue has never raced so close in his life settling 4th and was a nice win, but the good runs were Bohemieth and old Yippyio who weren’t suited by the now dead track and  racing well back.

Punters were becoming apprehensive. After loading up on Falvelon, they hit a brick wall with Majestic Avenue. After all of the rubbish written about Oxford Dollar during the week, his price was ridiculous, much shorter than it should have been!

Then in the Guineas, Show of Heart was sensationally backed. He was the obvious chance that was going to race on the pace, he settled beautifully in 4th position but couldn't match it with the 'New kid on the block' Skalato, very impressive. Also impressive was Sale of Century who looks a stayer.

Plenty of business in the Yalumba. Money for Tie The Knot was unlimited, but he was always going to race near the rear and that was what told on him. Sky Heights was also well backed and had conditions to suit, soft track, races on the pace and G Boss rating him well. Alternatively I have never seen a horse take a bigger drift in the market than Shogun Lodge who was not suited by the wet or racing back in the field. Also you can forget Testa Rossa ever ran, he snagged straight to the rear because of his outside barrier and ran home nicely, I am sure he is only thinking Cox Plate. Skoozi Please had every possible chance, so I can't see him winning at the Valley.

The Toorak was pretty obvious, two strong on-pacers Umrum, who is flying and Go Flash Go, settling first and second and duly finishing the same. The last was even more obvious, Crixia, loves the wet , leads and had D Oliver aboard, what more do you want? Punters kept coming like the Zulus came at Michael Caine in the movie! Thank God for Parreto. How do you work it out? Well thankfully my bag had something in it for Wednesday's battle.

The weather on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday was beautiful, then on cue it poured rain on Wednesday, and apart for the Thousand Guineas it was equivalent to a bush meeting that was simply cruelling the track. Leaders again were suited, until they went mad in the feature event, so fast that even So Gorgeous had trouble getting near the lead. What evolved was finally a race where All Time High was given the chance to show how good she is! And she is good! Now favorite for the Oaks, but the question must be asked, a Flying Spur filly in a 2400m race?? If she wins at this distance won't it look good on his resume. Flying Spur by Danehill with classic winners from 1000m to 2400m! As for the Wednesday meeting, Shane Templeton made sense when he wrote about moving the Thousand Guineas to Saturday and moving the Wednesday meeting to Sandown in an effort to save the track. The only point that Shane didn't mention was that there was no-one there anyway!

The preliminaries were now over and along came the main event, Caulfield Cup Day. Melbourne provided a beautiful Spring day, but just two questions must be asked. The rail out 6 metres? On Cup Day? Yes it was a good move the way the track had been rained on and galloped on by 200 horses within the week leading up. Yes good move, but should it have been allowed to get to this stage? No, Wednesday must go!

The second question is Can we afford to charge a $30 entrance fee? Well there were plenty of people there so the jury’s out on that one, but it’s a question that deserves discussion, and some input from the loyal punters who are there throughout the year, not just at Carnival time.

The track raced very fair and the first two races won by 4/1 chances - an even start for both bookie and punter. Bookies went to the lead with Lolita Star and then two up when Royal Exit won. Crystal Finale won in a wide betting race and maybe just put the bookies three in front. Race 6 saw Hire again under the odds and Cellar put bookies four in front. Oh-No! the tote came up 9/2 Diatribe and plenty of punters followed and with Fairway running the place at 4/1 the cup was no good. Bookies now only three up, Typhoon was a disaster - now two up, then Camena who ended up favorite in a race ruined by the original Miss Pennymoney’s late scratching. The punters had fought back to be one down and then we hit them with the KO in the form of Lady Marion, who made massive improvement in 7 days. There again how do you work it out?

Great to see Old George Hanlon win the elusive Caulfield Cup after three narrow defeats in a long training career.

It was also great to have the chance to farewell the champ Might and Power. I often wonder about some of those noble champions, where are they now? Where do they end up? For that matter where are some of the great bookies now? There are only 200 of us left! We might discuss that next week. For now happy punting and don’t forget to check out the AD & JD Prices and Selections at the link below next Saturday morning!

Keep on punting - AD & JD


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