SELECTIONS - 20 August 2006

POOMA selections:

Flemington 1-8 Anhinga
Flemington 4-4 Archie Senior
Flemington 7-11 Temporalay
St Arnaud 7-2 Test Fire

Non-POOMA selections (and ruffies in red below):

Flemington 2-2, 4-11, 5-1, 5-2, 5-7, 7-5, 7-10, 8-5
Launceston 4-6, 4-7, 4-8
Narromine 4-5
St Arnaud 8-6
Sunshine Coast 6-4

Lay of the Day: Flemington 3-2 Living Hell $2.30; talented mare from the Freedman stable that started 2/7 and 4/13 in her two wins. She's had it reasonably easy in front so far and there's much more pace in this race. The 58kg is also a fair whack though she's a big lump of a thing. - [LOTD 12 from 15]

Today: Not a bad day to have a go if you like something. Of the POOMAs, Archie Senior led throughout to win last time over 1500m here on Wednesday. Backs up quickly and steps up to 1740m but most of his serious competition is also up in trip. The danger looks to be Jeune's Edge who comes to hand quickly and Captain Zero. I expect Anhinga to go close in race 1. She romped in at her first start at Mornington and then ran a length behind Nediym's Glow (who should have won the Listed fillies' race yesterday) at Group 3 level in the Blue Diamond Prelude. Her run before a spell saw her lead the field up as a $1.65 favourite before running second to Corton Charlamagne. The number of winners that have come out of Corton Charlamagne's races is amazing and I think this will keep that record going. In race 7, Temporalay looks very well placed again by trainer Trudy Kelly. He's won his last 4 starts, is 5/6 at the trip (the miss being his first start in a race) and Jason Benbow has won 6/8 on him (all his winning races) so I can't see why he won't go close again. Danger might be Wishmaster who ran a narrow 2nd to Temporalay two starts back and Swish Trish who's first up from a spell for Lee Freedman. At St Arnaud, 7-2 Test Fire is first up in the easiest race he's been in for a few runs. This is not a strong race, he's drawn well and gets in with not much weight after the claim.

Yesterday: Overall, I was happy with my analysis of Caulfield where I had 5 winners in my 3 selections per race. I missed the quaddie there due to underestimating how good Pompeii Ruler is. Paid a handy $18K, too. The most amazing win I've seen in a long time was that of Haradasun. Back last well into the straight, he unleashed a paralyzing burst to catch the very talented Sharkbite eliciting positive comparisons with his half brother, Elvstroem. To understand what a truly amazing win it was you need to have a look at the sectional times from his race and compare to other races on the day. The following are his last 600/400/200 sections compared to the 2nd best from all races run on the card: 33.19/33.92; 22.03/22.41; 11.12/11.24. Ladies and Gentlemen, that is outstanding and heralds the arrival of a special horse. If he doesn't go on and win a bunch of Group races then I'll go whee. That 22.41/11.24 section belongs to a horse that might be a surprise to many people but it was 3rd placegetter in the CF Orr, Our Smoking Joe. He has obviously returned in excellent fettle to reel off those numbers. Other very notable performances on the day came from Truly Wicked in race 7 who clocked 34.33/22.78/11.63 and Sharkbite who ran 33.93/22.87/11.59. One that ran way above himself, I thought, was Zigotto who clocked 22.41 for his last 400. Not bad for a horse that started at 60/1. In the first race, Lion's Gate did pretty well to win after Delvecchio set a pretty strong pace. Shinko Blu, which I was really keen on, got shuffled back and was never a chance from there. La Vie Amour won but there's no doubt that Nediym's Glow should have given it was 3 deep the entire trip and went down a head. Truly Wicked ran a very nice race to win and good sections, too. She's probably not up to the really good sprint races but if she stays in this sort of class she can win again. Storm Alert was very strong in winning the last race. She's one of the very few Metal Storms never to have raced in Western Australia. At Rosehill our tips did well with Crosswire, who was really heavily backed late, winning in the last hop after having a scuffle to get a run and Private Dan ran 3rd in the last at double figure odds.

POOMAs: One winner from the 4 POOMA selections yesterday was Truly Wicked, which was heavily backed on the basis of her previous first up form in much stronger races, as I had spotted. She paid $5.40 giving us a profit for the day and taking the POOMAs to 9/18 since I started concentrating on Victorian races only.

LOTD: Craiglea Bob ended up starting at $5 and never looked like running a place.