SELECTIONS - 24 August 2006

POOMA selections:

There are no POOMA selections today

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

Lismore 6-2
Sandown 2-5, 3-2
Wyong 1-9

Lay of the Day: Ipswich 3-2 Time Lion $2.10; steps into a Class 1 from a Maiden win in slow time over this course last run - [LOTD 16 from 19]

Today: In stark contrast to yesterday, today is a shocking day for a punt. When Sandown is wet it tends to be a lottery. The two non-POOMA selections would have to be chances though $2.10 Arctic Silver seems way too short. The Wyong meeting is an embarrassment. On an eight race card there are 4 Maiden races, 3 Class 1s and a Class 2. There's nothing that stands out at Lismore, though maybe 5-12 Pathetic is an omen tip and Ipswich is in a similar situation to Wyong with two Class 3 races being the highlight of the day. Even Northam in Western Australia has got into the Maiden-fest programming five of them on an eight race card.

Yesterday: Well, if you couldn't win yesterday then it wasn't my fault! My analysis started with "A good day for a punt, I reckon" and so it turned out with all three POOMAs winning, three of the four legs of the Doomben quaddie with four picks including Momentously at $10 and Pentup winning race 7 nicely at $2.90, which was longer odds than I thought he'd be. That horse can win again, as long as they don't step him up in class too quickly, which I'm sure that his astute trainer, Alan Bailey, will assess correctly. The only thing I really got wrong was at Warwick Farm where Beadman failed to ride a winner (for the first time in ages) and The Duckster missed the start slightly and was always pushed along in the lead but faded to finish 4th. Can't win 'em all, though. From a future viewpoint, I think that most of the winners at the Warwick Farm meeting are worth following, especially the lightly raced ones. That form will hold up. Winning POOMA at Werribee, Valiya, can win again in Class 1 company and can handle a step up to a mile. At Doomben, I was impressed with the performance of Erinaceus in the first race. The Hawkes' galloper stepped up from 1400m to 2020m at only his 2nd run from a spell and came with a strong burst to win. As a racehorse owner I'm always upset when horses fall and am happy to see them get up again unharmed. Such was the case today when Shawcan fell after the post in race 1 at Werribee after clipping the heels of the winner. Nikita Beriman proved what a tough thing she is by (eventually) getting to her feet and giving the crowd a thumbs up. Not so fortunate was Langarza in race 6 which suffered a heart attack and dropped dead with Damien Oliver on board. He was extremely lucky to get off so lightly. Given he lost his father and brother to race falls and he's just returned from a really bad one himself, you'd have to think he's considering his riding future right about now.

POOMAs: Spectacular day for the POOMAs with all three winning. Not A Copy ran up to his first run and got home narrowly at $6. Danequest still has a lot to learn but did enough to win as a $1.80 favourite. I had a whack at Valiya and she had the expected nice run, got to the outside and arrived in time at a very nice $4.80. Since concentrating on Victorian races only on August 1st the POOMAs are 12/26 (46.2% strike rate) at 53.5% profit.

LOTD: Drizzle started $5.10, got an easy lead and gave me heart trouble until about the 50m mark at which point it suffered the same affliction, weakening to finishing 3rd.