SELECTIONS - 18 September 2006

POOMA selections:

There are no POOMA selections today

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

There are no non-POOMA selections either

Today: Leeton gets its once a year TAB meeting today. Most people don't know where it is, I'd imagine. It's a pretty town in the Riverina area of southern NSW and unlike most country towns that spring up around the local pub and post office and spread out in a random manner, Leeton is a planned town. Who planned it? You might, or might not, be surprised to find that it was one Walter Burley Griffin, who is also famous for planning the layout of Canberra. As you drive into Canberra from Sydney you'll drive past Lake Burley Griffin, a lake that was originally to be named in honour of Robert Menzies however he declined and preferred that the honour go to Burley Griffin. Will all that help us pick a winner there? Probably not. Once the officials shoo the goats off the track and racing begins then you'll discover that it's actually not a bad course and that horses get their chance to win regardless of draw or racing style. For interest I'll go: 1-5, 2-9, 3-3, 4-3, 5-3, 6-5, 7-2. The first at Kyneton sees a couple that have raced take on 9 first starters. I see that the tipster hasn't included either of the raced runners in his tips. I can understand that with Tatooine, as that one was outpaced in small fields, but leaving out Miss Fiality beggars belief. Maybe he knows something that I don't. At her first start, Miss Fiality, raced outside of the leader and weakened late to finish 4th of 6 in a very strong Maiden behind Fighting Fragrance (Moody), Manna Miss (Hayes) and Flashdanza (Vasil). At her next run she ran 3rd to Escadaire (O'Brien) and Red Sky Night (Freedman) in an Open 2YO race and that winner came out and won at Moonee Valley last Saturday. From the first race, Manna Miss won her Maiden at Geelong a few weeks ago so there's good form around her. Apart from that I'd say that Kyneton looks like a meeting where the winners will probably come from the less than $10 brigade.

Yesterday: As predicted, the form held up pretty well around the place yesterday and there were some good performances that are worth following from Ballarat. In race 3, Glenmorangie was a well supported favourite and really caned them in winning easily. Our POOMA there, Suspects, finally put it all together and he can go on with it as he goes through the grades. Dusit Thani won a strong Class 1 and he can win in town over a mile. Similarly, Bon Hoffa beat a very smart Class 2 field in race 7 and won in the style of a horse that is up to better. That will clearly turn out to be a very strong form race and I'd watch out for the first three or four over the line when they next race. In the last, the enigmatic Drac's Back managed to lob late. Dunno what to make of him. After that win at Ararat where he broke the Australasian mile record he's been somewhat in and out. Maybe he's got some problems though I'm not aware of them. I commented that I liked the two non-POOMA selections at Dubbo. They came out of well-performing systems but I only use selections from the exceptional systems for non-Victorian POOMAs. Both won comfortably with King Rex paying $3.80 and Virtue And Vice $1.70.

POOMAs: 2 from 3 for the POOMAs yesterday returning a profit of 20% with NSW TAB divvies (that's what all of our records are based on) and keeping our strike rate above 50% since focusing on Victorian only racing at the start of August. One of the few non-Victorian POOMA selections in that time, Brisk Crown, was at Queanbeyan and was never in doubt at $1.80. At Ballarat, Suspects also didn't give any cause for concern when flogging them in race 4 at $1.80. Both of those horses were well backed late in betting. Special Number couldn't quite bring up the hat trick for our selections when 3rd at Wangaratta.