SELECTIONS - 24 September 2006

POOMA selections:

Sandown 2-6 Sunburnt Land
Sandown 5-13 Stavka

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

Colac 2-8, 4-2, 4-10
Echuca 1-1, 5-4, 6-4, 8-10
Murray Bridge 6-5
Northam 6-1, 8-2

Today: Two POOMA selections today, both at Caulfield. 2-6 Sunburnt Land won his debut at Wangaratta in the style that says 'follow me'. He then settled near the rear and finished midfield behind Danever in a much stronger race on a day where backmarkers were not winning. His finishing sectionals were very good and I'm sure that he won't be anywhere near the $8 posted on the morning line. Furio comes out of the same race and finished one place ahead of Sunburnt Land but he positioned much closer to the speed, which helped a lot. 5-13 Stavka comes to town after two good wins at Echuca and Bendigo. In his Maiden win at Echuca he ran less than 0.4s outside of the course record when leading all of the way to narrowly beat home Suspects who then ran 2nd to Yappa before killing them in his Maiden win. The Stavka/Suspects/Yappa form is holding up very well. At his second start at Bendigo he settled midfield and came with a terrific sprint when Blake Shinn got him into the clear to win comprehensively in good time. This looks a really suitable race for him and he'll be each way odds. The non-POOMA selections at Echuca look OK on paper, as well, and I expect that one in the last, Zygote, to run an improved race. Murray Bridge 6-5 Terravue comes out of two Listed races in which he finished close enough and has everything made to order in this and I'll be backing both of the selections at Northam. All in all, it looks like another good day to have a go.

Yesterday: A pretty good day of racing at Caulfield yesterday. Tesbury Jack was much shorter than I expected and got the prize in a nice performance. He's another one that's a rung below the good ones so his trainer will need to be careful to place him to advantage. Everyong let Wonderful World get under their guard in the Guineas Prelude but made them look second rate. He obviously can't run right-handed, which is shown by his form in Melbourne being 1123 and in Sydney 000. Sharkbite was a bit one paced again and it's a bit hard to see anything that finished behind the winner beating him home in the Guineas. Miss Finland's performance was pretty tough in what was a tricky race to win. She just got home from stablemate, Anamato, and both horses are by super sire Redoute's Choice. Miss Finland is one of the very few top 2YOs from last season to go on with it as an early season 3YO. I went against El Segundo due to the setback he had and the horse made me look like a mug with an outstanding performance in the win of the day. I had commented before the race that I couldn't understand how Eremein could be the Cox Plate favourite ahead of El Segundo (or others). That will obviously change after El Segundo's win and Eremein's defeat. Another to make me look like a mug was Rewaaya who made it two in a row with a solid win in a good field, though the runner up, Miss Andretti, should have won. Now that she's worked out how to avoid trouble it might be that she goes on with it. Queen Of The Hill showed that she's probably a spring mare only with a dominant win over race favourite, Megadeal. She could sneak into some good races with a low weight and be a fair chance. Zipping did the job in the last race with his 58kg by overcoming a bit of difficulty to win in the last few hops. I've still got him at the top of my Caulfield Cup selections. The runner up, Show Barry, showed he was back on track with a nice run and Growl took another step in grade and acquited himself well. Up in Sydney, Fast 'n' Famous realy whupped them in the Starlight Stakes. My old horse, Into The Night, won a Starlight and I have a nice trophy sitting at home from it. Yesterday's winner looks really good and is an up and comer to the top sprinting ranks. The Gloaming Stakes demonstrated how bad Sydney racing is at the moment with a shocking field lining up and the winner coming off a Class 3 win. Following on from the seven horse Cameron Handicap at Newcastle and poor quality Newcastle Cup during the week I think that Sydney racing is in some trouble. That's what you get when you frig around with the race classes a few years back.

POOMAs: Kaphero let the side down yesterday with the three other POOMA selections, Tesbury Jack, Miss Finland and Zipping, all winning returning $6.30 on NSW TAB, which takes the POOMAs to a useful 32/61 (52.5%) at 37% profit since the start of August.