SELECTIONS - 27 September 2006

POOMA selections:

Doomben 8-4 Junk Bond
Moonee Valley 5-11 Jayemzed

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

Belmont 3-1, 5-2 ,6-3
Canterbury 2-7, 3-6, 4-5, 6-5
Doomben 4-2
Moonee Valley 7-2

Today: Some OK meetings around the country today and we have a rare non-Victorian POOMA in the form of Doomben 8-4 Junk Bond. This horse will settle in the lead from his good gate, probably with Time Lion on his outside, at an average tempo and then kick away and win. Mandy Radecker is a good judge of a front runner and with only 50.5kg he looks the goods. The other general selection at Doomben, 4-2 Lion Kingdom, is having his first run for the Brian Guy stable after doing his racing in Far North Queensland. This is a very suitable assignment with the only query being the three weeks off and step back up in trip. Our other POOMA is at Moonee Valley (where the POOMAs have a good record of 29/80) with 5-11 Jayemzed coming from one of my all time favourite systems. This lightly raced Lion Cavern 4YO really won handsomely last time at Ballarat beating the enigmatic Drac's Back (who won his next start) by a lazy 4L. In the last at Moonee Valley, 8-2 Di's Angel looks in with a fair chance after her improved run last time in Group 2 company behind Astrodame. This former Taswegian mare ran well down there last campaign and might be striking some of that form. It's interesting to note that she ran 5th in the Tasmanian Oaks on 23Feb05 then returned from a spell on 30Oct05 and had a good campaign, which ended on 22Feb06 with a 4th in the Hobart Cup. This preparation she returned on 16Aug06 meaning she's had a much shorter break between campaigns (by more than two months) than last time and it might be that as we move towards October she gets better. Darren Beadman has the chance to win 3 or 4 races at Canterbury and, surprise, surprise, they'll all be short. Nick Olive should notch up a win with 6-5 Johanrutz who looks very well placed; I'll be trying to get an acceptable price in order to have a real crack at it. Over in the west, Belmont 3-1 Metro Miss comes from some well performing sytems. The trick I see is that she's won her two races there on dead ground and then hasn't backed up on a good track, which she sees again today. 6-3 Say Cherie also looks to have a good chance but I'd be watching 8-Metal Mayhem. Her first start in a race was terrific in finishing 4th after drawing off the track, being back all the way and then rocketing to the line.

Yesterday: I have a system that I use to determine the suitability of Darren Beadman mounts, which picked two from two yesterday. However, given he rode 5 winners on the 7 race card and should have had 6 but for some bad luck, any system you'd like to use would have picked a bunch of winners too. I had a whack at the race to race double on the Steeple into the Hurdle at Moe and was never really going to lose that bet in spite of Cyclonic Bay getting a bit wayward late at what was his first jumps start. I think that they could both be competitive in better class and it might be an idea to take them to Adelaide for some higher prizemoney.

POOMAs: Our selection at Moe, Classicarl, was nabbed in the last couple of bounds after what I though was an impatient ride by Matt Allen. He didn't have to respond in the way he did to being attacked by one of the outsiders but that sounds like sour grapes, doesn't it? Heh.