SELECTIONS - 28 September 2006

POOMA selections:

Bendigo 5-3 Stavka
Bendigo 6-3 Suspects
Bendigo 7-2 Lottery King
Bendigo 8-2 Bon Hoffa

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

Lismore 4-2, 6-5
Narrogin 1-2, 3-4

Today: Well, I'm trying to pick the Bendigo quaddie blanc today with a selection in each leg. There is a terrific clash today in race 5; 2-Samadji thrashed them first up at Ararat 12 days ago and only missed the track record by 0.1s. At his previous run before a spell he ran 2nd to Jayemzed (the heavily backed POOMA that was beaten at MV yesterday), which followed a win at Swan Hill in slick time. 3-Stavka is a really terrific horse who has had bad legs, which is why he went from the Freedman stable to the Morgan stable, as Peter Morgan is known for doing well with bad-legged horses. He is by average sire Xaar out of super mare, Special (who still holds the Flemington 1000m track record at 55.5) and was electrifying when thumping a Class 1 field last time. 11-Helmut Varshing flogged them first up at Swan Hill before stepping into Class 3 company as a short priced favourite and running 6th. I think that Stavka is the go. I'm following 6-3 Suspects for a few runs, as he is a really sharp performer also and I don't need to expand too much on the reasons given how highly I rate the form around this horse. 7-2 Lottery King really has everything made to order today. He's been running on strongly over shorter trips than today's mile and a half assignment and will have every chance to win. 8-2 Bon Hoffa knocked over Yappa first up last time in a powerful performance coming from the back of the field after drawing wide in a very strong field. 4-O'Reilly's Clock ran a good race behind Bon Hoffa last time after drawing one wider than that horse in gate 15 of 16 that day yet he was beaten on 2.7L. He can run the quinella spot. Looks like a good day to have a go. I won't even be looking at the other meetings around the country.

Yesterday: I have mentioned how strong the form around Suspects/Stavka/Yappa is and that was once again shown when Morning Colours who ran 4th to Yappa in a Ballarat Maiden last time beaten nearly 11 lengths came out and donkey licked them as a $1.40 favourite. At Canterbury, Johanrutz managed to get beaten but I didn't get hurt too badly, as I couldn't get a reasonable price so reduced my bet accordingly. The stable was particularly confident but the horse really was a bit weak in finishing 2nd. Wasn't much of a day at Moonee Valley with the winners getting a run up the inside on the corner for the most part so I'm not too sure the form will hold up apart from Jeune's Edge who did a fair job as topweight.

POOMAs: Two selections yesterday with the result being that for each $1 you sent for a ride you got $1 back. MV 5-11 Jayemzed was very heavily backed into $2.80 favourite (which was way too short in my view), jumped with them from his wide gate, simply wouldn't settle, pulled himself into the ground and was gone on the corner. I'm going to go back and look at his replays again, as I think he might be a tad soft and can only win when he gets things made to order. Doomben 8-4 Junk Bond was around $3 until a few minutes before the race at which point he was also very heavily backed into $2. As I predicted, he went straight to the front, dictated the pace and was never in doubt. POOMAs are now 33/65 at 32% profit since the start of August when I changed to focusing mainly on Victorian racing (there have been 4 non-Victorian tips in that time with the only loss being the tragedy beaten that was Sea Zulu in Brisbane a few weeks ago).