SELECTIONS - 27 October 2006

POOMA selections:

There are no POOMA selections today

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

Ballarat 1-7

Today: Have you looked at today's fields? No? Good, then don't bother because I have and apart from being interested to see how Trick Of Light goes in the last race at Ballarat it's a pretty awful day.

Yesterday: One that raced yesterday that should have been a POOMA is French King at Cranbourne. He's not big but he has a fair amount of talent and sprinted sharply to win his Maiden at his 2nd start. He really looks as though 2000m will suit and I'll follow him at his next start in Class 1/2 company. In NSW it's always worth looking at what Rick Worthington has in, which was the case again at Hawkesbury yesterday when his two runners, Commander Bilton and Gold Room, won the first two races. The former looked in trouble and arrived in the last hop; he was off the bit a long way out and it was clear that he'll be suited by a step up in journey. Gold Room is a really, really good horse that's easily up to city midweek class. In fact, he will be competitive in a Saturday race if they pick the right one at this stage of his development. He's by dud sire, End Sweep, and must have inherited his talent from his dam, Danzella.

Wednesday: Gee, Bon Hoffa is a good horse. Stepping up to 1700m for the first time and coming off a 1400m run he settled well behind the speed, got out at the right time and sprinted hard to win by 3L in a time only a half second outside of the track record. Wendy Kelly has taken him steadily through the grades and has avoided the temptation to go into town too early. He is easily up to Saturday city company. I don't expect the Derby winner to come from the Geelong Classic field. At the 200m mark they were all going pretty slowly and it was left to Gorky Park to slog along on the fence to win narrowly. I also can't see the Geelong Cup form stacking up in the Melbourne Cup. The winner was OK and Kerry O'Reilly finished a closing 4th under his big weight, which was a fair effort, but the time was quite slow and I think they'd be rough e/w chances at best. I was very happy (not) with the win of Mandela, as it cost me the $46K quaddie. I managed to find $38 winner Picquart in the 3rd leg with just four selections, which was clever, but missed the trifecta in that race when All Charisma held 3rd from Purple Chocolate so it was bad news all round.

POOMAs: There were no POOMA selections yesterday.