SELECTIONS - 4 January 2007

POOMA selections:

Canterbury 1-1 Saffir Simpson [18]
Colac 3-5 Irish Najaba [10]
Mackay 2-3 Heavenly Cruise [11]
Mackay 5-6 Craiglea Warrior [16]

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

Colac 5-5
Yarra Glen 2-13

Comments: A useful result yesterday with the win of Miss Aristocrat at $12 giving the 2007 POOMAs an early kick along. Hellbound Lujain then led, as expected, but got caught in the last hop. At Colac today, 3-5 Irish Najaba should get a good suck along behind mad leader, Bella's Bro, and Furious Dee and have her chance to run them down. She's pretty well placed. At Mackay, 2-3 Heavenly Cruise is in good recent form and is very well placed in this set weights event. 5-6 Craiglea Warrior's form looks a tad weak being X648190- but if you take out the runs its had down in SE Qld (metro, Gold Coast etc) and look at the form in FNQ then it reads 2311131, which is a tad more impressive. He does get back and steam home so he'll need the race to be run at better than a dawdle, which it should be with a few that go along a bit in front. Up in Sydney it would be a bit of a surprise if 1-1 Saffir Simpson got beaten but he'll probably be about $1.70, which is a tad short for me. In the last race there, if 7-11 Hardhearted Hanna can handle the slow track then she'll go close. She ran well last time when leading from a wide gate. Yarra Glen 2-13 Pinnacles drew 11 of 14 at his only start, worked to the lead and was beaten less than 3 lengths. The winner of that race then went to MV and ran 2nd, the runner up then ran 2nd in a Kilmore Maiden and the 3rd placegetter was well beaten in a 0-68 Restricted race before winning his Maiden last run so that's a reasonable form reference for this lesser quality race. He should improve from his better draw and go close depending on how good the first starters are. BTW - I never let the presence of a short price first starter put me off my bet, as all it does is increase the value I get.