Crio’s Racing: first Saturday meetings of the year

It’s back on the metropolitan merry-go-round for me, this week to Caulfield, while the feature focus crosses the continent from Wednesday’s Perth Cup (a masterful ride by the under-maligned Olly) to the pretentious hype of the Gold Coast Sales and “Carnival” preceding next week’s rich Magic Millions Meeting.

Scrutineers will watch how the marketplace reacts to the recent adverse publicity generated by the farcical BC3/Vlahos/Jimmy fiasco. The MM Sales, so brilliantly spruiked by Singo and Gerry Harvey, was oft thought to pump up its own tyres – Gai bid enthusiastically for lots which Singo and co then repossessed and/or syndicated. The averages, then, were excellent but not necessarily reflective of reality – a nice little analogy for our “game” in general. With Gai and Singo at loggerheads, this may be a week for the “product” to regroup and let the storm settle.

Many Southerners make the trek up nowadays and it has forged a reputation as being a fantastic getaway – remember that for those involved, the Xmas/NewYear week is flat chat so this is a chance to get to the beach, schmooze a few clients and mix business and pleasure. The “Ladies Day” meeting this Saturday kicks off a series of events – dinners, auctions and races – all culminating in the glut of next week. To be honest, this Saturday’s races, highlighted by the (Listed) Goldmarket, are (very) modest but the glitz and glam cranks up from thereon.R7 No8.

It would be unfair to many of the future meetings to waste space and energy inflating the options for punters around Australia this week – not a bad thing with credit card bills from December due soon – but there are still plenty of great opportunities to go and enjoy a day or two at the country meetings – there are fantastic alternatives at Alexandra or Dederang (Saturday) and Woolamai (Sunday) for those near Melbourne. Check local guides, as they say.

To maintain the habit, here are some extremely speculative Quaddy suggestions for Caulfield:-

MR5- 2 (colt) v 3 (filly). Miles apart in the market.

MR6- Knackers note Finishing Card 2nd up, Olly on, summer best form, but big weight and may be past best. Big odds so chuck in the Quaddy. 13 and 10 go in too.

MR7- 2,6

MR8- result race. Maybe 13 E/W if they are running on. 10 has won on the course.

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Thanks again to everyone’s contributions throughout 2013. As I mentioned elsewhere, we haven’t yet discovered how to win on the punt, but we know how to have a good time trying. Thus, with others’ support, we’ll persist this week and beyond.

I’m especially keen for any mail on Sunday when we are hoping to combine the cricket and the punt (with a few beers to increase the “degree of difficulty”!). As if it is not hard enough.

Good luck!

Comments

  1. No tips this week boys. Its a good week for me to have a break and get back into bowls as we need to win a few to stop relegation
    Saving for Strath Sunday week where the locals will be well represented

  2. cowshedend says

    Crio, that quaddy looks awfully hard at the heath on Sat, two sprints in the first 2 legs a 7f 3rd leg with a lot of terribly out of form types, and a distance race to finish it off with a huge field.
    I’m with you on Floatmyboat, but if there was a blowout Final Jest has good claims.In the last the 4 Initiator has drawn the car park and needs to jump and run to win it, not a lot of speed so should get across, again one down in the weights 18 Grand Slam Eagle gets its chance at big odds to be the blowout.
    That Gold Coast meeting is a shocker as well,have done the magic millions thing a couple of times and pound for pound more flogs than the Lavazza tent at springtime.
    On Sunday at Kilmore in race 5 EZ has Canbrada who raced awfully wide at Caulfield last start finishing 2 horses off the outside fence
    In the 6th no 2 Foreign Embassy was anice run last start at sale where it tended to lay in down the straight,will enjoy the extra trip, interesting runner in the same race is Alt Control, a NZ horse having its first oz start for a trainer I’ve had a number of horses with,Kerry Edwards

  3. happy new year to all.

    Hoping to start on a good note but it looks pretty hard with average fields.
    I thought that Galileo Gold was a hope in the 3rd, even though its an absolute dog, it’s in a dogs race. I’m keen on Infinite Energy in the 7th as I think it’s just better than the rest, initially thought Tooleybuc Kid was a hope but then saw the hoop. Best roughie is Proper Madam in the last.
    Adelaide races are a bit of a shocker as well but I did back Distillation last start at very big odds and it was a great run, a lot shorter tomorrow but did win a few just before the Adelaide Cup last year and if it is back in that form it will win easily.
    Another interesting runner is Extraceed in the 7th. Good run last time has good Darwin form over the carnival there and the trainers horses are all going very well, so it could surprise at odds.

  4. Thanks mate. Happy New Year to you also.
    You’ll need to be even more bullish to get me on the punt tomorrow. Happy to par the first few weeks!
    Good luck

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