14/2/2003 edition

Flemington Racetrack
Farcical Group 1 Race

You can do your form for Flemington. You can correctly assess the bias down the straight, taking into account past rail movements and penetrometer readings. But that doesn't guarantee any success down there.

Take the $400,000 Group 1 Weight for Age Lightning Stakes run over 1000 metres last Sunday as an example. The rail was out two metres compared to 10 metres eight days earlier. Allowing for the penetrometer readings, it was reasonable to assume that the inside section of the straight would also be good going.

There were only nine runners in the race. So if you did your form for the race and liked a horse like Rubitano, barrier two, or Spinning Hill, barrier eight, you would not expect them to cross to the outside and lose lengths while doing that.

Wrong. Only one horse, Choisir, which started from barrier one and was ridden by Glen Boss, stayed on the inside. The other eight jockeys all took their mounts to the outside.

Spinning Hill $5.00, comfortably won the race on the outside by over two lengths. But Choisir, who started at $7.00, and raced by himself on the inside, finished three quarters of a length in front of Spinning Hill. The race was an absolute farce. So much for working on the form and assessing the track bias.

Thankfully, we didn't waste our time rating the race, despite the heavy media promotion of the event.

This edition of Punt to Win:
Flemington racetrack - farcical Group 1 race
Murphy's Blu Boy blues - bet for value
Trifectas - structure bets right and make more money
Handicapping tips - weight and class
Money talks - Randwick, Caulfield betting tips from the track
Money talks - Morphettville, Eagle Farm betting tips from the track
Future winners - unlucky horses
Punt to Win 7/2/2003
Punt to Win index

Betting packages

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