LOOK OUT MELBOURNE, BOSSY IS ON THE PROWL

It does seem ironic that Glen Boss would become a 4-time Cox Plate winner by replacing another 4-time winner in Hugh Bowman, who was suspended at Caulfield on Guineas day and had to give up the ride on Sir gragonet.

On another note, it wasn’t unsurprising, but compared to recent years, today just felt flat.

Crap weather in Melbourne, Daryl putting in another lame performance, no Valley crowd, and the leader bias really playing up for most of the card.

Crap weather in Sydney.

And weather so crap in South East Queensland that Doomben and the Gold Coast got abandoned, and the Grand Final looked like it was going to be better contested between Ian Thorpe, Kieren Perkins and Grant Hackett.

In fact, I reckon they were playing for Richmond against Geelong in that 1st Half, because the regular Tigers sure as hell weren’t there.

Young Werther in the Moonee Valley Vase – SCRATCHED (Due to Track downgrade)

Well, if the sub rule exists for the Chalk Eaters, then we can claim Cherry Tortoni, who became the new favourite for the race after Young Werther was scratched at lunchtime, he got my financial support, and what would you know, he completely upended the early pattern of the day and put in a huge run to beat off Khoekhoe after sitting near enough to last.

Oddly enough, the only hope he had of winning with the way the track was playing was to take off before the corner, and thankfully Billy Egan was able to catch the leaders napping after they got away with murder up front.

Probabeel in the Cox Plate – 7th

Myself and Mr Alfonse went the roving b(w)anker on Probabeel down at the Waterford TAB, just for a laugh.

Turned out we took the wrong 9-1 shot on two fronts.

Could’ve had the winner, but we put the ticket on before he got absolutely hammered in from $14 to $9s and didn’t seriously consider him until it was too late.

Could’ve had Armory, considering he had form around Arc winner Sottsass back in Europe, but the Soft 7 track was right on his known limit for a decent performance.

Look at them – Dragonet has cleared them all out and won with a bang, and Armory dealt with Russian Camelot.

I regret nothing.

Hilo in Race 8 at Randwick – WINNER

There’s still a debate as to how you pronounce Hilo.

He-lo, Hi-lo…

How about we just call him “****in’ winner”

I noticed that James Cummings said that the Godolphin horses entered at Randwick had barely seen the rail all day, although in the case of Namazu in Race 6, he saw the bloody grandstand, in a familiar Royal Blue move at Randwick that just didn’t work with the state of the track.

Then when Hilo draws the rail, Cummings suggests to Rachel King to use it, and really all he had to do was handle the heavy going and he’d go mighty close to a win.

Shock horror, he won.

Celebrity Miss in Race 8 at Ascot – 2nd

Goddangit.

Crazy Craig’s Tip Of The Day

Criaderas in the Filante Handicap at Randwick – 2nd

The runs told the story.

Cuba got out in the lead when the rail was red hot, and Nash Rawiller did the rest and won fairly comfortably, while Criaderas, having been backed into $1.75, jumped out of the barrier like a hungover groom, dawdled back to last (Which seems to be his usual pattern), and just couldn’t make up the some 9 length gap to the leader.

Craig, you’ll have to do better than that, because you clearly didn’t have access to any form guides in the Crazy Cave.