Turns out nobody got Sky Racing a decent producer for Christmas:

Par for the course on Sky 2.

Well, I’m not going to remember too much from today or tomorrow, and all told I’ll probably be having one of those big ‘Scene Missing’ gags from The Simpsons to describe my activity since Thursday, but I have to say that to the naked eye, today was a rare Saturday where most short-priced favourites actually performed like short-priced favourites and got up.

That thought on favourites winning seemed to reflect itself in today’s Chalk Eaters results, as I somehow wound up with 2 winners, although I can’t help but wonder what could’ve been if i’d had the presence of mind to take The Harrovian or The Elanora at Eagle Farm instead of Tavidance, which meant I could very well have had 4 or 5 winners after you include Crazy Craig getting his thoughts on Ayrton spot on.

Actually, if you ask me, that was just a classic case of Crazy Craig getting some good Christmas karma for offering his brand new $800 watch to the Mormons, because he thought he had too many.

It’s a sound tipping strategy – Just say you’ll do something good and good things will happen.

Pandemic in The Christmas Stakes at Caulfield – WINNER

Matthew Hill summed up my thoughts perfectly.

OMEN BET OF THE YEAR.

Really good steer by the old bugger Ollie – Pandemic looked to be under hard riding the whole way, but when the money was there to be won in the straight, he was was able to respond to the whip really nicely, and ultimately win running away from the rest of that ordinary bunch.

If only life was that easy.

Amish Boy in Race 7 at Randwick – 8th

The only thing that shows up in the stewards report regarding Amish Boy is “A post-race veterinary examination revealed the colt to have a speedy cut to the off-side pastern,” which probably doesn’t excuse him not running out the race as well as he could have.

But, if there is a lesson to be learned from this race…

It appears that drunk trainers celebrating Christmas aren’t exactly reliable form references.

Tavidance in the Lord Stakes at Caulfield – 4th

Suffice to say, I was not doing the Tavidance.

Way too far back, never in it, there wasn’t enough give in the track, and at the end of the day, I was ****ING 4TH AGAIN!

Son Of A God in Race 4 at Ascot – WINNER

It turned out the race transpired almost exactly as I’d hoped:

And if things work out at the jump, Chris ‘Parnz’ Parnham can use Barrier 1 and just trail the likely leader Ziebell, who is his most realistic threat, but is yet to win at the 1200m, and from there, I’ll completely write off every other horse in the race and watch it backfire on me.

Crazy Craig’s Christmas Cracker

Ayrton in Race 3 at Caulfield – WINNER

Craig actually got a tip right….

It’s a Festivus miracle!

A damn fine win from Ayrton, as he had to do a fair bit of work to find the front going up the hill, but still proved way too good, in the kind of performance that would leave the Micks of Price and Kent seriously optimistic for the future, and potentially having a horse good enough to run in Group company.

As a hypothetical, if we ever find ourselves in a situation where Ayrton drops out after a tough run and finishes in the lower half of the field, I wonder if Matty Hill can get away with a cheeky mention of “And Ayrton’s hit the wall…. again”