Well folks, it was another balls to the wall day in The Great Game, and it was a busy afternoon down at the Waterford TAB, which kicked off at lunchtime when I told The Gabster that Crazy Craig’s value pick of Impecunious in Race 6 at Rosehill was wearing his beloved No.8, but Damien Oliver (Dubbed as The Thief by Gabster) was riding her, so the old fella, calling a spade a spade, said piss off I’m not interested.

15 minutes later, Gab came back and told me to put 5×10 ($5 the win by $10 the place) on her, when she was $11/2.90, so I duly did, and by the time the race jumped 20 minutes later, Impecunious had drifted out to $17/$3.80.

However, the most important part of this story was that the filly defied the sharp drift and ran on well for 3rd from the rear, so we both got a collect.

Then, at the end of the afternoon, myself and Mr Alfonse were handed $6 from old Paddy, so we put it all on River Beau to place (At $2.10) in Race 5 at Ascot (That’s in Belmont for those of you who don’t know), given we thought the hot pot Clairvoyance would piss it in, and I placed the bet not realising there was only 7 horses in the field and 2 place dividends on fixed.

As it turned out, River Beau sat 3-wide no cover and beat the lot of them fair and square, and we got our money back.

Lastly, I should also mention that Gabby was very keen on No.10 Liwa in the Karrakatta Plate…. I didn’t bet in the race, but I can just picture Gabby firing a big spitball at the TV and telling everyone to get effed when Ex Sport Man grabbed her on the line.

Impecunious E/W in the G1 Vinery Stud Stakes at Rosehill – 3rd (PLACE BET SUCCESS)

CRAZY CRAIG GOT A PLACE BET UP – SOUND THE LUCKY LIPS!

$3.80 the place – That’s as good as a win in anyone’s language.

More to the point, it was a cracking finish to the Group 1 Vinery, with notorious money muncher Hungry Heart coming from last to run down the leader and favourite Harmony Rose, in what was one of the few races at Rosehill on Saturday where a horse was able to come from the rear and win, because the rail was hotter than the surface of Venus:

For the context in the Vinery Stud Stakes, Hungry Heart drew Barrier 5, and Impecunious drew 9, and they both charged home into the places, which goes to show that it was a damn fine effort from the pair of them, and to any of you who actually listened to Craaaaaaazy Craig and went the Each-Way play, I say well done.

Of course, the owners of Impecunious, led by Resimax chairman Ozzie Kheir and Brae Sokolski, had even more joy in Sydney when Sir Dragonet won the feature Tancred Stakes in the very next race, his first win since last year’s Cox Plate, and those silks are going to sit on the winning post at Rosehill for the next year.

I’m probably wrong when I say this, but the last time a horse won a Cox Plate and the Tancred Stakes in the same season was Octagonal in 1995/96, so that was a very good return to form from the knighted dragon.

Shandy in Race 9 at Caulfield – 6th

Oh dear, a fly has landed in my Shandy.

Well, things were tracking very nicely on the turn, even as Shandy just needed a bit of luck for a running lane to open, but when Damian Lane tried peeling out, Damien Thornton on Skyman shoved her in a coffin, swallowed the key, and capping off a nice piece of riding, Skyman went on to win the race in a Chris Waller quinella.

After copping that check, Shandy got held up again, and just couldn’t pick herself up off the floor and finished 6th, although there was nothing in the stewards’ report about any physical effects from the contact with Skyman, which suggests one thing and one thing only.

THE SHANDY WENT FLAT.