Ladies and gentleman, I can report that for the first time in about 2 months…

CRAZY CRAIG HAS PICKED A WINNER!

The Pick of the Day Brave Dream absolutely bolted home from the rear to win the last at Belmont, which means for the first time since what must be June, we can sound the LUCKY LIPS of victory!

And the great irony was Brave Dream wasn’t even the favourite for the race… it was Aberdeen Queen mainly due to William Pike being aboard, but that was offset by the fact that Clint Johnston-Porter had previously ridden Brave Dream to a win, and the end result was a very healthy $4.40 result, which I naturally didn’t have any part of.

So moving on from the rarest of wins for the Boy From Bairnsdale, it was a hot and wild old day across the country, I suppose starting off from when the Kembla Grange 1200m record was broken in the morning by Big Parade in Race 2 (1.08.44), which had stood since Cradle Mountain got it with a 1.08.600 in January of 2018.

Big Parade’s record stood for all of 1 hour and 10 minutes as King of Sparta came along in Race 4 and fired in a 1.08.18 in a superb performance, then in Race 7, Electric Girl’s 1400m track record of 1.21.890 from March 2020 went by the wayside when Frosty Rocks won with a 1.21.85.

It was a Good 3 out at The Grange, and it was a mighty quick one at that.

Then there was the Spring Stakes at Morphetville, which was already memorable for the fact that Dalasan got loose in the stables after arriving on the course and had to be scratched after slipping over:

That left it down to Beau Rossa and Behemoth, and while Beau Rossa won a very tense race, he shifted out massively on Behemoth and definitely cut off his line, Kayla Crowther went straight to the Stewards’ office to fire in the protest, and it took all of 2 minutes to be Upheld, meaning Behemoth has officially won back-to-back editions of the Spring Stakes:

Next up, Sierra Sue backed up the Mildura Cup win by stomping on the field in the PB Lawrence Stakes, a fair effort considering she was the only mare in the field, and she’s definitely earned a shot at the Group 1 Memsie Stakes in a fortnight as a result of that performance:

And as for what happened to Crazy Craig’s other pick in the Up And Coming…. well, the less said the better:

Each-Way Pick of the Day: Brigantine in the Up And Coming Stakes at Kembla – 7th

The moment I saw the horses jump, and Brigantine was at the back and 4 wide before he had to burn the petrol tickets to get up to the lead, I turned to Mr Alfonse sitting to my right and I said:

“He’s got a heart as big as a pea.”

And it turned out to be a spot on observation on my part, as the jump from a Maiden to a Group 3 proved to be the most ambitious catastrophe since Joh Bjelke-Petersen ran for Prime Minister, and Brigantine ran second-last despite being backed into $5.50, while the favourite Tiger of Malay carried the grandstand and won by a nose.

Brave Dream in Race 9 at Belmont – WINNER ($4.40/$1.75)

A direct quote from Crazy Craig on Friday:

“I am going to back a winner in Perth one day, DON’T YOU WORRY ABOUT THAT, and hopefully it’s Brave Dream, because she’s my PICK OF THE DAY.”

Well, he didn’t even need to be hopeful, because Brave Dream was that horse to break CC’s drought here in the Wild Wild West, and it was a fantastic performance from both horse and jockey, because Mr Delegator gave everyone a huge challenge out in front, and if you look at the replay in the link, Brave Dream was back fourth last most of the way, and had a huge task on the turn:

But obviously Clint Johnston-Porter was high on victory after he booted home Samizdat in the Belmont Newmarket, because he knew exactly what he had underneath him, and with absolutely zero issues with traffic this time around, the mare absolutely rocketed home, took the lead at the 50m and ended up winning by a good length in the colours of Bob Peters.

So the Pick of the Day saluted, and that was Crazy Craig, and that was why he calls himself CRAAAZY CRAIG!