Each-Way Pick of the Day: Think It Over in the Winx Stakes at Randwick – 6th

Well, I think this was doomed from the outset, as Brenton Avdulla had an awful fall off Xtremetime just before the finish of Race 6 that left him in hospital with concussion, a small brain bleed + a fractured vertebrae, and the other sad facet was Xtremetime had to be euthanised due to a broken leg.

So with his Spring probably done, Avdulla had to forego the ride on Private Eye in the Group 3 Show County, and as if life imitates art, Jay Ford took the ride and won the race in a photo, while it was left to James Innes Jnr to uphold Crazy Craig’s imaginary honour aboard Think It Over in the Winx Stakes, having never ridden the horse before, which filled me with a complete lack of confidence.

Completing this vintage Crazy Craig pick, JIJ, who actually got Think It Over out of the gates pretty well, wound up stuck behind a wall on the corner and had to resort to belting horses to get clear running (Which he was suspended for), before Think It Over picked pretty well in clean air and ran on to 6th, a mere 3/4 of a length off the winner Mo’unga, who managed to knock off Verry Elleegant in a driving finish.

Fancy that – The All-Blacks didn’t want to go to Australia, but the horse named after Richie Mo’unga still wound up as a winner.

Continuing a pretty dreadful day at Randwick, Brandenburg went amiss at the 150m mark while coming through the middle, resulting in Rachel King having to jump for her life at the 100m as Brandenburg crashed to the earth with a catastrophic leg injury, and while King thankfully escaped serious injury (If you don’t count concussion), Brandenburg had to be humanely euthanised, which is the reason why you’ll be hard pressed to see a replay of the finish again.

Keeping the hard luck theme for jockeys going, King was going to ride Fituese in the Toy Show Quality, but after being stood down, Jean Van Overmire picked up the ride, and whaddaya know, Fituese won the race.

Pick of the Day: Degraves in Race 9 at Moonee Valley – 6th

I think a grave is where Degraves bloody well belongs after that pea-hearted performance.

Seriously, at least Clan O’Sullivan ran a place in that 1992 Golden Slipper – Degraves had every possible hope and couldn’t even run 5th.

Jamie Kah had it in a perfect position to strike off the hot speed set by Sovereign Award, who predictably died in the arse, and after grabbing the lead on the corner, Degraves just couldn’t go on and was clean passed by both Viral and Skyman, then to cap it off, after sitting 3rd at the 100m, he was totally run out of the placings and ran 6th, even if he was only 1.65L off the winner in Viral, who got the nod in a very close finish, while Shot of Irish somehow picked up again and ran 3rd.

It’s not often that you’ll see Jamie Kah go an entire metro meeting without riding a winner, but it happened.