This just in… Wilchino has finally crossed the line in the Winterbottom

Fancy that… Backed into $2.75 against Elite Street at $2.65, and the horse once called Winxchino could only jump fairly, and after that it was pretty much all over, because she had to use a few petrol tickets to get the lead, being a Group 1 the pressure was more relentless than usual, and it all resulted in the mare hitting the wall in the straight to run stone motherless last.

Meantime, just when I thought for a fleeting moment that Elite Street might be getting the chocolates despite running 4 wide with cover, along came Graceful Girl from the rear with an almighty turn of foot, ensuring that the Fab Four of Peters/Pike/Williams/Williams had crapped on everyone in a Group 1 for the second time in 7 days, and just to rub it in, Uncle Bob Peters owned the quinella with Stageman getting over the top of Elite Street to take 2nd.

So while the biggest owner in the West got his latest fairytale, there was no fairytale for one Glen Boss, as Spanish Mission, despite starting $1.40 in the Zipping Classic, just didn’t have the required turn of foot dropping back from 3200m to 2400m, and ultimately fought on to run 4th as Sound made it back to back wins in the race, on two different tracks:

Despite finishing 4th, the rarely dull Bossy clearly didn’t have any more shits to give as he came back into the mounting enclosure, because he just about tossed everything that was on his body, bar his riding breaches, into the crowd:

I was also tossing my clothes at random strangers on Saturday, but only after I got on Triple Missile at Ascot (Not even 5 minutes after Spanish Mission raced) and watched him fly home down the outside to win.

I’ll be honest, I thought that bloke in the suit was Glen’s brother…. It’s his son Tayte.

Still, I can’t bag anyone for celebrating a 4th place, because the Crazy Picks didn’t fare any better!

The Topical Weather Pick: Decent Raine in Race 3 at Caulfield = 2nd

Landing three wide with cover out the back was never going to be an ideal spot for Decent Raine, and with Lady of Honour having a gay old time out in front, the Maher/Eustace-trained favourite would ultimately pay full price, going down by 3/4 of a length to the Hayes filly after charging home in the straight, not before copping a bump.

In hindsight, after the success of the Random Musical Picks in recent weeks, I probably should’ve done a bit more digging into the form guide, because I could’ve made a Random Enya Pick, or a Random Bob Geldof for Irish Angel, who won Race 5 at Rosehill, or I could’ve made a Random Dido Pick, because Nowhiteflag won Race 4 at Ascot.

Ah, Dido, or as I accidently once wrote, Dildo.

It was also noted by Bruce McAvaney that the colours of Lady Of Honour and Decent Raine are a callback to the international breeding scene of yesteryear, because Lady of Honour is owned by Coolmore/The Magnier family, and Decent Raine has the fabled Swettenham Stud silks of the late Robert Sangster and the Sangster family.

Magnier and Sangster… Alongside the Maktoum Royal Family of Dubai, there’s three of the biggest names in the modern history of international thoroughbred breeding & ownership.

Value Pick: Kobe Rocks in Race 9 at Rosehill = 4th

Effin’ Fourth Again!

Pick Of The Day: Elite Street in the Winterbottom Stakes at Ascot = 3rd

So ultimately Elite Street was ridden more or less to script by Brad Rawiller, even if being 4 wide with cover was a bit extreme, but he just found two Peters-owned horses better in the run, as his attempt to become the first horse in a generation to win consecutive Winterbottom Stakes came up short, and he’ll have to go for an enforced holiday that he would’ve had regardless of the result:

Ironically, two things I mentioned in the Crazy Picks on Friday proved to be correct.

The first thing, which was my attempt at serious commentary, was that in the last decade of the Winterbottom Stakes, only one horse has won the race from Barrier 8 or better, and that was Viddora from Barrier 7 in 2017, as recent editions of the race have tended to favour the swoopers, with the exception of Hey Doc leading all the way in 2019.

Today, the First 4 ALL jumped from Barrier 8 or worse; Graceful Girl drew the extreme outside in Barrier 18, aka the Swan River itself, 2nd placed Stageman drew Barrier 15, Elite Street drew Barrier 10, and Laverrod in 4th drew Barrier 8, although it should be noted that the emergency All Day Session, who never got a run, drew Barrier 2, so technically speaking Laverrod jumped from 7.

The other thing I mentioned that turned out to be correct was in the closing sentence for the Elite Street pick:

As Meatloaf once said, Two Outta Three Ain’t Bad.