So that’s the peak of another Boxing Day come and gone, and I thought the day couldn’t get any weirder when I read in the morning that 12 jockeys had to isolate from today’s Caulfield meeting due to attending an exposure site with several positive jockeys on Thursday night, which led to one of the longest rider replacement lists in recent memory:

If that wasn’t enough, Tahlia Hope and Damien Oliver were both stood down during the day because of injuries, and I can only surmise that if any more jockeys got stood down, then a few trainers may have been so desperate they’d be calling up Darren Gauchi to see if he can still ride.

As it turned out, that was just the start of the day, because a world-first occurred when Race 5 at Caulfield took so long to load that Sky Racing did the unthinkable and sent The Heath meeting to Sky 2 (In favour of Newcastle running 2 minutes late), where it was then split-screened with the Korean races in Busan:

Yep, that’s right, the major Melbourne metro meeting was BLUE CHANNELED.

Bloody New South Wales bias.

And if that wasn’t enough, Sky 2 was also the sight of that streaker in the last at Awapuni in New Zealand, and it appears the bloke doing the full monty was trying to check if he was quite literally hung like a horse…. The answer was no.

Instead of fining him and banning him from racecourses, why don’t they just geld him?

Anyway, while you try and remove that confronting image that has now been seared into your brains, we’d better have a look at the day of racing, and to be honest I wasn’t as focused on the four-legged frolicking as I could’ve been due to the cricket, and the fact that it peaked at 43.5 frikkin’ degrees this afternoon:

True story, at 8pm on Christmas night when the sun had just gone down, it was still 38 degrees.

So from what I witnessed there were some fantastic performances, like Marabi winning the Christmas Stakes at Caulfield, Coolangatta winning the Group 3 BJ McLachlan Stakes at Doomben on the road to the Magic Millions, and Parry Sound pulling the rug out at Randwick to win the Group 3 Summer Cup at 23/1.

Funny story about Parry Sound, my good mate Half Price sent me his usual Saturday/Sunday tips this morning, but somewhere along the line I was too engrossed with watching Pat Cummins bowl, and managed to miss the fact that Pricey had plucked out another massive bit of value:

Story of my life…

That’s not to say I didn’t take Paperboy for the place, and the other bit of good news is that Crazy Craig found himself a winner to end 2021, and it wasn’t his Pick of the Day or the Value Pick, it was the Random Fleetwood Mac pick in Kirwan’s Lane at Randwick, who drifted from $3 to $5.50 but drove home along the rail to win against two noted milk drinkers, which means that FOR THE LUCKY LAST TIME IN 2021, WE CAN PLAY THE VICTORY TUNE… BECAUSE WE’VE GOT LUCKY LIPS:

Random Fleetwood Mac Pick: Kirwan’s Lane in Race 3 at Randwick = WINNER ($5.00/1.75p)

Do you want to hear a laugh?

Kirwan’s Lane drifted from $3 favourite this morning to start the race at $5 on the third line, displaced by Five Kingdom, who had never won in 8 attempts at the mile, and a noted drinker in Wheelhouse.

Seriously, what did they think was going to happen, Kirwan’s Lane was going to have one of his hind legs shot off by a gangster?

Incredible, and hopefully a few astute mug punters made the bookies cough up a few pineapples as a consequence.

Bravo Kirwan’s Lane, bravo to Tom Sherry on making the most of a rare appearance as a Crazy Craig selection, just as he did with Dragonstone last month, and the Random Fleetwood Mac Pick joins the Random Lou Gramm Pick in the Random Picks Hall Of Fame….

Say, why don’t I end this segment with a bit of Albatross as a nod to Danny Kirwan:

Pick of the Day: Lyrical Lad in Race 6 at Caulfield = 5th

Fancy that, Lyrical Lad finishes 5th, yet he was only beaten half a length, such was the driving finish to Race 6 at The Heath.

Jye McNeil got the ride after Zac Spain was one of the Dirty Dozen jockeys forced into isolation, and to be honest, he may have been caught 3-wide, but he did have cover and presented well enough in the straight, which is all you can ask for, but at the end of the day the gelding just didn’t have the turn of foot to win the race, especially when you compare him to Daqiansweet Junior, which could’ve been a side-effect of going to the 2000m first time.

Good run, just wasn’t good enough.

Value Pick: Casino Kid in Race 10 at Randwick = 4th

Before we get into my random thoughts, I’ve got to say it….

****IN’ FOURTH AGAIN!

Turns out Barrier 1 did Casino Kid’s chances more harm than good, because despite jumping fairly and getting the advantage of the econimical run in transit, he just couldn’t get a clean run in the straight, and you can see what happened when Ash Morgan finally got room at the furlong pole…

From near enough to last and a good 5 lengths off the leaders, he bolted home and ran a narrow 4th, just over 0.75L off the winner Nothingsweetaboutme (There’s a future Random Gabriella Cilmi Pick) and unfortunately for Casino Kid, the finishing post was 100 metres too early.

In fact, when you look at who ran 2nd, I think this race was common story of Las Vegas since 1966…

Caesars Palace beat Casino Kid.