Before I get into this week’s drivel, I present a tale that Mr Alfonse told me today, entitled “Believe it or not”.

In Race 9 at Northam on Thursday, the Spaniard from Spain took a trifecta with 6 horses in a 10 horse field, with all of his choices (3,4,5,6,7,9) having the best form of any of the runners in the race.

Amazingly, NONE OF THEM RAN A PLACE, as the numbers were 1-10-8 (It paid $2169.30), with the 4 running 4th.

That is somehow more unbelievable than actually managing to land a trifecta.

So looking at the day, there were a couple of wild old moments, especially at Flemington, where Grinzinger Bishop won Race 3 at $95.60 on the tote, after running 14th of 14 in his debut at Geelong, Texas Tea struck oil in Race 7 at 23/1, then Race 8 was delayed by 15 minutes, which I thought (Because we couldn’t get audio from Sky) was simply because the maintenance team were dragging their arses doing maintenance on the running rail, but it turned out the reason was Milton Park dumped Thomas Stockdale leaving the mounting yard and proceeded to smash through the rail:

And we would not be showing that footage if everyone involved wasn’t perfectly ok.

Now, looking at Crazy Craig’s performance today, you can come to the easy conclusion that our lunatic of a hero is hitting the line very strongly, because following up on his 2 wins last week, Welsh Legend ran another good race to record another 3rd placing as a value selection, Grand Pope was around the mark as the Pick of the Day and ran 3rd, but most notably of all…

HOLYFIELD LANDED A KNOCKOUT IN THE EYE LINER AT IPSWICH, WHICH MEANS CRAZY CRAIG HAS PICKED ANOTHER WINNER!

And you know how?

He’s got Lucky Lips.

Pick of the Day: Grand Pope in Race 2 at Flemington = 3rd ($1.38p)

Well, Grand Pope did run home pretty well, but his only problem was the rest of the field were going as fast as he was, and ultimately 3rd would have to do for the favourite, as Nasraawy & Billy Egan won the race for a bloke with a very unique surname, Gavin Bedggood…

I say that because reckon you could easily switch his name into the lyrics of Be Good Johnny by Men at Work, and I’ll demonstrate:

Gavin Bedggood, Gavin Gavin Bedggood, Gavin Gavin Bedggood, Bedggood Gaaaaavin!

See?

Flawless.

Random Tom Jones Pick: Welsh Legend E/W in Race 7 at Rosehill = 3rd ($2.45p)

I was told by Crazy Craig last night that he had a toss-up between sticking with Tom Jones for Welsh Legend, or waiting until Irish Legend ran in Race 8 and using someone like Bono, Enya or Bob Geldof, which I think he did a few weeks ago with absolutely no success on some other Irish-themed horse.

Ultimately he stuck with the proven formula of Tom Jones, and I think either way he would’ve finished 3rd and got the place dividend side of the pick, because Welsh Legend did exactly what he did at Flemington, running on from the back to claim 3rd behind a dominant winner (Waller stablemate Skyman), and it looks like they both would’ve paid around the same for a place.

It was also around about this time of the afternoon that I had a choice between taking Welsh Legend for the place, or going for Sluice Box at $3.20 in Race 2 at Belmont.

I went for Sluice Box.

He won easily.

Value Pick: Holyfield E/W in Race 8 at Ipswich = WINNER ($6.50/$2.40p)

What a great win – Holyfield jumped from Barrier 16, Brodie Loy had to use a decent amount of energy to hunt up and lead, but instead of falling in a heap, which you’d expect from every horse Crazy Craig picks, the one they don’t call Evander just kept on landing haymakers and fair dinkum broke their collective hearts.

Well-earned for Brodie Loy, who took a punt and moved from New ‘Souff’ Wales up to Queensland to ride for Annabel Neasham full-time, and at least today he’s had his best result yet, especially after a couple of years that saw him suspended for 21 months for drug-related offences back in 2018, plus a couple of injuries here and there.

By the way, have a look at Holyfield’s form lines up to today, because if you look beyond x44, it’s seriously good:

He placed fourth behind Emerald Kingdom in The Archer at Rockhampton on May 7 – Subsequent Group 1 Kingsford-Smith Cup winner Apache Chase was runner-up in the same race.

He also placed fourth in a blanket finish to the Group 3 BRC Sprint at Eagle Farm on May 28 – Alligator Blood was runner-up, and next start he comfortably won the Group 1 Stradbroke Handicap.

Hoof on the till, and today he cashed in.