Horse Racing The Good, The Bad and The Ugly – 23/4/2022

A quality mare returned with a blacktype win, the Brisbane Carnival started to warm up at Doomben while Team Freedman continued their love affair with Caulfield and 2YO races. All that and more in this weeks edition of ‘The Good, The Bad and The Ugly’.

KEY NEWS:

Bella Vella Wins Irwin

Quality mare Bella Vella was first up since the 2021 Galaxy when resuming at Morphettville in the Irwin Stakes (1100m) on Saturday and the Will Clarken trained daughter of Commands returned with a bang, leading throughout under Kayla Crowther to fend off Instant Celebrity while the well supported Trekking had no chance given the race shape in a total forgive.

Brisbane Carnival Warms Up At Doomben

Several blacktype races were run and won at Doomben on Saturday on a wet, shifty track. Canadian Dancer was given a peach by Ben Thompson to win the Princess Stakes for the 3YO fillies heading towards the Oaks. Rubiquitous landed good each way bets to lead throughout in the Mick Dittman while the Chris Waller trained Kukeracha confirmed a crack at feature races across Winter with a Tails Stakes triumph.

Team Freedman Win Showdown

Anthony & Sam Freedman are guns when it comes to big 2YO races in Victoria, especially Caulfield, and that trend continued on Saturday in The Showdown (1200m) with King’s Consort coming with a well timed run under Mark Zahra to nail Tassie raider Bello Beau near the peg.

PERFORMANCE OF THE WEEK:

The Maher/Eustace camp have a serious SA Derby contender in their stable via Detonator Jack. Arrogant win from him at Sandown on Monday. It was a good test against hardened, seasoned campaigners, but he made a mess of them and was strong late over the 2100m, suggesting the 2500m of the SA Derby will be no issue, and he’ll go into that race as one of the hardest to beat.

DEBUT OF THE WEEK:

It wasn’t a strong race, the time was nothing flash, but I didn’t mind the debut win of Minidream at Grafton on Thursday on what was a very shifty, testing track. The trial leading in was nothing to jump up and down about but he trucked on speed and found when asked for an effort for a strong win. He can win again with the right placement.

RIDE OF THE WEEK:

Was hard to ignore Campbell Rawiller aboard Plympton at Oakbank on Monday. Brilliant steer and a bit of “Hold My Beer” towards Nash with the tactics, going towards the outside fence on a couple of occasions in search of good ground and that won the race. He’s been killing it since moving to SA and he’ll keep rising in the ranks.

SLAUGHTER OF THE WEEK:

There is a lot of jumping up and down about how bad the NSW tracks are, most of it rightfully so, but fair dinkum, some of the turds that were presented in Victoria this week was disgraceful. Bendigo on Wednesday, it was fence in run or just forget about being in the mix, likewise at Kilmore on Thursday, where the inside lanes were absolute gold. The metro tracks in Melbourne, as a whole, have the Sydney metro tracks on gravy, but some of these country/provinicla Victorian tracks are ugly viewing when they get a bit of juice in them.

HORSES TO FOLLOW:

Aleas – Forced to go earlier than what J Mac would have. Coming winner
Diamil – Not given much hope with the ride. He’s a nice horse
Yiska – He’s beating up nothing, but I think he goes pretty good
Smokin Val – She seemed to lose her stride on the turn. Should have been in the finish

ONE MORE CHANCE:

Quality Asset – Much like Namazu from last Saturday. Nice horse, will win races at Rocky/Mackay, but not at Saturday metro level
Quantum Mechanic – Crying out for firmer footing
Trekking – On face value, plain, but zero chance given the race shape

NEVER EVER AGAIN:

Swats That – “Life Ban” is a term used too often and freely…but Swats That can comfortably hold the title
Junipal – Given a peach steer and presented to win. Might want heavy ground, but he’s too costly
La Mexicana – Was wide no cover the trip, but that aside, it was a very weak finale. Jury out
Mokulua – There to win but couldn’t finish it off
Ingratiating – Another with a Life Ban
Bacchanalia – He was there to win, but found nothing
Feuermond – Might be getting warm for Warrnambool, but he can win there without me