Gee, well what did Tommy Berry do to upset, or p… off the universe this week?
It must be something big because when he woke on Monday morning he knew he had two live Gr 1 mounts coming up tis weekend.
By Wednesday morning, after acceptances and the barrier draws, those live chances, to many people, received a big fat black pen through them.
Not from me, because I still rate his mounts this weekend in the major races, but let’s be clear, given there are no 13th floors in tall buildings through much of the world, particularly in Asia, because of superstitions, a lot of punters will note the hoop’s lack of luck on Wednesday.
Berry rides ROCK (Pierro-Subtitle) in the $1million Gr 1 Epsom Handicap and after he brought him to the outside for a powerful finishing burst to win the recent Gr 3 Cameron over 1500m at Newcastle, the lightly weighted Rock looked a huge chance this Saturday
But then he received the number 13 saddlecloth.
Hmmm, slight setback, but to make matters worse, he drew the number 13 gate in the race too.
If there was a cat close by, Berry and Team Hawkes who train Rock would have kicked it.
But then five minutes later, the field for the Gr 1 Metropolitan came out. This race is a $750k race.
Berry’s mount ANGEL OF TRUTH (Animal Kingdom-Scarletini), also trained by Team Hawkes, came up with saddle cloth number…..you guessed it, 13.
“I’m not really all that superstitious,” said Tommy, as he smiled through the complexities of the draws. “I’ll take it because they are primed to run well.”
The Team Hawkes-Berry combo would have been entitled to jump off the Harbour Bridge had Angel Of Truth, another genuine strong lightweight chance, drawn gate 13 as well.
But the universe stopped short, showed some compassion – he drew 11.
The current odds for the Berry-from-the-bad luck-gates is paying $182 with Palmerbet.
