áPutting on a PumpkinThe retired ace commentator and thorough gentleman, John Tapp, frequently used to make the comment that the punter sometimes can leave his head in the cloak room and put on a pumpkin when he goes racing.I felt a bit like that as I watched Apache Cat steam home in the Doomben Ten Thousand. Best horse, proven (still unbeaten) on heavy ground, last year's winner, weight for age (at which he remains about three classes clear of most of that field), etc etc.And paying $3.50 and

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Putting on a Pumpkin

The retired ace commentator and thorough gentleman, John Tapp, frequently used to make the comment that the punter sometimes can leave his head in the cloak room and put on a pumpkin when he goes racing.

I felt a bit like that as I watched Apache Cat steam home in the Doomben Ten Thousand. Best horse, proven (still unbeaten) on heavy ground, last year's winner, weight for age (at which he remains about three classes clear of most of that field), etc etc.

And paying $3.50 and more.

Racing is a challenge. At times you can be totally wrong, as indeed I was on Saturday last. I boxed a few longshots and they ran where they should have run. I assumed Sydney would play unfair and so I stayed out. I would have picked several winners. Sydney looked very fair to me, a genuine heavy 9, regardless of the terrible penetrometer reading.

Was I right or wrong? Saturday I was totally wrong, but it was one horrible Saturday in 52 for the year. I only attacked one race (the big one), because I mistrusted the tracks. Larry Cassidy had it right, romping in on Our Lukas in the first at Doomben. But that was the only capable horseflesh Larry had. He used the ploy of skipping away twice more without the necessary tiger in the tank.

I was wrong short term.

I suggest that, long term (the ONLY term that matters), I still did the right thing FOR ME. If I can't see what's coming around a short bend I don't overtake. If I think there's a dangerous spider or snake where I'm walking, then I get out of there.

And if I feel wrong about a race day and its prospects, I stay out of there too.

It makes sense for me.

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