As the Spring carnival nears the end my Generic Ratings project is about to "spring" into action as I start to finalize the sprinters (900m to 1200m) ratings. One wonders how we figures desperadoes survived all those years ago without an Excel spreadsheet and the wonderful copy and sort functions. It is quite amazing to note how many changes to the ratings I have made as the carnival has progressed with just the sprinters not to mention the massive number of horses added and subtracted

As the Spring carnival nears the end my Generic Ratings project is about to "spring" into action as I start to finalize the sprinters (900m to 1200m) ratings. One wonders how we figures desperadoes survived all those years ago without an Excel spreadsheet and the wonderful copy and sort functions. It is quite amazing to note how many changes to the ratings I have made as the carnival has progressed with just the sprinters not to mention the massive number of horses added and subtracted from the initial list I first drew up. With just tomorrow and next Saturday at Sandown to go for the really classy types I now need to start consolidating the figures for what has happened since July in preparation for the Autumn carnivals which even now are only 10 weeks away, give or take a couple of weeks.

It would come as no surprise that after having a serious look at all the career runs of the sprinters that I have Apache Cat as my benchmark. This is quite a horse and you just have to marvel at his deeds and the Flemington grandstand roof is in serious danger of being lifted off its hinges if he wins tomorrow. The ratings have Apache Cat just 0.5 kg ahead of Mic Mac with almost 1.75kg to Bank Robber and 0.5kg to All Silent thus no matter which way you use the ratings the pre post value is the Gai Waterhouse trained Bank Robber, quoted at double figure odds. He has twice performed very admirably against Apache Cat and the question tomorrow will be, "Why not again?", based just on the figures/ratings. I actually popped into the Gai Waterhouse function at her stables at Flemington last Sunday and had a look at Bank Robber and I have to admit to my untrained eye he looked kind of plain and smallish. Nevertheless, he has a bit of a motor within that frame and perhaps tomorrow he will be able to provide some value by at least placing for yours truly.

The race itself hinges on whether Apache Cat remembers his last two dismal Flemington straight runs! Do horses like Apache Cat remember? They were terrible runs but both were first up and the issue may have been more of fitness than a new dislike of straight track runs. The hardest part of tomorrows Flemington meeting is determining which races to actually keep as races where we have a serious chance of selecting correctly as opposed to just guessing. Races two and seven seem the two "easiest", if you can ever use the word "easy" in horseracing but the others seem like picking the winner will be like picking your way through a minefield, blindfolded. It can be done but a lot of luck will be needed.

By 5.15pm tomorrow night we will at least know about Flemington.