Golden Slipper day, 2009 will go down into the history books as the day when ALL the favourites were beaten into submission with not one saluting for the day. The defeats of Faulconbridge ($2.30), Keepin The Dream ($4.60Dr, Doubtes ($4.00), Predatory Pricer ($3.30), Gallica ($4.20), Il Quello Veloce ($4.40), Hot Danish ($2.80), Culminate ($5.00) Viewed ($2.05), All Silent ($3.80), Whobegotyou ($5.00) Real Saga ($4.20), More Joyous ($4.40), Aichi ($3.00), Fighting Fund ($4.80), Racing To Win ($4.

Golden Slipper day, 2009 will go down into the history books as the day when ALL the favourites were beaten into submission with not one saluting for the day. The defeats of Faulconbridge ($2.30), Keepin The Dream ($4.60Dr, Doubtes ($4.00), Predatory Pricer ($3.30), Gallica ($4.20), Il Quello Veloce ($4.40), Hot Danish ($2.80), Culminate ($5.00) Viewed ($2.05), All Silent ($3.80), Whobegotyou ($5.00) Real Saga ($4.20), More Joyous ($4.40), Aichi ($3.00), Fighting Fund ($4.80), Racing To Win ($4.20) and Royal Discretion ($3.10) must have brought happiness beyond compare to bookmakers and layers on Betfair. The only runner from a list of 18 runners that started at $5.00 or less was the last winner, Dao Dao.

The silly part about most of the defeats is that they were predictable IF you had any inkling about what causes the defeat of favourites. The issues of first up, distance doubts and especially heavy track concerns would have saved many punters some of their hard earned money.
Although it is difficult to be totally sure I have a strong feeling that if the track was at all dry All Silent would have strolled in with the George Ryder. He had little luck in the run and seemingly did not handle the heavy conditions yet finished a mere 1.1 length from the winner Vision And Power and runner ups Black Piranha and King Mufhasa. With any sort of a clear run in the Doncaster All Silent will be extremely difficult to beat. The other run in the race was that of Largo Lad who received several mentions in the stewards report yet finished 2.8 L from the winner in, at this stage, unsuitable wfa conditions. Time after time good wfa runs equate to equally good runs under handicap conditions especially if any accompanying weight drop is part of the equation.

While I am discussing top performances one has to hand out bouquets to Theseo. I have been a fan and a detractor of this horse depending on the conditions of the races at hand but no longer. This is a genuine fighting horse and I will no longer have any doubts about whatever he runs in and that thought starts with the WS Cox Plate! Time will tell if my faith is repaid but one thing I am sure about - he will give it a go and punters cannot ask for anything more from any horse.