Macca

Harlem was 66-1 when it won the Australian cup but then won the same race again earlier this year at 30-1 They went around quick too in today's Makybe Diva Stakes (01:33.97 for the mile) Quite a good field too. Anyway, close on half a million to the connections and Gatting has now won nearly 2 million. Maybe the Perth form is better than we regard it as. Another WA Mare Arcadia Queen did it easy today although the field in the 'Theo Marks' wasn't strong. Again, another slick time (01:14.96 for the 1300m) I thought we might have seen the W.A galloper Galaxy Star over here as well as that horse has beaten Gatting twice recently. Retired now and is heading for a visit with 'Justify' in the USA. They are racing for a lot of money in the Spring carnival these days (NSW racing has made a quantum leap more recently) so Bob Peters and co are now bringing their better horses here. 'Enticing Star' should be stepping out soon (most likely in Sydney)

So how many can we chase down Wadda? Any more than 300 is an ask. 350 and England win you'd imagine. They are now 2-157 (effectively) and if Stokes gets going the match could slip away very quickly Not conceding yet but I must say I would have taken a 2-2 result in a heartbeat before the series started. I thought they'd win 3-1 or 2-1 so retaining the Ashes is a bit of a surprise. Our batting has been diabolical apart from Smith & to a lesser degree Labuschagne. Yet even so, we should have been up 3-0 going into this test (if we hadn't have blown the 3rd test)

Yeah that was me misreading someone's post again ... my excuse is I was a bit punch-drunk and reeling back in horror when Gatting kept going! Either that or the Norm Smith curse has infiltrated the racing thread on this site. And I got the race 9 exacta with Mosh Music & Royal Ace. I had Mosh Music marked 2nd so the $13 on offer seemed way overs. The Mare sure knows how to win ... 7 from 10 now which is a great record. A black booker BM

I got about 130-1 on the 5pick and had 3 coffees on it! So yeah, I do bet small to win big but was really confident on all 5. Your best bet, DZ's, Arcadia Queen and Alfarris (place) in the 1st race. Never been more confident! The payout could well of been reduced though because of the scratchings. I will somtimes purposely design a multi for a 4 figure return. But I'm usually not that confident with them. But I was very very confident with our 3pick as well as the 5. As it was Alfarris won! But thems the breaks ... with today's ok profit I will load into Purton & Moreira at Sha Tin tomorrow. Just a series of doubles. If both jockeys feature I'll probably win. I do like the 'picked-out' double. Can usually work it up to about 10-1 up to 15-1 so you only need 1 collect to turn a profit. The Storm aren't getting it easy here Wadda ... Raiders taking it right up to them

I'm still in a daze and numb from just missing out on nearly 2.0k Wadda ... pardon my indulgence! Overall I'm in front as I picked up a shortened version of that 5pick multi and got a few other collects. Kept thinking that somehow Gatting didn't actually win or that we can somehow fast track a failed swab ha ha It's not like the horse had an easy run either. I suppose Harlem won the Australian Cup twice so you never know hey? It's W.A form is quite reasonable but nothing startling. Makes you think that the horse it can't get past (Galaxy Star) would do well over in the East as well. And 'Great Shot' for that matter.

Fair enough Have I mentioned that I'm ultra superstitious Wadda ha ha! Anyway, I just got a wimner in Mizzy but I had a 5pick multi going with Mystic Journey as the final leg ... a decent 4 figure payoff too. Damn annoying.

You don't expect to get done by a 100-1 shot. Gatting has been racing well in the West but not at this level. I had a saver on Scales of Justice as I thought that horse was only one that could beat Mystic Journey.. Full marks to the winner though and Jamie Kah. The horse had a similar run to Mystic so no excuses. And I thought the unwritten rule was to not question any of our best bets? Lost on some people.

Arcadia Queen very impressive. Set for the Everest but will probably have another run in between

Cash outs are at the whim of the bookies there ... sometimes there, sometimes not And I don't have a problem with the new format ... easy as Wadda. Come on 'Mystic Journey'!

That makes it 2 from 2 Well done Wadda! On we're on one of the best (Mystic Journey) to bring it home. Surely we get it this time. Surely!

Good work DZ We're on our way.!

I'd party hard if I was part of a winning Ashes series! Can you imagine? It would be like being part of an AFL flag. They're part of history and it's the biggest prize in the sport. So we are justifiably rusty? We'll probably get going at some stage. Maybe when we bat.

Looks like it DJ ... dead rubbers nearly always have that strange feel about them. They're a bit like soccer friendlies. They don't have the same edge (pardon the pun) They want to lessen the workload on Cummins & Hazlewood yet we send them in? Would have thought batting first with Warner a chance to save his career was the go. Dave might still get runs when we bat of course but the wicket seems batsman friendly.

Well if he goes, he goes. He's no star but he does have value in the sense that our backline lacks depth. May & Lever have to stay fit otherwise we're back to Oscar or perhaps Petty. Doesn't inspire LH. The off-season should always be looked upon as the sum of all parts though. A loss here, a win there, so to speak. In the end the Hawks might be offering reasonable coin over a 3 year contract (if the rumours are true) whilst we might not want to go beyond a year or 2. And you can never blame a player for maximising a decent deal for themselves. It's a short career on average.

Putting all the reasons for Frost possibly leaving aside. I've said my bit and others have said their bit. We're not all going to agree so it's best to make the most out of a possible trade (from the club's point of view) If he is going and he is out of contract, what bargaining chips does our club have? I'd say not much at all. Does he become a Delisted free agent if not traded or re-contracted? Or does he have to enter the draft? If he had a year or 2 left on his contract it's a different story but right now he can effectively walk anyway. Worse case scenario is that we get a swap of 4th round picks for Frost. Or marginally better Stand corrected on the details

You obviously don't have any experience in these matters. You're a bit wet behind the ears if you think a player being berated for over 5 minutes by a teammate is somehow ok Happened again later in the year with Oliver & Fritsch. Not only is it unprofessional, it's churlush and childish. Shouldn't have happened and should have been knocked on the head straight away - by the coach. Apart from anything else, it gives momentum to the team you're playing against. So I'm more inclined to believe that your comments are rubbish, not mine. Anyway, I didn't state my opinion as fact. I just opened up the possibility that Frost might have his nose out of joint from that incident. Especially if his teammates didn't rally around him It's a team sport and the players need to play as a team. Not publicly embarrass them. You sound like one of these pound of flesh types. You were probably egging May on to satisfy your frustrations.

I wonder if Frost's teammates rallied around him when May went off at him for 5 minutes or so in the Brisbane game. If not then you could understand Frost looking for the nearest exit. Players who get their noses put out of joint are prone to wanting out. I'd keep him not because he's a star but because he adds something different (pace & dash) And he is decent back-up. I'd be keeping Weideman for the same reason even though I only see Weideman as back-up. We've got too many C & D grade depth players as it is. B- players are better options. The other thing is what do we get in return? A pick in the 30's? I'd rather keep him - unless he definitely wants out and then you do the best possible deal.

I have got a mate who 'never' makes outlandish comments ... and I mean never. But he reckons all the Australian players knew about the sandpaper including Paine the keeper. My mate was a keeper himself for 30 years and he was telling me that keepers keep an eye on the state of the ball on a ball by ball basis. Any tiny scuff mark is noticed. And the bowlers know too. I was a bowler myself and used to look after the ball like it was a prized jewel. So there is almost certainly more to the whole scandal than meets the eye. Might be one of reasons why CA came down so hard on the 3 players. The others might count themselves lucky?

I'm a great believer in pure talent ... without pure talent, none of the rest of all things football matter. And the more talented players a club has the more wins a club can get. So a player like Judd matters even if the acquisition doesn't eventuate in a flag and even if a club regresses after a player like Judd exits. Carlton needed to add talented players to the Judd acquisition but failed to do so. But they still played finals because of Judd. In that same time period we added SFA. We were crud and irrelevant. They were a much better team than what we were because of Judd. So what that they didn't win a flag ... the whole idea of acquiring Judd was to get better as a football team. We tried to get him ourselves but the tour of the palatial surroundings of the Junction oval didn't quite cut it. What I'm really getting at is that our recruiting has often been godawful. Criminally bad. It's as if the club doesn't actually know what is required to become a power club. Maybe they do but it's all a bit too hard. I rate our list as a B- or C+ moving forward. We need to add 6 top players to the list over the next 2 off-seasons just to become a regular finals team. More top players need to be added after that so as to become a genuine contender for the flag on a regular basis. We're about 10 top players short of premiership material. My ideal list is to be as good as the teams that have won multiple flags over the last 2 decades (Bris, Eagles, Haw, Geel & Syd) We have to aim for the stars.

Best Bet Saturday Flemington Race 7 No.13 Mystic Journey (Win) $2.40

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Pucovski, Carey & Patterson are in the mix as well ... there's a bit of talent around but more so with regards to unearthing a few batsmen that might have the attributes for Test cricket. The Labuschagne selection being a good example. A nice enough technique whilst showing excellent temperament. Yet he wasn't exactly banging down the door to be selected. Hopefully the selectors continue on a similar path in being able to evaluate a young batsmen or 2 looking ahead. Accumulating runs at the next level down is one thing but can that player excel at the very top against top class bowling? Works the same in footy ... a player can dominate for Casey but at AFL level the same player can be found wanting. But a player might just show the selectors enough that he could play well at AFL level without shining at a lower level. To me that is the selectors job - Identifying the next top player. So Pukovski is my prediction to shine bright at Test level. Excellent technique and just needs to work on his temperament to make it. And he's a Victorian!

Harmison was part of the ball tampering scandal in the 2005 Ashes. Lollygate. Sounds harmless but that cherry of their's swung around like nobody's business for that whole series. Cheats! Booooooooo! Trescothic was the devil at play and they all knew about it. Strauss, Vaughan, Flintoff, all of them. So they are hypocrites of the highest order. In another series Atherton went out on the field with a pocketful of dirt and there is video available of him applying the dirt along with saliva to the ball. There might be more to that story - who knows? And he was the captain. One could argue that Smith never actually ever knew about the sandpaper. But it was under his watch so he had to cop the punishment. Faf du Plessis was directly involved with a ball tampering incident and got off with a slap across the wrist. There have been a stack of other incidents but we've borne the brunt of the punishments. CA ruled over the ICC who weren't going to come down hard. I am in 2 minds about the punishments handed down. In one way it sets a great example but what if the rest of the world doesn't follow suit? Worse still if we're hung out to dry Jara Warner got off lightly is my personal view. And Smith was harshly dealt with. Bancroft fair enough.

See I don't believe we sold the farm for Lever - at all RN My view of possible drafting results isn't ever overly opttmistic though. Time might tell us that the Lever trade was a bargain. Watch this space And we all view footy differently.