Gallant in victory 29/10/2005
Derby Day and excitement mounts. (As does McEvoy, Boss, Lindop and a host of thieving Venezualan midgets.)
Charles gives sound reasons for sharing my judgement and going for Gallant Guru in the premier race for 3-Y-Os.
He also has a delightful racing-flavoured jest. Here’s Charles:
If she were mine I’d run her in the Mackinnon, the Melbourne Cup, and the C.
B. Fisher Plate on the last day, if the C. B. Fisher Plate still existed,
which it doesn’t. It was a marvelous race, my favourite race on the
Australian calendar, and terminated by a level of materialistic avarice which
would have done justice to the AFL.
Derby Day.the selection is Gallant Guru, who has not put a foot wrong. In any
year without an absolutely outstanding three year old, the Geelong Derby
Trial is usually a good guide. The female jockey is a bit of a problem – the
world of Venezuelan midgets lays a lot of stress on machismo and muscular
strength – but I think the horse can overcome that. Have units each way on Gallant Guru.
The answer to last week’s question was 1953. The Caulfield Cup result was My
Hero first, Wodalla second, and Most Regal third; the Melbourne Cup finish:
Wodalla first, Most Regal second, and My Hero third.
This week: who was the only horse to win two Victoria Derbies?
A racing joke to finish off (stop me if you’ve heard this one): an Irish
bookmaker of strong Catholic faith dies, and his two tic-tac boys – both
Flinders Lane wholesalers, as Bunny Champers would say – attend his funeral.
One of them shakes his head with a sob, and says to the other, “We had such
wonderful times together.I just can’t believe that he’s dead.”
At that moment the priest raises the Host, and makes the sign of the cross in
the air, and the other boy replies:
“Alby, I know it’s sad but you’ll have to believe it now. He just drifted to
33/1.”
POSTSCRIPT: I don’t know the answer to Bernie’s ‘Fields of Omagh’ question,
but will be very interested to find out.
