LAST SATURDAY'S massive 13-race card proved to be quite a nightmare for form players.
Only three favourites were unsaddled in the winners' enclosure as the lesser fancied horses dominated the dividends. Biggest winner of the day came in the 11th race over the extended nine furlongs where THIS IS WAR, with the sparingly used jockey Wilbert Gobay aboard, who won at the massive odds of 151-1 in the $140,000 claiming group.
Other winners winning at fairly good odds were SHE'S A MAVERICK, who ran away with the third race at 5-1; LONG LONG JOURNEY who came with a well-timed run to take the fourth at 8-1; DRAMATICS also at 8-1 in the sixth; FLYING TIGER who clocked a track record 56.2 in capturing the 12th race over 1000 metres straight and JACK DE FREAK, who surprisingly was sent off at 6-1 in the 13th and final.
FAVOURITES
SIR CHARLES at 3-5 in the second, the day's five-star banker LIL' COUNTRY BOY at 1-5 in the seventh and ROYAL SEA, 4-5 in the ninth were the only favourites to win.
Players of the exotic bets now have some really big jackpots to go after this weekend. The popular Hi-Five was not caught once in four races and at the end of the day the carryover was a whopping $1,298,536.20. The first and second Pick Six games also eluded punters and the carryover there is $1,818,382.95.
The Pick Nine was also not caught but with most punters setting their sights on the Hi-Five and Pick Six, this jackpot remains at the basic $500,000.
THIS IS WAR, a three-year-old bay colt by Pat N Jac - Killer Marj owned by John Wright and trained by Donovan Raymond, was given a fairly good ride by Gobay, who bided his time in second for much of the first three-quarters of the race before taking the lead at the final curve.
STRONG CHALLENGE
He was challenged strongly by the 9-5 favourite FIASCO (Shane Ellis up) but responded to a bustling ride by Gobay to win by three-quarters of a length in the fairly good time of 2:00.4.
Despite his poor form, however, THIS IS WAR should not have been allowed to go off at such long odds. A careful look at the Track & Pools form book would have shown that THIS IS WAR was doing very well on the exercise track.
The three-year-old colt paced seven furlongs in 1:37.0 on January 18. That's a 'big work' for a $140,000 claimer. Do not expect to see him again at this low level in the near future.
Those close to the big upsetter should now be smiling all the way to the bank. Note the horse paid $3,032 for each win ticket but the quinela , THIS IS WAR/FIASCO, returned just $2,146. The exacta was $18,428.
It is interesting to note that THIS IS WAR'S dam, Killer Marj, was ridden to victory at long odds of 19-1 by Gobay just over seven years ago on November 22, 1997.
