I'm firing both barrels at Melbourne's leading apprentice and can't believe what a shocking ride he turned in last Saturday while I'm also bowing to long-shot hero Laurie Sainsbury, who found a $51 winner at the Valley.
MERTENS RIDE THE SHOCKER OF ALL SHOCKERS
Talk about filthy, punters haven't stopped howling after Beau Mertens disgraceful ride on well-backed favourite Leodoro in the last at Moonee Valley on Saturday, and rightfully so.
Mertens has been in great form and is leading the jockey's premiership by one-win over champion jockey Craig Williams however stewards gave him the benefit of the doubt after what can only be described as an absolute shocker on the $3.10 favourite in the 'get out stakes'.
Leodoro was back near the tail of the field travelling well when Mertens made the decision not to come to the outside at the 400m and a few strides later was stuck behind a tiring runner while $41 chance Niminypiminy swept past him from last and eventually went down in a photo.
Mertens never even tried to go out after Niminypiminy had gone past with the intention of not getting to the wider section of the track.
Instead, Leodoro was under a throttlehold all the way to the line, never getting clear running. He got up in the last stride to grab 10th, pretty much as good a thing beaten as you'd see from a 10th placegetter.
At least Mertens had a front row seat to get a good look at fellow apprentice Ben Allen getting tipped off Star Stealer to his inside halfway up the straight, after all he had no cause to worry about fighting out the finish.
Despite the fact he's leading the jockey's premiership Mertens was given the benefit of the doubt for his awful ride, due to certain circumstances surrounding instructions and also the fact he is still considered inexperienced and a claiming apprentice.
Stewards reported; "In all the circumstances, including the instructions given by trainer Mick Kent which were confirmed, and the racing pattern of the horse, the Stewards did not take any direct action, but to notify Beau Mertens that by not coming out at the 400m was a gross error of judgement however were not comfortably satisfied such an error was culpable under the rules, given his inexperience as a claiming apprentice."
The kid is likely to win the jockey's premiership but gets a free pass for his inexperience and being a claiming apprentice. He's obviously not that inexperienced having ridden 64 city winners this season.
Oh well let's just forget about that one, line up for the next race and bet with confidence, or maybe not. If the horse was ridden by a 3kg apprentice you'd be filthy but you'd cop it. What's hard to cop is was it worthy of a prospective premiership winning hoop. That would be an emphatic NO!
LONG-SHOT LAURIE STRIKES AGAIN WITH $51 CHANCE!
Racenet's resident 'longshot guru' Laurie Sainsbury struck again at Moonee Valley on Saturday delivering $51 outsider Black Tomahawk who stormed home to win in the last few strides.
It was less than a month back that Laurie sent punters into the Chris Waller trained Zourkhan when as much as $67 was available.
Check out below what Laurie had to say about Saturday's long priced winner and be sure to get on Racenet next Friday for Laurie's exclusive selections.
Over the past two weeks Racenet readers have also been pointed into plenty of winners through highlight stories and of course weekend Weekend Winners which last week delivered Salsonic ($18) and Nettoyer ($15).
On Saturday, there was a feature piece on Edward Cummings aiming to win his first race with the colours made famous by his grandfather Bart at Newcastle and the young trainer gave the three-year-old a good push.
Roman Son, co-trained by Anthony and Edward Cummings was the horse in question and he dually saluted bolting in at $7.40 under Jeff Penza who wore the green and gold diagonal stripes with a white cap to victory.
TO PROTEST OR NOT TO PROTEST?
After watching the head-on of the fourth at Moonee Valley on Saturday I was surprised Mark Zahra hadn't fired in a protest against third placegetter Have Another Glass.
I was even more surprised after the connections of Zahra's mount, third placed Vandancer asked to view the photo finish of the race such was the closeness of the finish. While satisfied with the print I wonder whether they checked the head-on as well.
Zahra seemed to be well within his rights to hold the eventual third placegetter tight inside him coming down the straight however Jake Bayliss aboard Have Another Glass gave the fourth placegetter a brush which you'd have to think may have cost Zahra and his mount third placing.
Stewards reported; "Have Another Glass brushed Vandancer over the concluding stages when obtaining a neat run to the inside of that mare."
THEY CAN CERTAINLY THROW A PARTY, BUT WHAT ABOUT THE RACES?
Following reports out of Ipswich on Saturday you'd have to question why they even bother with the races up there. Just throw a party and save all the stress on the actual performers.
After all it would seem nobody really cares what's actually happening on the track.
Music belting out and disrupting the horses, drunks in abundance, police kept on the hop all day. Oh yeah and there was a race meeting as well.
I wonder how many at the track knew who won the Cup or even had a bet they'd remember. I'd wager it would be a very small percentage of the 20,000 plus crowd.
I've certainly enjoyed the odd party in my time but there's a time and place for letting it get a bit rowdy and it's not a racecourse. Somewhere along the line something is going to go terribly wrong at one of these parties, I mean race meetings.
$101 INTO $5.50 AT THE TROTS, BUT THEY WOULDN'T HAVE GOT ON FOR MUCH!
Those lucky enough to snap up the big odds would have been laughing on Saturday night after The Brazen Jasper got the money at Newcastle trots with plenty of social media action suggesting as much as $101 was bet about the horse.
Twitter reports were $101 was bet fixed odds before it firmed to start $5.50, eventually paying a best tote dividend of $10.70.
As we all know though it wouldn't have taken much for the price to be chopped on one at a Newcastle trot meeting but all the same anything on a $101 winner would be nice.
WHAT ABOUT THIS FOR A RECORD!
Just on the harness racing I couldn't help but be blown away when I read Destreos had won his 95th race when leading all the way to win at Albion Park on Thursday.
He's had over 400-starts but what's more staggering is the 13-year-old has now won 72 races at 'The Creek'.
It took my thoughts back to when I was a youngster and Red Seas was the star of the show at The Creek thoroughbred races winning 15 races at the track including one with 11 stone 2 pounds (71kg).
Red Seas had 32 starts as a three and four-year-old winning 15 times at The Creek but he never actually won a race anywhere else in a career which spanned 44 outings in Australia however he did win twice in the USA. (Thanks @Danny for your assistance.)
FOLLOW ME
Acatour seems to mix it up a bit but on his day there's no denying the three-year-old is a serious racehorse.
Don't know where he'll go now after finishing a desperately unlucky fifth in the Eye Liner at Ipswich on Saturday but there's a good race in the Sebring colt somewhere down the track.
Jeff Lloyd seems to be able to win on anything at present but he struck some terrible traffic problems on Saturday and arguably Acatour should have won the race after getting a decent mention in the stewards report.
FORGET ME
I'm probably picking an easy target here but it's time to put Mr Individual in the sin bin.
The four-year-old looked a treat on Saturday and I'll give him some relief in that he did have to work a bit to lead however the manner in which he capitulated was ordinary and while jockey Ben Thompson said the horse raced a "bit flat" but he's got a few too many tricks for mine.
