Dishing derby day

Have you ever had that experience of opening up the Friday form guide and having horses jump off the page and beg to be backed?

You just know you are going to have a great day on the punt, and the time can’t pass quickly enough until jump time for the first.

Well, mine was the opposite reaction when I collected the paper and sat at my desk after expectantly brewing a cup of tea before perusing the Derby-day line-up.

Not only do winners, much less multies, not suggest themselves, but I just feel that the quality is really down this year. The first, for example, is the worst running of this great old race I can remember. None of the top three has won at their previous outings and those who have just seem a few notches below top class.

Races two and three are also not outstanding, although Osborne Bulls does bring some class to the table in the third.

The fourth does have some depth, and it is always interesting to see which runners can make it to the cup on the big day.

The Coolmore, which many of my Roar buddies have pointed out, is now a very important stallions’ race, once again, appears to lack absolute quality. Written By does have a great record, but I think the Sydney horses are vastly overrated.

Encryption, meanwhile, saluted at $20 two starts back, which doesn’t inspire confidence for an event of this standing. Sunlight has proven herself up to a point, but she was found wanting last start. I just feel there are a couple of topliners who aren’t here for whatever reason, and that the overall standard of this year’s three-year-old’s is well below average.

The sixth is the race where the lack of depth and class really stand out. I am a Star has found form, but she did very little after winning this in ’16 and is some distance off the great mares who feature in the honour roll for this event. Others, such as Invincibella and Invincible Gem, are huge distance queries.

I tipped Shoals with confidence to win the Everest. She wasn’t up to it that day, but I really believe she would have shown this bunch a clean pair of hooves. The horse that should have won last year, Prompt Response, is absent as she seems to have lost all form.

The Tatts Tiara won by Prompt Response earlier this year, was a far better race than this year’s Empire Rose.

There has been lots of chatter on the Roare and elsewhere about this year’s Derby, which I will not add to now, except to say that opinions seem to be divided. The Kennedy mile is not a weak race, but even here, the top two are definitely well past their best and some of the others have a lot to prove at the distance and in this class.

I can’t finish without offering a ray of hope after all this negativity. One entrant that did capture my attention over that morning cuppa was Shillelagh in the Empire Rose. As others have pointed out, she has been excellent in recent runs against all comers, and her last effort against mares was a brilliant second in the aforementioned Tatts Tiara.

I don’t like backing horses that always drop out early, but if she is ever going to win another big race, this might be it.