THE FORECAST: THE GUESSING GAME
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by Mick Sharkie
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Gallops
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28 June, 2024
THE FORECAST: THE GUESSING GAME
I’m a fan of Jane Bunn.
It’s an art to deliver relatively banal – yet important – content with just the right intonation that keeps the viewer hooked, absorbed and intrigued, but without eliciting any emotion at all other than a want to hang on and endure for a suggestion of good news.
Meteorologists do it tough. Bunn and her predecessors like Mike Larkin (now a wedding celebrant) are the public front for a demographic of hard working scientists who predict weather for a living; and we know as punters that weather as a form line is about as reliable as Darwin dirt track form.
Take Melbourne for example. Who on God’s green earth would choose weather expert in Melbourne as a profession? Melbourne weather is tri-polar. It’s mental. It is bat-shit crazy. We know this. Why try to predict it?
Jane Bunn deserves a medal. Hell, make her PM.
So, to my point. We’re racing at Caulfield. We have rain forecast, between 3mm – 10mm according to Jane, and that’s a big difference. Maybe a Soft 5, maybe a Heavy 10, we don’t know, but it’s going to be wet. Maybe you’ll get drowned maybe your hair will just stick together a bit, we really don’t know. Here’s a penis cloud, it’s the best we can do.
In cases like these, I suggest that we play it safe. FLEETWOOD (R8 No. 1) handles wet ground, races on speed and has very strong form. Tick, tick, tickety tick. Likewise MISS ROUMBINI (R7 No. 10), they are the two no-brainers on the card for thrillseekers in Melbourne.
In warmer climes BELLA NIPPOTINA (R8 No. 1) is the Group 1 horse with the form on the board back to her own sex in a favourable weight scenario at Eagle Farm. She’s a no brainer surely.
If you want reliable, boredom and Adelaide go hand in hand. Similarly Gavin Bedggood and tried horses are a match made in heaven and DEGRAVES (R4 No. 1) are poised to make a winning return.
Good luck punters, take an umbrella.
BEST: Eagle Farm R8 No. 1 BELLA NIPPOTINA
BEST EACH-WAY: Caulfield R2 No. 5 MISS ICELANDIC
BEST ROUGHIE: Caulfield R9 No. 13 WYCLIF