3 minute read

It's Winter Finals Day at Flemington - invariably one of the best betting cards of the year.

Our best of the day comes up in the Bango Paterson Final for the stayers where the Matt Cumani-trained Future Score has our interest. He may be the horse coming 'up in class' but from the minimum his ratings are strongest and with just ten starts to his name he is at least as promising as any of his rivals on Saturday. 

The biggest rival according to the betting is Chouxting The Mob who is in fine form but the handicapper whacks him for winning two slowly run races and he looks vulnerable given that. Mawaany Machine and Beau Balmain are building and this trip can suit them but we're betting on Future Score going on with his strong last-start figure and proving too good under Craig Williams who puts a circle around this meeting on his (surely fastidiously maintained) calendar. 

Rubianski won the lead up to the Taj Rossi Final (race five) and posted a solid performance in doing so but it's worth noting that Hi Stranger and Mrs Beckham finished close up there and with no real reason to think that they were flattered. 

He seems very short odds given that and we like the look of some fresh legs on the scene in the form of Moonlight Maid. 

The daughter of Puissance De Lune was clearly expected to come on for her debut at Geelong (sent out 14/1) but she won running away from a strung-out field.

The time looked good, particularly when the manner that it was recorded is considered, even though she did get first use of heavy ground. That's reason to be cautious but the runner-up went there having posted a solid figure on debut at Cranbourne, in a race that worked out well, so there is reason to take things on face value as well. It's was very likely a strong enough performance to stack right up on Saturday and the chance that she improves sharply makes her an appealing play. 

THE MELBOURNE MAIL 

Bet Of The Day: Race 4 #8 Future Score @ $3.00

Each Way Play: Race 5 #8 Moonlight Maid @ $8.00