3 minute read

Last week Caulfield hosted a very off-season meeting and this week it's Flemington's turn to host a very wintery card of non-descript handicaps.

Non-descript handicaps can be great for betting, though, and sometimes it's that hearty off-season fare that really warms the soul. Depends if you win or lose... and we intend on winning, primarily through one of the few horses on the card that we could envisage making a mark in better company. 

That horse is Coolth , unbeaten in two starts and shaping as though he could just explode going out to 2000m. He has beaten very little in South Australia but he has done it cartwheeling away from them in decent splits despite looking very new.

There's certainly talent there, and he strikes a race on Saturday where the opposition look fairly limited and completely vulnerable to a fresh horse on the scene. 

Coolth is that horse, and we want to be along for the ride.  

For an each way play we leave the unbeaten horses with big upside and hitch our wagon to a non-winner with zero upside.... 

Chapada was once Coolth - or something similar. He looked the part in a Wangaratta maiden and went and placed in a Derby and Rosehill Guineas. Good horse! 

He hasn't won since... But he did run really nicely in a Zipping Classic and his last two have been nice efforts against better horses than what he tackles up in trip on Saturday. 

Stepping up in trip is the key. The 2500m whackers at this time of the year are a good bit slower than those racing at 1600-2000m. Chapada wants slower. And gets it. 

He can be backed at each way odds and we think that is well worth doing in a race that represents about as good a chance as he is going to get to land that elusive second win. 

THE MELBOURNE MAIL 

Bet Of The Day: Race 3 #5 Coolth @ $2.70

Each Way Play: Race 6 #4 Chapada @ $ 8.50