3 minute read

It's a fairly nondescript card at Caulfield on Saturday but nondescript cards often make for the best betting.

A couple of weeks back (three to be exact) we threw up Fifth Position as our play and he was strongly backed before coming up short, ironically finishing fifth. That was a shade disappointing, no doubt, but it may pay to be forgiving in this case as he was never really traveling comfortably there, hemmed up in traffic throughout, and after splits showed his fitness giving out when resuming perhaps with 32 days between runs he still needed one more to really blow the cobwebs off. 

He heads to Caulfield on Saturday for a similar race - the horse that won at Flemington Lunar Flare being among the hardest for him to beat - and it may just set up better for him with the 2000m run under his belt now. 

He draws to settle well in front of Lunar Flare as well as Bedford and Mahamadeis who the early market throws up as his biggest challengers. As mentioned last time, Fifth Position has some pieces of strong handicapping form to his name from back in England and a return to that sort of level would go a long way towards taking care of these. 

With a bit more in his favour this time, prices around 3/1 are bigger enough to be forgiving and chance him again. 

An interesting, if very speculative, each way play on the card emerges looking at similar formlines.  

Tinandali runs for the same ownership group and has matched motors with Fifth Postion back in the UK where the Ledger reads one apiece. 

He goes around from an ordinary draw, which will make things tough, and having run an absolute shocker when resuming at the same course last month. But he is 100-1 now having run as a 5/2 favourite in a better handicap than this just two starts back. There's plenty against but we don't need much for at those odds and he looks one well worth chancing. 

THE MELBOURNE MAIL 

Bet Of The Day: Race 7 #10 Fifth Position @ $4.00

Each Way Play: Race 4 #8 Tinandali @ $101.00