We are closing in on November and that means everyone suddenly becomes expert racing tipsters as they settle on their Melbourne Cup selections.
There are plenty of ways to approach this. For some it is totally about the form of the horses in the lead up to the big race and sales of the Best Bets and other form guides soar.
Others prefer to look for patterns and will pour over statistics to check how many times a certain colour has appeared in the winner’s colours (I can reveal that silks with predominantly black in them have won more Cups than any other – followed closely by blue – random facts).
Perhaps it is how many times horses of particular a particular age have been successful. Saddle cloth number are popular. 1,2,8 and 12 I believe are the most successful with 11 wins a piece.
Barrier 18 is the only barrier to never produce a winner, but you would have to think a winner from Gate 18 must be just around the corner on the law of averages.
Barrier five incidentally has provided the most winners – eight have jumped from barrier five.
There are others who are swayed by trainer and jockey preferences. Some by their stars, the horses name or simply the colour of the horse.
Your system can be extremely involved or as simple as picking up a pin and having a stab.
Thinking about my own method of selection, I guess I cover a little of many of those pointers.
I’m in form in the Melbourne Cup tipping and winning stakes having backed and spruiked Verry Elleegant last year to anyone who would listen for week’s leading up to the race.
I am not sure if I should, like that mare retire gracefully or go for broke and look for another winner.
Naturally the field has not yet been finalised but after fourth acceptances were declared on Monday there are only 34 left to choose from. How hard can that be?
So here we go. My selections at this time are, in no particular order:- Vow and Declare (nice run in the Caulfield Cup); Knight’s Order (good run two week’s ago);Durston (Damien Oliver/ Chris Waller; Caulfield Cup winner, can’t go wrong surely) and Gold Trip (good run in the Cox Plate).
My Spin partner is an Ollie fan so she says she’ll be rooting for Durston. She says I’ve only picked Vow and Declare because she likes it. I’ve given P four chances and her other two selections are at this stage Montefilia and Stockman.
Good luck with your tried and true system and may the horse be with you on the first Tuesday in November.
