A pair of late-summer-shaping Group 3s headline racing at Caulfield on Saturday.
Both of those Group Three contests, the Chairman's and the Manfred, have Blue-Jacketed favourites in the early betting. And, in Renosu and Paulele, they look the right favourites - for now.
Paulele seems set to run in Sydney's equivilent, the Eskimo Prince, and bypass the Manfred which will leave top billing at Caulfield up for grabs. Generation is the number one seed for that honour and would be the right favourite if and when Paulele is officially removed. Either way, a pair of good races are also a pair of fairly well-priced looking races and our best bet comes later on the card.
The seventh is a handicap with a Hong Kong feel. Ho Ho Khan was formerly a smart performer over there and is working back to that sort of form now, a win last time snapping a drought of over two years and rating fairly close to the pick of his efforts in better races over that time.
He knocked off Dark Dream here at Caulfield and extended that one's losing streak right back to April 2019 when he won at Sha Tin with Ho Ho Kahn in behind. Dark Dream has since snapped his own lengthy drought, winning well at Flemington under a very much in-form Luke Nolen.
That Hong Kong flavoured pair set a very solid standard but it's a beatable standard and we're happy to back Desert Icon to knock them off from the bottom of the handicap and break a mini-drought of his own.
He was knocked off in Sydney with that looked to be no excuses last time but a very steady tempo there turned things into a battle of late speed, and he faced two similar scenarios in Melbourne prior to that.
A Newmarket route back in June 2020 shows him right up to winning this and a stronger tempo here could draw that sort of form out of him now, as could Damien Thornton who has come a long way in recent times and his partnership with Chris Waller has been a successful one. He has ridden 13 winners from 25 favourites for Waller over the past couple of seasons - riding 1.5 winners for every one that the market demands - and he can add to that tally on Saturday.
"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results," Einstein supposedly said.
But punting takes a fair chunk of hubris so to hell with Einstein, we're pressing on and backing the fairly slow Salto Angel again with each way odds in a race where she is among fairly slow friends appealing enough to go again.
Her Moonee Valley run, behind two that reoppose, was fairly uninspiring stuff but she nicked a place and could nick another one without doing much more this time. What she does have is that faint glimmer of hope that she could do something better. She has done something better. And perhaps her effort there was a result of coming out of very slow races leaving her in need of more racing.
THE MELBOURNE MAIL
Bet Of The Day: Race 7 #10 Desert Icon @ $3.50
Each Way Play: Race 3 #7 Salto Angel @ $9.00
