MY CALL - RACE TIMES CAN BE REVEALING

By David Fowler | Tuesday, May 23, 2017

David Fowler is the principal thoroughbred caller for Radio TAB. David, who is a keen form student and punter, has enjoyed a lifetime involvement in the racing media. His personal blog, ‘My Call’, appears exclusively on HRO.

As a fan of times, two races in two states piqued my interest from a Winter Carnival point of view.

The three-year-old Tactical Advantage ran 1:11.36 in his Doomben 1200m win on a track officially rated as a heavy 9.

That race obviously prompted a track reassessment to a heavy 8 yet in the very next race, experienced fillies and mares ran 1:12.21, nearly a second slower.

The other 1200m race, a two-year-old, clocked the slowest of the trio at 1:12.71.

The other feature of this win was that it was run at a pedestrian speed, out in 36.8 and home in the quickest sectional of the day, 34.78.

Considering Tactical Advantage is not most effective on wet tracks, I thought his effort to knuckle down and chase hard was most impressive.

The Listed Daybreak Lover (1200m) on Oaks day seems an ideal target.

Ana Royale can win the Queensland Oaks on June 3 after her Morphettville victory at the weekend.

And it was an examination and comparison of times that drew me to this conclusion.

Ana Royale dashed away at the end of the 2500 metres running 2:37.45.

This compares impressively with open company winner Time To Test who ran almost two seconds slower in 2:39.36.

And Ana Royale’s time was only 1.2 seconds outside of the track record.

The win clearly demonstrated she can stay strongly.

Can her Oaks opposition boast such a claim?

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The Doomben track played brilliantly on Saturday.

Maybe a strange statement but the ratings were consistent with the times run and there wasn’t a skerrick of bias which can often emerge on wet surfaces.

BRC officials are now holding their collective breaths that Eagle Farm will offer a decent playing field this Saturday.

A week of fine weather predicted would be music to their ears.

The “inside mail” is the track has kept improving since the May 3 meet but that is admittedly off a low mark.

The rail will be true for Saturday’s card which has attracted 228 nominations.

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I raised two interesting topics on my Radio TAB Press Room program on Monday.

Both created two schools of thought.

Should horses be inducted to a Hall Of Fame if they are still racing ?

It’s a no brainer for me they should yet Bruce Clark and several listeners believed retirement should come before an induction.

Winx, Black Caviar and Sunline are the three inductees who are examples of my sentiments.

And I don’t believe racetrack attendances, big or small, are any indictator to the well being or health of the industry yet my colleague Nathan Exelby thought differently.

As they say opinions are like you know what. Everyone’s got one !

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