Sifting through Monday’s Greyville form to win exotics looks an arduous task but as is always the case, these are the race meetings that can bring better rewards if one gets it right.
There are lucrative each-way options to keep the kitty healthy and the best of them could be Don’t Touch Me in Race 8, a MR 66 Handicap over 1600m on the Polytrack.
Don’t Touch Me battled to gain traction earlier but then reeled off two wins in a row and it looked like the penny had finally dropped. And while he ran some good races on the Polytrack thereafter, he seemed to shirk a fight and disappointed his followers. But his last run when a solid second to Syx Hotfix suggests he is back in form and the dropping of his merit rating looks to have done the trick.
One of the big pointers in his form is his 0.75 lengths third-place finish to Straight Up at level weights. The latter has gone on to win again at a higher level since but interestingly that horse also handed Brandenburg 5kg and a 2.20-length beating just prior. On bare collateral form then Don’t Touch Me should easily beat possible favourite Brandenburg.
Crazy Blues looks well placed in Race 4 which is a MR 73 Handicap over 1400m. The strong frontrunner won her maiden with an average rating of 58 and then a few runs later showed she was maturing with a win over further, in a field with an average merit rating of 65.
She now runs in a race with a 72 average but one run earlier she was second in a competitive race which contained visiting horses at Scottsville, which was a much stronger average of 79.
She has drawn well and has impressed on Polytrack so looks the one.
Rain Wear (Race 5) and Demigod (Race 6) have also been progressing and rate fair each-way chances in their respective heats. Rain Wear was initially trained for further and didn’t show much on turf but her finishes on the poly have been attractive and she could add another notch to her belt.
Demigod has been brought along steadily and it appears as if she fluffed her lines last time, finishing third from the best of the draws. But she had her heels clipped and still had consistent Red Rosa behind her. The latter then came out to beat Demigod’s main rivals Winter’s Destiny, Swiss Bank and Flower Season.
Clive Robinson
