A strong return on Saturday with over +11u profit, plus almost 3u profit on Sunday for a +13.9u profit for the week. But what could have been.

At Flemington we nailed them early with So Si Bon ($8.20), Lightsaber ($5.58) and Marboosha ($4.60) giving us a great start with 3 winners in a row.

The Newmarket Handicap unfortunately was trifectad by the 3 horses who came along the inside section of the track, which proved substantally quicker, but made it a completely unfair event. The majority of the field were in comparative quicksand out wide, which was a shame as Prague who was $41 into $19 and we backed was best of the outside brigade home running 4th, whilst our main bet Swats That ran 5th. I believe if the straight track had played evenly they would have quinellad the race so was happy with those bets.

In R7 Sovereign Award was given a picnic in front and although led a long way, the sectionals were not quick. I was disappointed in hindsight with this race asthe histrical profiling showed me on pacers were favoured in this race, and the step up to 1600m would suit the winner who I should have included.

In the Australian Cup Best Of Days was beaten a nose at $32, but then we finished strongly with Starelle ($17.50), an incredible price given she finished alongside Personal at her previous start, and it was heavily backed into $2.30 favourite.

Overall I was very pleased with how I played Flemington. From the last 7 races we had 4 nice priced winners confidently backed, had another beaten a nose at $32, and probably win the Newmarket with a $21-$41 chance if the track was even. Only poor decision I feel I made was not including Sovereign Award at $8.

Over to Randwick and in R5 we had Eduardo ($8.70) nose out Nature Strip as a saver. Splintex and Written Beauty both got caught in a scrimmage out the back and were forgive runs.

R6 we had Seasons get a nice run in transit, hook out and looked like it was ready to pounce and win at $21, but Vulpine gave a kick and managed to lead all the way and hold on. Although it cost us a 10u+collect, we didn't know how costly that 2nd would be.

R7 was the Randwick Guineas, and it was a fantastic result with Lion's Roar winning at big odds. It paid $26 BOB, and traded on Betfair at between $32-$36 the entire last few minutes, but in a real shock only paid $19 Betfair SP. Unfortunately it seems that some very big back bets must have been placed at Betfair SP to really impact that dividend so markedly. I have said it before and I'll say it again, you can always bet BOB or BFSP if you want, but if you really want to maximise your returns then monitoring markets and betting late is the best way to go. It was a 9u difference in that bet alone if you had backed the horse on Betfair late rather than Betfair SP.

What was extra pleasing about the Randwick Guineas was that the Futures Bets we placed ran well. Lion's Roar who we backed for the Rosehill Guineas at $13-$17 has now firmed into $5 second favourite. 

Harmony Rose ran 3rd, and we backed her at $15 for both the Vinery and the ATC Oaks. She has firmed into $5-$6 favourite for both races.

Savatiano won the next race for us in a small win.

We didn't have a bet in the last race as I felt it was a lottery that anything could win at a big price, hence why I took the field in the last quaddie leg. Sure enough Missybeel got up as the rank outsider of the field at 60/1.

What that unfortunately meant was that we got 3 winners and a 2nd for the Randwick Quaddie in what was a $93,000 dividend in NSW and $156,000 in VIC. 

We just needed Seasons to run down Vulpine in the first leg and those dividends would have been even larger, in would have been a $100,000+ or 250+ unit collect. 

Very tough to swallow, particularly when it was only late September when Purple Sector ran 2nd beaten a nose at $67 in the last leg of the Rosehill Golden Rose Quaddie, costing us a $48,000 or +120u collect, before going onto win his next two starts as favourite.

Regardless, we had a strong winning day, and I was happy with how I played both Flemington and Randwick overall.

The only negative is I believe I wasted around 3u to 4u backing savers such as Odeum, Personal, Emanate, Bivouac etc, hoses who I didn't particularly like and wanted to get beaten hence why we were backing other runners, so I'll be doing some more work this week on reviewing savers.

Sunday was a nice little result with our only bet Crucial Witness leading and getting run down late into 2nd at $12, but was had a strong place bet which gave us a nice profit, and took us to around +14u for the week.

During my break I did a lot of work reviewing track bias, late conditions changes, market movements and yard watching. As a result of this, at times although there may not be any bets in the morning (and I may not believe there will be bets), a late alert such as this one may come if I see something stand out at me.

As I did yesterday, I'll endeavour as much as possible to give plenty of advance warning so that you can be ready to place the bet when it is sent.

Hope you enjoyed the first week back, and I'll catch you through the week.