It is guaranteed to be great weather for ducks and geese and honeymooners tomorrow in Brisbane, but not real good for racing. The main action is at Flemington and to that end anyone who gets the First Four on the Newmarket ought to get a gold bike and chain from the TAB.

Tomorrow is one of those days of the year in racing that features what I’d call an “impossible race.” Each year the Newmarket Handicap up the straight – or is it down the straight – “they” can’t even agree on that point, creates the ultimate “impossible race” for punters to try to decipher. I mean it’s just madness. You get to see, in tomorrow’s version of the race, 19 talented racehorses charging up, or down, a 1200-metre straight track that is “on average” 30 metres wide. How come it’s not exactly 30 metres wide uniformly? Was the surveyor half sloshed and he reckoned near enough was good enough when he marked it out?

The 19 runners will then charge up the inside of the track, the outside of the track, or the middle, so which part of the track will have “track bias”, as how the hell can you irrigate 30 metres width of track uniformly? In short you can’t. You could have 10 picks and miss the winner. Some will try to get the First 4 on the race and that is all the go - plus it’s easy to get – you just have to take the field with the field, with the field, with the field. The only stumbling block there is the cost. It costs you $93,024 to take it for a $1 unit. That’s just slightly out of the average punters range, but for those who have been smart enough to log onto Justracing in recent weeks they’d probably have at least $9,302 which will allow them to take a 10% share of the action.

If anyone tells you they have “a good thing” for you in the Newmarket, bet them even money they can’t even tell you where the winner will come up – the inside, the outside, or the crown. Fair dinkum, life doesn’t get any sillier than betting in a race like that.

Queensland Racing Handicapper Darryl Reid has sent the scaled weights through for the swimming races at Eagle Farm tomorrow and they are: Race 1 + 6 kilos, Race 3 + 3 kgs, Race 5 + 3kgs and Race 7 = Class 6 - 0.50 kilo.

The apprentice jockey weights for tomorrow should be: (These figures take into account the fact that these little 50-kilo bundles of joy have had no race meetings to go to this week due to flooding, so they may have been at the movie theatre pigging out on popcorn, fries and coke but here goes):

*She’s frightened of rocking horses and merry-go-rounds.

Today on www.brisbaneracing.com.au I’ve avoided looking at Eagle Farm which could finish up over near New Caledonia if we get any more rain tonight, so I’ve previewed Melbourne Race 8 on that website, on www.sydneyracing.com.au I preview the Liverpool City Cup, whilst on www.melbourneracing.com.au Mr and Mrs Hickman’s son Timothy looks at Flemington.

Galilee who tipped a double figure winner a couple of week’s ago sent through this report on Adelaide racing tomorrow which reads:

From last week Fast Frank wasn’t fast enough and ran 3^rd. The distance was the query and he did not handle it – in my opinion. Things were in his favour as well - as I felt the track was leaderish. Even Capecover couldn’t come from last and win. My thoughts for the Cup are – Capecover from De Fine Lago who was scratched in Tassie by Stewards recently much to the chagrin of his trainer Tony Vasil.

This week, once again, take time and watch the early races to see if there is bias.

Saturday’s meeting is awful, as most of the better runners are going around in the ten race programme on – Cup Day, Monday. There are a lot of dual acceptors as well, which makes it difficult. At the moment we have a Good 3 track.

My thoughts on Race 7 are:

In this race I have settled on the Tale of the Cat 4YO – Magnificat (Editor’s comment – what a great name if it goes poorly - Magnificat?). His last run behind Puerto Banus was a pretty fair effort. Good enough to test them in this ordinary field.  Magnificat got well back last start and then finished his race off pretty well. From barrier 10 here you would think he has to go back and settle – let’s hope the leaders do not have any advantage this week. He has won at the distance and been placed - though he is yet to win in three goes at the track, but in fairness he has been placed twice. In his last preparation he was very consistent. Prior to his last start he ran in an Open Trial won by Symphony Miss and Chad Lever rode him in that trial as well as last start and is on again Saturday. Magnificat appears to run very well when fresh and I have the feeling, in this ordinary affair, that he will be the testing material.

Selection: 5 – Good luck.

Neil Davis, from leading New Zealand website www.formpro.co.nz is keen on one in their Derby tomorrow and he sent through this report on that race:

Telecom NZ Derby - 2400m - 3.09pm (Please check race and horse numbers and time with official TAB lists)

Co-trainer Paul Moroney is very confident that he has Victoria Derby winner, Monaco Consul back to his best. He hung throughout because of a shoulder problem when resuming racing at Ellerslie on Boxing Day. He then ran a battling seventh against the older horses at Te Rapa.

But yesterday on Radio Trackside he said, “Monaco Consul is ready to win on Saturday. His trackwork on Friday, Monday and yesterday showed me that he is 5 lengths better than he was when he won the Derby in Australia. I’ve fiddled round with his head gear and I’ve got it just right now. I’ll be very disappointed if he doesn’t win.  …We’ll be making sure it is not a sit sprint affair and will take matters into our own hands if it is.”

Very confident words from one who knows what it takes to win a Derby (Xcellent 2004 NZ Derby) on both sides of the Tasman and punters have responded quickly to his words to the point where the horse has firmed up from $6 into $4.40, however I really feel our star filly over the last couple of months, number 14 - Zarzuela can beat him. The Zabeel filly has dominated since stepping up to a middle distance. I was concerned that she may get caught out by a moderate pace being behind midfield in the running. But with a good chance of at least an even pace now, she has the turn of foot to get handy by the turn and her staying power, along with her race fitness advantage, should make all the difference in the run to the line. She is currently $2.80 fixed odds.