With Matthew Howard having a well deserved couple of week’s in the paddock instead of the usaual mounting yard report we will bring you his early bird selection and overview from 2 brilliant recent trials.

THE EARLY BIRD

Off the back of yet again another successful EARLY BIRD HORSE with Russian Revolution being backed in from $15 in early markets to win at $2.80 first up, today we announce our latest Early Bird Horse.

Our Early Bird Segment is one of the most popular segments on MYL aimed to give punters even more information to back even more winners.

You see apart from the work done in the mounting yard each week, and the work spent analyzing form, I spend quite a bit of time picking to pieces trial performances

Trials can be a great early indicator of how a horse will perform in a preparation but you do need to spend time studying them. The problem with looking through form guides and reading that a horse won a trial is that the information is relatively useless unless you assess various factors.

Unless you take the time to review the tapes to see in what fashion the horse has performed, understand track bias on the day, understand track conditions and how suited a horse was to current conditions, understand how certain trainers treat trials, break down and compare times and even to go back and assess how a horse is trialing this preparation compared with last preparation then the information of a horse winning a trial can be meaningless.

Why is it that horses than win trials by 7 lengths come out and run last first up as short priced favs?

Well hopefully we can help you identify which ones are worth following and are ready to fire fresh and which ones you can draw a line through

Each week I’ll include my thoughts on certain trial runners that I feel have exceeded my expectations based on all the above factors in the segment called The Early Bird.

Hopefully you can use this information as an additional tool in your tool kit when you do your own weekly form assessment

We had some great success with our last lot of EARLY BIRD horses. Some of the highlights include:

• SMART VOLATILITY WON THE RAMORNIE PAYING $21

• TANGO RAIN WON HIS NEXT TWO RACES AFTER BEING LABELLED AN EARLY BIRD. 1ST UP HE WON AT CANTERBURY PAYING $11.10 ON THE TOTE OR $14 FIXED AND THEN HE WON HIS NEXT START AT CANTERBURY WHEN HE WAS $8 WITH A COUPLE HOURS BEFORE JUMP AND WAS SMASHED LATE INTO $4.40

• LOVERBOY CHARLIE WON HIS NEXT TWO STARTS AND JUST WON AGAIN LAST WEEK PAYING $11.

• MORTON’S FORK WON 2 OUT OF HIS NEXT 4 RACES

• NICCOLANCE WON 2 OUT OF HIS 3 NEXT STARTS

• BURING PASSION WON 2 OUT OF 3 NEXT STARTS

• MEDITERRANEAN WON ITS NEXT START

• DIXIE BLOSSOMS HAS GONE ON TO WIN THE GROUP 3 ANGST AND THE GROUP 2 GUY WALTER.

AT PEAK PERFORMANCE THE EARLY BIRDS WERE RUNNUNG AT A PROFIT ON TURNOVER (POT) OF 123.5% AT LEVEL STAKES BETTING

So, get your black book out and look out for the Early Bird posts each week.

Trials from Rosehill Gardens: Australian Turf Club Monday 10, April 2017

Track Condition: Heavy 8

Total Number of starters for this meeting (including emergencies) 125

EARLY BIRD – GYPTIAN SYMBOL

Always have time for this horse who is a beautifully well balanced 4YO mare trained by Bjorn Baker. I’m not a big fan of short distance trials and 900m trials are about as short as I want them but I couldn’t be more impressed with how this mare picked up this field off a slow tempo in her recent trial at Rosehill.

In the trial which you can watch on the link provided, she jumps ok but is allowed to find her footing and settles at the tail of the field. That’s a Good idea as he often does goes to the front and Loves a Fantasy kicks up underneath him to hold the rail. Jason Collett just allows the mare to get into her rhythm and she jogs along a length and a half behind the second last horse in Wave Reviews.

In what appears to be an uneventful trial with Egyptian Symbol ridden cold around the bend she is quickly brought to the outside and I love that despite still right back in the field at the 250m mark the caller can see she is coming and exclaims ‘she’s really starting to hit the line’.

She’s strong through the line as she gobbles up this field and I love that she is still in front well after the finishing post. I think the key to her is to be patient, whoever rides her should just allow her to settle in the run and let her display that turn of foot she possesses.

She has since trialled again at Warwick Farm last Friday over a shorter distance where she was once again let settle and found the line very well under her own steam again so I am keen to follow her first up and then potentially this preparation if her form holds.

She last ran on the 4th of Feb but she ran into the inform mare IN HER TIME that day in the Group 2 Breeders Classic running 2nd. In her time then went on to win the Group 2 Millie Fox and then ran 5th in the Group 1 Coolmore so the form has been franked.

Egyptian Symbol normally races very well fresh and my guess is that they will take her north for the QLD carnival and look at races like the Stradbroke, Doomben 10,000 and the Tatts Tiara.

Here is the link to the trial for you to watch…

http://bit.ly/2oWkwoY_Egyptian1

Fair to say that Egyptian’s Symbol 2nd trial was also spot on. Our Early Bird looks set to fly!

http://bit.ly/2paIJZ2_Egyptian2

BLACKBOOK: EGYPTIAL SYMBOL