3 minute read
Lightly raced four-year-old Methuselah is ironically the youngest runner in race four at Mornington this afternoon, the Penintel Voice Over Ip Benchmark 78 Handicap over 2019m.
Photo by Racing and Sports
Photo by HKJC
Trained by John McArdle, Methuselah, brings some fairly handy formlines into this afternoons contest and despite being safely held in his latest couple he still has the numbers to prove mighty hard to beat.
After winning here at Mornington in this grade over a mile second up Methuselah stepped up to 2038m, again here on his home track, where he was sound finishing fifth behind a handy grey by the name of Puissance De Lune who has given that form a bit of a boost by subsequently turning in two of the better performances seen this spring.
Methuselah then stepped up to tackle the Hamilton Cup where he did enough in defeat. The winner Crocodile Canyon was okay at Flemington over Cup week while the runner up, Commanding Time, was well supported and only found one better in his Cup week assignment.
It is worth noting that Methuselah improved with racing last campaign. His peak performance came at his fifth run back when he was able to win the Listed Tasmanian Derby by three lengths.
He comes into today fifth up and a big winning chance.
The danger looks to be Lethal Dealings trained by Luke Oliver.
Can overlook last start when he went to the line untested having never been clear in the run home.
The start prior to that he won well at Pakenham and three back he ran a good third at Moonee Valley behind Sertorius who has kept on winning since and was an impressive winner on the last day at Flemington.
That piece of form gives him a big chance here.
Taxi Joe did nothing resuming, failing to beat a runner home at Cranbourne, but he is a good deal better than that and is still lightly raced.
It will be no surprise to see him put that run behind him and go well this afternoon and it might just pay to keep an eye on the market with him.
Richoman was only plain in the same race at Cranbourne but was able to back to run a solid second at Sale last time out. He’s one to worth keeping in mind for the multiples.
Best of luck and happy punting
