3 minute read

As seems to be the case every week, Darren Weir looks to have a strong hand heading into the weekend where the feature racing in Melbourne is at Flemington.

We've pointed out the valuable tool that is Racing and Sports' trainer database in this article in the past and again access to this information can give us food for thought heading to Flemington this weekend.

Darren Weir - Click here for Darren Weirs statistics - saddles a typically strong set of horses at Flemington, perhaps none better than his in-form sprinter Olivier who runs in the eighth on the card over 1000m.

Weir's climb to being arguably the best stable in the country hasn't been built as much on the back of horses producing high class performances as it has been on the back of horses producing their best and reproducing their best consistently.

Horses from the stable tend find their form and hold their form deep into their campaigns and this shows up in the stable's numbers.

This season the stable's horses have struck at 12% and 10% first and second up (8% and 9% in the metropolitan area) but they spike third up to 18% and 19% third and fourth up.

But they don't stop there, the stable have turned out 88 winners deeper than 5 runs into their prep this season and those runners have returned punters a profit on turnover of +24.2%.

Olivier is not so deep into his prep as that but he has returned with a pair of very sharp wins and those patterns point to him holding his form or even improving on it this weekend and beyond.

With that in mind he holds terrific winning claims again on Saturday. Recent ratings give him a big look and the thought that he could produce better again leaves him making plenty of appeal.

The same thinking could apply to Master Of Arts and Torelli but looking for each way odds we'll head to race 7 and an old marvel in The New Boy.

There's no upside there for The New Boy, he is what he is, but he is racing as well as he ever has this campaign and he finds a good scenario at Flemington on Saturday.

There may be no upside with The New Boy but there is no upside with anything in race 7 - they are going nowhere! - and his recent form is a match for any of them.

Rolling forward from an outside draw with a smart front-running jockey aboard he looks well worth having on side around the $7.00 mark.

THE MELBOURNE MAIL

Bet Of The Day: Race 8 #10 Olivier @ $4.20

Each Way Play: Race 7 #14 The New Boy @ $7.00