WHAT’S OLD IS NEW AGAIN:  After trying to speed handicap Australian races the last few weeks (and going 0 for 9), I am going to try a old technique that I used back in my grad school days.  It’s based on some concepts championed by Dick Mitchell, and the basic idea is to use facts like speed figures to develop a fair “odds line.”

Friday night, my favorite track, FLEMINGTON, will be running and the fields will be HUUUUGE!! 13 horses are entered in Race 1A, 16 horses in Race 2A, 12 horses in Race 3A, 17 horses (#17 an also-eligible) in Race 4A, and 17 more horses in Race 5A.  And we all know that:

BIG FIELDS => BIG PAYOUTS

Races 1A, 2A, 4A and 5A are all sprints, with 1A and 5A being down the Flemington straight course and 2A and 4A being 7 furlong races around the very wide Flemington bend.

With the fields so large, I think it is very tough to HANDICAP these races, but I used my GRAD SCHOOL computer program to get an odds line for each horse in each of the sprint races.  So here goes nothin’.

Flemington Race 1A (10:20 PM EDT)

#2 5/1, #1 7/1, #6 8/1, #13 10/1, #7 and #9 12/1, #3 13/1,

#4, #11 and #12 18/1, #5 and #8 24/1 and #10 50/1

Flemington Race 2A (10:55 PM EDT)

#2 and #7 6/1, #1 and #9 8/1, #8 9/1, #16 13/1, #5 and #12 16/1

#13 20/1, #11 27/1, #4, #6 and #10 41/1, #15 82/1, and #3 and #14 100/1

Flemington Race 4A (12:10 AM EDT)

#4 and #7 11/1, #5 12/1, #1, #2 and #11 13/1, #6 15/1, #8 and #10 16/1

#12 17/1, #9, #13, #14, #16 all 18/1, #17 (also eligible) 20/1, #15 50/1

#3 100/1

Flemington Race 5A (12:50 AM EDT)

#2 8/1, #17 and #9 10/1, #11 and #12 11/1, #16 13/1, #1 and #5 15/1

#3 and #10 18/1, #8 and #15 21/1, #4 and #7 25/1, #6 30/1, #13 75/1

#14 100/1