Odds ‘Good' For Smith's Goulburn Onslaught

FOR Elderslie trainer David Smith, the formative months of a young pup's racing career can be as exciting as winning a Group race.

On June 10, his home bred debutante Gamblin' Ethics (Good Odds Harada – Red Sox Ethics) repaid Smith for perseverance with a sparkling 20.08 win at Goulburn.

The red fawn dog had suffered a wrist fracture late last year when trialling for a potential debut  in early January and only expert veterinary attention sees the handsome two-year-old racing.

"He ran really good time at Richmond from the puppy boxes at breaking in and I always had a good opinion of the dog as a juvenile," Smith said.

"There's no soreness in the wrist but, as expected, he's lost a bit of flexibility.”

The injury was so severe there was a thought he'd never race but time is a healer and he railed really brilliantly at Goulburn.

"This Friday (at Goulburn), he's drawn box seven and is really poorly positioned as he dives hard to the inside," he continued.

"My other bloke in the race has good dash and with driving Gamblin' Ethics to the inside, Twp Up Ethics should get a nice clear run early."

FIELDS AND FORM GOULBURN FRIDAY

The Good Odds Harada progeny have made an impact early on, with most showing high speed. He's had only three litters to race at this stage with all but two of 12 pups stepping out to have won maidens.

Good Odds Harada's headline act to this point is We Don't Share – a son of Book Of Luck – which won the TAB Million Dollar Chase Maiden Final at Wentworth Park on May 7 in 29.99.

Smith's afternoon at Goulburn will be busy, with seven runners engaged and there's no relent at home with his G1 winner Classy Ethics whelping a litter (of four) to Wow on Tuesday.

"Classy Ethics won a Queensland Cup which is coming up again soon and I'd like to think we can have another tilt at that with Super Estrella," Smith added.

"She was nominated for a 720m race at Wentworth Park on Saturday but there were insufficient nominations for her to be drawn … it is a perennial challenge to get a start with top grade stayers.

"A trip back to Queensland is enticing with four good races for stayers in as many weeks but it's a lot of travelling and there's plenty to do back here when I'm away.

"Unfortunately, Super Estrella is my only real candidate for a trip up to Albion Park whereas, last year we took four and more irons in the fire."

In the short term, for Goulburn, Smith is bracing himself.

The June 10 program was conducted on an afternoon which had a maximum temperature of only eight degrees while wind chill factor had the ambient air temperature at minus 3.6!

The Bureau of Meteorology is predicting a partly cloudy day for Smith's Goulburn June 17 sojourn yet westerly winds are expected to reach 20kmh and that will, again, chill all to the core.

The first of 11 races at Goulburn  is at 12.03pm.