Saturday afternoon saw the bookmakers on top

The horse racing bookmakers will have had one of their top days of the season on Saturday with some huge roughie prices saluting across the country. The biggest surprise of them all was a huge triple-figure shocker in the Queensland Oaks. 

Unless you are the type of punter who blindly does J-Mac multiples on a Saturday afternoon, the chances are that it was a difficult start to the weekend. There was a massive shock in the Queensland Oaks but Eagle Farm was far from the only track to throw some spanners in the punters' works over the course of the afternoon.  

Ciaron Maher wins the Queensland Oaks 

Everyone in racing knows what a master Maher is with his placing of horses and it is rare to see him have too many at triple-figure prices in a Group 1 but Socks Nation was exactly that ahead of the Queensland Oaks at Eagle Farm. 
 
She finished 5th on her debut but has not been out of the first four in her 11 subsequent starts. Her prior winning runs had been in a maiden and a BM70 so although she had run well in some fair races, she looked well below Group 1 level. Then there was her pedigree to add into the mix, by Sioux Nation who was a crack sprinter, 2200m didn’t strike as what she wanted. 
 
Not only was Socks Nation a huge price, saluting at an SP of $101 but the second and third were $16 and $19 roughies, resulting in a trifecta that paid more than $54,000! Congratulations to whoever dug out those three and put them together. 

$61 winner at Grafton 

Soft ground at Grafton saw a $61 roughie salute in the opening race of the day. Wotsit won at the first time of asking for Jason Reilly before roughies continued to hit the frame. A $41 chance was second in race three plus $31, $26 and $16 roughies all finished third on an afternoon that saw exotic punters scratching their heads.  

Shocks at Flemington & Morphettville 

There were some huge fields in the handicaps at Flemington on Saturday so a $31 winning roughie who came in as a reserve probably should not have been a surprise. Tatum Bell guided home Georgie Get Mad for trainer Denis Pagan in race eight. The gelding’s four prior wins have all come on country tracks so it was a huge day for connections to get a winner at Flemington. 
 
Morphettville Parks was not immune on Saturday as El Salto got the job done under Campbell Rawiller at $31. Son of Nash, he is closing in on 200 winners for his career and has done well on his trips to South Australia with two winners and two seconds from just nine rides there so far this season. 

J-Mac dominates at Eagle Farm 

Although the biggest shock of the day came in the Queensland Oaks at Eagle Farm, the rest of the card was a J-Mac benefit with five winners from the other eight races. Fresh from a win in Japan on Romantic Warrior, McDonald was back on Australian turf full of confidence. 
 
Eight of McDonald’s nine rides were $5.50 or shorter, a fact that made him our jockey of the day on our Saturday horse racing tips. McDonald would top and tail the card with winners, with only his Queensland Oaks mount being disappointing on the day, adding two second-places to his string of winners. 

It’s that time of year. Winter comes and the horse racing results turn crazy. Punters will be thankful that J-Mac can be relied upon to dig them out of a roughie hole. It will be fascinating to see how the Queensland Oaks form stands up come the spring with those at the top of the market disappointing.