It doesn't happen too often in Harness Racing but when the inside of a trotting track becomes like quicksand it becomes a nightmare for punters. Unlike gallops where if the inside is off, the leader can come about 10 off the rail around the turn but this just isn't feasible in Harness Racing. Would be interesting to hear what stewards or punters would say if the driver on the leader came 7-8 wide round the turn and got run down!
There was a distinct anti-fence bias tonight at Melton though and in fairness, no blame can be apportioned to the track as it usually drains very well but there was a deluge overnight in Melbourne. It did occur when the track initially opened with similar weather resulting in the inside becoming like quicksand but since then its been good.
In 8 races this evening, only 1 leader ran a place and it actually won as an odds on favourite (Onedin Hustler) but you could physically see him bogging down in the straight. Its also worth noting that the others who trailed the fence in that race ran 7th, 9th, 10th and 11th so he probably should have won by 20 metres instead of 2 metres given the bias. No leader's back horse ran a place all night either.
A lot of the leaders were also well fancied and got beaten a long way in most instances. All leaders for the night were:
Albert Terrill, beaten 92 metres, started $10
Lucknpower, beaten 11 metres, started $43
Kissmecatie, beaten 32 metres, started $6.40
Just Callme Cullen, beaten 6 metres, started $2.90
Jasville, beaten 15 metres, started $15
Onedin Hustler, 1st, started $1.80
I Didn't Do It, beaten 35 metres, started $4.40
Catch Your Breath, beaten 21 metres, started $2.50
Will pay to tread very carefully when analysing the form from the meeting as the ones out wide will have inflated form as opposed to those on the inside who can almost be excused the run.
A lot of participants may say its karma as the track has almost become a bit of a one lane highway on the fence but its a nightmare for punters as you need to try and pick which horse is going to have the 3 wide trail and thats almost impossible to pick
