Author: Pro Group Racing January 12, 2020

There are those who credit us with powers we do not possess.

About a week before the running of the 2020 Magic Millions 2YO classic, we received a request to pick the first three. We basically took the route of looking at the prices the bookies were posting, while emphasising to any exposed to our predictions to at all costs avoid viewing our guesses as recommendations.

Our pick to win was King’s Legacy. He jumped a second favourite $6 and finished fifth.

We selected Aim to finish second. The $4.60 favourite ran eighth.

Our selection for third was Farnan. Despite leaving the barrier at $7, Farnan was far from the front in the end, coming in 10th.

None of our three picks so much as placed.

We often mention the challenge of picking runners in a two-year-old race. Even had we gotten it right, it would have been luck of the sincerest magnitude and our only expectation of ever filling a trifecta is the boxed variety in a race with three runners.

We offer these results as a cautionary tale.

Many tipsters far more knowledgeable than us had equally poor results.

There was a reason that Magic Millions 2YO Classic winner Away Game was started at $41. She received no backing. If she had, she would have been priced far under $41.

Yet, she was nearly two lengths clear of Stellar Pauline, a horse put in the race by Peter and Paul Snowden who never expected her to be considered.

Conceited was the only horse starting in single digits to find a place, but conceited was soundly beaten and might in the future, pardon the pun, be more modest.

To be totally transparent, we are not experts, we are not tipsters, we devote serious effort to ensure that no one follow our advice.

At the same time, we publish our mistakes and own those mistakes.

If nothing else, writing about Thoroughbred racing and trying to guess the results serves to keep us humble.