The Drifter reveals his Stakes Day punting and how Jaameh helped save the day

The Spring Racing Carnival is an exciting but often expensive time for those who can’t find a winner. Luckily for THE DRIFTER, a couple of key runners helped things not get out of hand.

Jaameh, ridden by Mark Zahra, returns to scale after winning on Stakes Day. Pic: Michael Klein

It’s the go-to line used to navigate a day in the Flemington marquees.

There’s a lot of small talk in the Birdcage and it’s inevitable that you’ll be bailed up by someone you vaguely know who is keen for a chat when all you’re keen about is getting on the next race.

After the introductions where most likely you’ve forgotten their name and have gone with some sort of muffled attempt, the emergency line is activated.

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“So, how’s your carnival been?”

The only problem with this tactic is that if your fellow punter has cleaned up then you’ve opened the door for a blow-by-blow description of their massive collect which can potentially add to your pain.

Sometimes you just get stuck talking to someone when in the Birdcage. Pic: AAP

And then comes the million dollar question: “What about yours?”

Now you have a decision to make. Do you bare all? Do you add some mayonnaise to the real story? Do you downplay some greatness? Or you just completely lie?

On Saturday the answer depended a lot on what time this chance meeting occurred.

If it was around 2.30pm after four races were done then the answer was an attempt to pretend trouble wasn’t looming: “I’ve been playing with their money at least.”

After the Best Solution heroics on Caulfield Cup Day at Avoca we’ve managed to keep the account active without being required to dip into the personal funds. There have been plenty of highs and lows in there but overall that’s a good result.

Best Solution (right) put some money in the kitty. Pic: AAP

However, Stakes Day hasn’t gone to script and an emergency plan is about to be executed.

We’re big on omens so when we lost the tie clip between home and getting on the train that ruffled the feathers and then when our horse in the first, Eshtiraak, is scratched at the barrier there is an uneasy feel about the day.

This quickly turns to sickness as we watch an overexcited James McDonald totally cook Danon Roman in the second race. The former Japanese horse had been the anchor for a handful of all-ups which are now dead.

The problem with this is our confidence is rocked a bit and despite liking Ringerdingding we think it’s best not to load up on another short-priced favourite.

Hmmmmm. Setback is all we can say as Johnny Allen steers it down the outside for a brilliant win.

Ringerdingding comes from the clouds!

Brilliant victory in race 3 at @FlemingtonVRC. #StakesDay pic.twitter.com/1lOQb3AzD6

— 7HorseRacing 🐎 (@7horseracing) November 10, 2018

We then back Widgee Turf in Race 4 given its racing pattern is the same as Ringerdingding and it does swoop home but not quite fast enough which means we’re typing in numbers of the credit card into the betting app at 2.30pm.

Jaameh was our best bet of Derby Day but let us down. Do we keep the faith? Yep, it’s all chips in on the David Hayes/Tom Dabernig stayer in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes.

Then just before they jump we have a saver on Sully who we’ve been monitoring all campaign and looks over the odds.

With 150m to go at least we know we’ve got a collect. Sully has let down and flown past Jaameh which means we’ll have some quaddie money. But then the race changes again.

The import has got off the canvas through some Mark Zahra genius and we’re in full yelling mode as Jaameh gets up by a nostril.

Jockey Mark Zahra rides Jaameh (right) to victory ahead of Sully. Pic: AAP

We’re back with significant funds at our disposal although we don’t really do a good job of it given despite having eight selections in the first leg of the quaddie we didn’t include Darren Weir’s Kenedna.

When this is revealed in the small talk encounters that follow, the same response comes back multiple times over the next couple of hours.

“How did you leave Weir out?”

These are words which will haunt us until next year but at least we close this carnival with a lot of positives, including finding our missing suit pants, raising enough funds to pay for new tyres and most importantly ... we played with their money.