For a few years now, I’ve been a follower of “The Punter”. It is an anonymous column that seems to appear randomly in the sport section of the Saturday Age. It appears most weeks during the big carnivals in Melbourne and then sporadically throughout the rest of the year - not even friends at the big paper can explain its appearance. It’s not limited to the Track - quite often there’ll be insight into footy, rugby league, soccer. Anything on which you can punt that is topical, it would seem. But pretty much every time the column appears there is a tip for the track.

Now there’s no way I could claim to know how successful of otherwise it’s been in terms of punting success (but would be glad for someone to tell me). I don’t religiously bet on every selection, or even check the result of the selection. What I do know though, is that the insight the column offers is different from the standard, generally ill-informed, or at least only normally informed journo (read here Tony Bourke or Andrew Eddy or pretty much every tipster from The Hun). He offers something that is out of the ordinary.

I first noticed this in Spring 2004 - Emirates Day. He spruiked a filly called Sky Cuddle. I think at the time a 3yo, carrying a featherweight, it had wet track form and he thought it’d be at odds. Sure was! It won at $65, just pipping Lad of the Manor. I had a small investment and felt like I should send some back to The Punter - instead it went over the bar! The next was some thing that escapes that was running round in Sydney - a WFA horse so pretty decent, that popped up one day at $20 plus odds. The others I remember off the top are Perfectly Ready winning the Goodwood at $20, Marju Snip winning the SA Oaks at $12, Roman Arch popping up in the Australia Cup at $65.

That’s not to say there haven’t been a few favourites tipped and lost - he’s been a long time fan of Desert War (I’m assuming it’s a he). But what I like is there is always some insight to the tip - a little bit of analysis that is not straight out of the trainers mouth.

So why write about this today - well, a winner of course. Because it’s not even on the website for The Age, I’m even taking to retyping the snippet from today:

“I’m BANKING on former Queenslander now top Caulfield trainer Peter Moody’s judgement that MASKED ASSASSIN (race 5, No. 4) will be able to handle the reverse way of racing. Drawn barrier 3, the colt should take the ideal position, while many of the other better chances are poorly drawn. The $7 overnight looks tasty. In the O’Shea, if you can trust what you see, the $13 on offer for PENTATHON (race 8, No. 6) is great value. His third in the Doomben Cup was terrific.

Now before the results here, a couple of things I like. 1) The Price - the only tipster I’ve seen that actually talks price. Not even the mighty WGT, Deane Lester, bothers to mention price. Something is only a tip in my book if it has a price. 2) I watched the race and I saw something - it doesn’t have to be any more complicated. I wonder if any of the racing experts even watch race replays??

So what happened today:

Eagle Farm R3 - Winner: MASKED ASSASSIN W: $5.90 P:$ 2.10 (I didn’t back this for reasons explained here.)

Eagle Farm R8 - Winner: PENTATHON W:$15.50 P:$4.20 (backed and banked - it paid me back for the Sydney Cup)

All Hail The Punter - truly the World’s Greatest Tipster