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Turf Deli Opinion
Overseas Raiders 05/10/00

With the Melbourne Cup "Overseas Raiders" now reaching our shores seems like a good time to recap our opinion on these horses. "Overseas Raiders" is an interesting term, cause basically the international horses are just about always crap as, and get a nice subsided trip down to the beach. Most of them still have their love tackle in tact which means they are quite hormonal and get a little worked up when they need to parade in front of thousands of drunken men dressed as nuns, in pink fairy costumes, or in the timeless elegance of tuxedos with board shorts. The local horses, on the other hand, are quite used to this sort of behaviour.

They also struggle with the large field of 24 runners, most of them are used to only 8 horse fields, so are quite happy when they have beaten 7 other horses home. The only horses that have won were Vintage Crop on a track that was under water, and Taufan's Melody in the 1998 Caulfield Cup after his jockey starting having flashbacks to "Roller Derby '76" half way down the straight and decided to smash up most of the field.

Seriously, it seems that the only overseas horses that ever do anything are those that have the least amount of hype about them and start at the longest odds. They do seem to be pretty talented at running 4th, 5th and 6th. Despite the fact that the locals contesting the Melbourne Cup seem to be weaker and weaker each year, the only time to seriously consider backing one of the overseas horses is if the sprinklers get left on and the track is declared a disaster area due to heavy flooding.




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