You may well be right but at the end of the day if they did question him, all Mitchell would say is the horse races better in front and then the stipes would be happy with that explanation and the worst penalty(if you could call it that) they would give is "we will be watching this horse to see how it is driven in future".
I have seen it done and said hundreds of times before without question so I don't see it changing anytime soon.
Quite easy to pretend to be the whale.
A horse that is well down in grade and coming in fresh is Copperfield R1 an each way bet. One Change in R4 has a good draw to work with tonight and is a multimaker, My best value bet tonight is Oscar Bonavena in R7
Silent Major in Race 9 could not win that race on its trial form but opens $6.00. Possibly another where there is smoke situation but some strange money in that race.
I tend to ignore trials form for that stable. Usually given quiet runs and then go massive on race day. Both those horses looked weak last prep but obviously have ability if they are prepared to put them in against the good Purdon horses in age group races.Where there is smoke there is fire.
I would rate DDs Super Stuart a $5 chance with Ricky May or Blair Orange driving. I would not back it if it was paying $50 today but it has plenty of ability.
Sounds Like A Gem I like today at $12 and $3.50
If LESS than an inch of rain can cause the meeting to be cancelled, what chance of the October meeting going ahead!
Plenty of time to make a plan B for another grass surface instead if you start now! Banks Peninsular is preferable to Ashburton IMO. But I would take a Reefton,Waimate, Westport or Oamaru