Great to see young Victorian batsman Travis Dean make two unbeaten centuries on his first class debut last week. He joins four other batsman to have done the same thing, but he is the only one to remain unbeaten in each innings and he also scored the most runs. My only concern would be that the other four are hardly household names. Arthur Morris also achieved the feat, but the game was not an official first class game. Hopefully Travis goes on to emulate Arthur Morris who was a very good opening batsman for Australia.

Tarzino was a very impressive winner of the Derby as he hit the front very early in the straight and nothing could run him down. However, two things stand out regarding the race, firstly no horses were able to make ground out wide on Saturday (or Tuesday for that matter) and secondly, the horses that finished behind Tarzino really looked to lack a little class. He beat second by a length and a half with a further four and a half lengths to third. Hardly a vintage year, whereas the Oaks looked to have three or four genuine chances and I think we might see a few of them go onto bigger and better things.

The Melbourne Cup provided a bit of the “romance of the track” with Michelle Payne saluting with a 100/1 shot with her disabled brother the strapper, I don’t think anyone begrudged them the success. What a great story. A lot of traditionalists have decried the internationalisation of the Cup in recent years and it was great to see the race won by local owners, with a local trainer and a local jockey.

Enjoy the weekend!